Marijuana has no negative effects on human health, according to researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.
The study, which randomly sampled patients who tested positive for marijuana to see if the marijuana-use had any impact on their health, came up with no negative correlations. Basically, there’s no difference between people who smoke cannabis daily and those who do not.
“The results were that there is no impact, if we compare those who continually use cannabis … in comparison to those who have been tested positive for alcohol or other substances that they have consumed,” Daniel Fuster, head researcher, tells Boston University’s Daily Free Press.
A total of 589 adults were studied. Out of that number, 84 percent used marijuana, 25 percent used cocaine, 23 percent used opiates and eight percent were on other drugs. Fifty-eight percent only used cannabis and not other drugs.
By comparison, marijuana users didn’t have any higher rates of admissions to emergency rooms or have any increase in diagnosed medical problems.
“Even though we could not compare marijuana users to those who used no drugs at all, our findings suggest that marijuana use has little measurable effect on self-reported health or healthcare utilization in adults using drugs identified in a primary care clinic,” Fuster told Medical Daily.
News of the study came as little surprise to BU students.
“It has no effect on you, and it doesn’t really do anything because there is no addictive quality to it,” Freshman Aishani Patwari, told the Free Daily. “It doesn’t affect you in the physical sense — it is more of a mental thing.”
Even the obnoxious, “high on life” girl on campus recognizes it even if she doesn’t understand it.
“It [marijuana]seems to have the same kind of effect that alcohol would, so I don’t understand why would it be illegal,” said freshman Sasha Parodi. “But I think that people shouldn’t need something to give them a high on life, they should find other ways. You can get high off of exercising, so why not do that and be healthy instead of taking drugs?”
Someone get her a joint, pronto.