There’s good news for marijuana advocates. A top Federal drug official has revealed that there is no evidence that occasional marijuana use is harmful for adults.
Nora Volkow, the head of the nation’s top federal drug research agency says that she’s yet to see evidence that occasional marijuana use by adults is harmful.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director said the remarks in an interview with FiveThirtyEight that was published on Tuesday.
“There’s no evidence to my knowledge that occasional [adult] marijuana use has harmful effects. I don’t know of any scientific evidence of that,” Volkow said. “I don’t think it has been evaluated. We need to test it.”
Volkow added that she found it “surprising” that research has indicated that cannabis consumers tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI).
“BMI is lower in marijuana users, and that was very surprising, and yet we know that high BMI, particularly the older you get, can have negative effects,” she said. “This is why we need to study it.”
She also told FiveThirtyEight that she is “absolutely” concerned about use by young people and said that daily consumption of high-THC products ““can have harmful effects even on the adult brain.”
She additionally said in an op-ed earlier this month that “stigma remains one of the biggest obstacles to confronting America’s current drug crisis,” and the government bears some responsibility in perpetuating those stigmas.
“Government policies, including criminal justice measures, often reflect—and contribute to—stigma,” Volkow said. “When we penalize people who use drugs because of an addiction, we suggest that their use is a character flaw rather than a medical condition. And when we incarcerate addicted individuals, we decrease their access to treatment and exacerbate the personal and societal consequences of their substance use.”
