Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug— something with "no currently accepted medical use"— means it's pretty tough to study.
Yet both a growing body of research and numerous anecdotal reports link cannabis with several health benefits, including pain relief and helping with certain forms of epilepsy. In addition, researchers say there are many other ways marijuana might affect health that they want to better understand.
A massive report released in January helps sum up exactly what we know— and, perhaps more importantly, what we don't know — about the science of weed.
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Marijuana can make you feel good.
One of weed's active ingredients, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, interacts with our brain's reward system, the part that's 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 marijuana use can be a problem in some people — the more often you trigger that euphoria, the less you may feel during other rewarding experiences.
In the short term, it can also make your heart race.
Within a few minutes of inhaling marijuana, your heart rate can increase by between 20 and 50 beats a minute. This can last anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The new report found insufficient evidence to support or refute the idea that cannabis might increase the overall risk of 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, or CBD — and this chemical, while not responsible for getting you high, is thought to be responsible for many of marijuana's therapeutic effects such as pain relief or potentially treating 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.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider