What We Don’t Know
The first day of my summer research internship, I walked into the office of the principle investigator of the lab I would be working in for the next few months. He primarily studies cigarette smoke and how and why it causes cancer. What he proposed to me was a new project. “How do you feel about working with marijuana?”, he asks.
I eventually agree to take on his proposed project, but I was wondering how this drug fit into his field of research. He was supposed to investigate bad, nasty, cigarette smoke and cancer-causing agents, and I always had the perception that marijuana was much much safer than all of that. In fact, I felt that I had a relatively positive relationship with the drug. One of my best friends smokes when school really stresses him out, my grandfather began taking medical marijuana for pain, and the drug, when present, makes get-togethers and parties more relaxed, which is honestly more my style. My friend seems less stressed, my grandfather more pain-free, people at parties more laid-back. So, what could possibly be so nasty and terrible about this drug? Little did I know this summer would introduce to me a true dichotomy between public perception of marijuana and how it is viewed from the eyes of a scientist.
What might be thought of to some as one of the biggest breakthroughs in recent history is looked upon through not-so-rosy colored glasses by scientists and medical professionals throughout the country.
The legalization of recreational marijuana in many states, in part initiated by Colorado’s decision to legalize the drug in 2012, has spread to nine states in the U.S. To the general public, this may be seen as a step long past due, as people often seem to make a plethora of claims that marijuana is a safe drug and even has a multitude of properties beneficial to human health. As is often seen in popular science covered by the media, these claims are hardly based on empirical research. Federal funding for research on illegal drugs is difficult to come by, primarily because marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug under the US Controlled Substances Act. Although states who have recently legalized marijuana are providing some funding for research, the federal government continues to enforce very restrictive regulations on marijuana research.
In my lab this summer, I struggled alongside fellow researchers to work with our relatively small budget for this project and the tight restrictions on what types and quantities of marijuana constituents we were able to purchase. Regulations such as these discourage research and significantly slow scientific progress. I have seen their effects firsthand. The truth is, scientists have barely scratched the surface of research regarding the short and long-term effects of marijuana, and this should be an infinite cause for concern in a world where science is often conflated or misrepresented in the media and in the public sphere.
It concerns me when scientific research does not coincide with public opinion. Consider, for example, global warming. Scientists across the world dedicate years of their lives to research, obtaining PhD’s, and becoming true experts in their fields. Collectively, they have produced thousands upon thousands of peer-reviewed articles evidencing the phenomenon of global warming and how it is affecting Earth’s ecosystems. Even a quick look at some simple graphs that they have generated, showing the surface temperature of the Earth or the temperature of the oceans over the last 100 years or so should be enough to prove that the Earth is indeed getting warmer. Yet, the validity of global warming is put into question in the news, on social media, even by the very president of the United States, who infamously stated that, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese…” To make such a statement requires denying the validity of tens of thousands of researchers, their studies, and their publications that have undergone strict and rigorous review. Somehow, it is now commonplace to put into question entire bodies of scientific knowledge. Maybe this contributes to the decision of many states to legalize marijuana, despite the tiny amount published scientific research about the drug.
The research project that I worked on involved THC, the principal psychoactive constituent of marijuana. What we found was rather concerning: that THC has the potential to lead to drug-drug interactions. A drug-drug interaction occurs when two drugs are co-administered, and due to their interactions in the body, lead to adverse drug reactions for the user. It turns out that THC can block a certain type of metabolism enzyme, one that is responsible breaking down many different types of drugs and expelling them from the body. If THC is blocking the metabolism enzymes necessary to break down other drugs, these co-administered drugs may stick around in the body for a long time, which could lead to negative side effects or even lead to an overdose more easily. A specific subset of my results show that THC blocks an enzyme responsible for metabolizing acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol). Since that enzyme is blocked, people who take Tylenol and marijuana together might metabolize the Tylenol more slowly than normal. This might not seem all that bad in itself, but Tylenol is known to cause liver damage with high exposure. So, people may inadvertently put themselves at a higher risk for liver damage by taking marijuana and Tylenol at the same time, or even within the same day.
This type of study is very typical for new drugs going on the market. The FDA normally performs testing for drug-drug interactions just like the research I did this summer before they would dare to put a drug out into the world. This type of testing led scientists to the fact that taking Tylenol with alcohol has a toxic effect on the liver. Marijuana, because it is still illegal at a federal level, has not undergone this type of testing. So, safe consumption habits for marijuana are largely a mystery, even though marijuana is now as easy to obtain as Tylenol in the states where it is legal, and people of all ages, taking all sorts of other drugs, can easily access marijuana.
Perhaps more concerning, there have been no widespread and long-term studies executed to study the effects of marijuana. Nobody knows how this drug is going to affect health in the long-term. Marijuana usage may perhaps develop into a source of health problems down the line, or none at all, but until an adequate amount of scientific studies are performed, these effects of marijuana will be largely unknown.
A drug is being released into the public sphere without extensive research about its long- or short-term effects, which may seem like the ultimate taste of freedom for residents of the states in which it is legal, but is also something scientists look at with an adequate amount of fear. According to the study that I completed, as well as the opinions and new studies of other scientists, it seems that this rush into legalization could have adverse effects on entire populations of people who can now use marijuana without restriction.
