MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Dr. Kaufmann[/caption]
Christopher Kaufmann, PhD
Co-first author of the study and assistant professor
Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology in the Department of Medicine
UC San Diego
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We examined cannabis use by older patients seen in our geriatrics clinic at the University of California San Diego. We surveyed patients who came to our clinic for routine care, and found that 15% of those surveyed had used cannabis within the past 3 years. Half of users reported using cannabis regularly and most used for medical purposes. The most common targeted conditions were pain, problems sleeping, and anxiety, and patients found cannabis to be helpful in treating these conditions. We also found that 61% had initiated cannabis use after age 60, and these new users engaged in less risky consumption practices than current users who also used earlier in life.
Dr. Kaufmann[/caption]
Christopher Kaufmann, PhD
Co-first author of the study and assistant professor
Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology in the Department of Medicine
UC San Diego
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We examined cannabis use by older patients seen in our geriatrics clinic at the University of California San Diego. We surveyed patients who came to our clinic for routine care, and found that 15% of those surveyed had used cannabis within the past 3 years. Half of users reported using cannabis regularly and most used for medical purposes. The most common targeted conditions were pain, problems sleeping, and anxiety, and patients found cannabis to be helpful in treating these conditions. We also found that 61% had initiated cannabis use after age 60, and these new users engaged in less risky consumption practices than current users who also used earlier in life. 
Dr. Lanza[/caption]
Isabella Lanza, PhD
Associate Professor of Human Development
California State University, Long Beach
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This is the first study to examine both nicotine vaping and cannabis vaping trajectories across adolescence and young adulthood, which allowed us to assess whether poly-substance vaping is common among adolescents and young adults. Poly-substance vaping (nicotine and cannabis vaping) was reported among a significant proportion of participants in the study (25% were identified as poly-substance vapers). For those that either escalated to frequent nicotine vaping use in adolescence or initiated frequent nicotine vaping use in young adulthood, the probability of engaging in cannabis vaping was very high (85%+).
Response: It is well known that marijuana usage impairs driving ability, yet the early studies of the effects of recreational marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities were inconclusive.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: By analyzing data over a longer time period, we found that the legalization of recreational marijuana increased traffic deaths in the first four states to legalize. Traffic fatalities increased about 20% in those states. If we apply these numbers to the nation as a whole, nationwide legalization would be associated with about 7,000 excess traffic fatalities each year.
Dr. Hollingsworth[/caption]
Alex Hollingsworth PhD
Assistant Professor
O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: I've been working with Coady Wing and Ashley Bradford on a few different studies of the effects of recreational marijuana laws on drug and alcohol use.
Soon after EVALI became a major issue, the prevailing theory from the CDC and others was that EVALI was caused by the use of vitamin E acetate in illegal THC vaping products.
Our group read about this and we thought about some of the things that often happen in black markets for illegal drugs. For instance, during the alcohol prohibition era, bootleg alcohol producers often made and sold alcohol products that were not that safe to drink. In more recent years, there are cases where black market sellers of illegal drugs like heroin try to increase profit margins by adding other substances, which can be harmful.
We thought that maybe something like that could be happening in EVALI. Perhaps people in states where recreational marijuana is legal tended to purchase marijuana products from the legal market and the legal market was not selling any marijuana vaping products that included vitamin E acetate.
Ruibin Lu
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice
Stockton University
Absecon, New Jersey
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We are witnessing a trend of legalizing marijuana in the United States and in the world. Many states have either legalized recreational marijuana or are considering it. At the same time, there are concerns about what will happen to our society if weed is legal. One of the concerns is about crime rates: are we going to experience more or fewer crimes after legalizing recreational marijuana? This is a legitimate question that we should consider when making cannabis-related public policies. Our research provides a preliminary answer to this question. It analyzes crime rates before and after the legalization using rigorous scientific methods and provides more information on how marijuana legalization may affect crime rates.
