Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug— something with "no accepted medical use"— means it is pretty tough to study.
Yet both a growing body of research and numerous anecdotal reports link cannabis with several health benefits, ranging from pain relief to helping with certain forms of epilepsy. In addition, researchers say there are many other potential ways marijuana might affect health that they want to understand better.
A massive new report released in January 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) helps sum up exactly what we know— and perhaps more importantly, what we don't — about the science of weed.
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Marijuana can make you feel good.
One of weed's active ingredients, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), interacts with our brain's reward system, the part that has been primed to respond to things that make us feel good, like eating and sex.
When overexcited by drugs, the reward system creates feelings of euphoria. This is also why some studies have suggested that excessive use can be a problem in some people: The more often you trigger that euphoria, the less you may feel for other rewarding experiences.
It the short-term, it can also make your heart race.
Within a few minutes of inhaling marijuana, your heart rate can increase by 20 to 50 beats a minute. This can last anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Still, the new report found insufficient evidence to support or refute the idea that cannabis might increase the overall risk for a heart attack. The same report, however, also found some limited evidence that smoking could be a trigger for a heart attack.
Weed may also help relieve some types of pain ...
Pot also contains cannabidiol (CBD), and this chemical — while not responsible for getting you high — is thought to be responsible for many of marijuana's therapeutic effects, from pain relief to a potential treatment for certain kinds of childhood epilepsy.
The new report also found conclusive or substantial evidence (the most definitive levels) that cannabis can be an effective treatment for chronic pain, which could have to do with both CBD and THC. Pain is also "by far the most common" reason people request medical marijuana, according to the report.
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