A new survey was published this week in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which surveyed people in the U.S. about their beliefs on marijuana.
Lead study author Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, a physician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as her colleagues wondered about the effects of marketing marijuana as a beneficial drug.
According to the feedback, Keyhani and her researchers discovered that 81 percent of U.S. adults believe that marijuana has at least one benefit. The most common benefit was believed to be pain management. After that it was the treatment of epilepsy, anxiety and depression.
The researchers also found that 91 percent of Americans said they believe marijuana has at least one risk. The most common being legal problems, and then addiction and impaired memory.
“The bottom line is that there’s no evidence for the vast majority of this,” said Keyhani. “There’s limited data on harm, and people think that means it’s OK.”
“I think there’s massive amounts of money involved in the industry right now, and just like [with] any other business, there’s advertising,” she added. According to Keyhani the commercialization of the drug has contributed to the rise in people having a favorable opinion towards the drug.
