The marijuana-marketing mania is too persuasive

Legal status of recreational marijuana retail shops in Massachusetts by town as of June 21, 2018. Towns in red have implemented permanent bans, towns in yellow have implemented temporary moratoriums, and towns in green have not implemented a permanent ban or a temporary moratorium.

From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com

As business people, states and localities  rush to get into the marijuana  bonanza, everyone would do well to look at a nationally representative online survey of 16,280 U.S. adults that found that “many ascribe health benefits to marijuana that haven’t been proven,  report researchers in Annals of Internal Medicine.’’

“The American public has a much more favorable point of view than is warranted by the evidence,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, of the University of California at San Francisco, told the news service. “Perhaps most concerning is that they think that it prevents health problems.”

Reuters reported: “While studies have shown that cannabis can help quiet seizures in children with hard to treat epilepsy, quell the nausea and vomiting that can accompany chemotherapy and soothe nerve pain, there’s no evidence that it can help with the vast majority of other medical conditions, Keyhani said. And yet, people think of it as a cure all, she added.’’

Recalling Big Tobacco in the ‘50s and ’60s, the marijuana industry is relentlessly marketing its products, with what I think will end up being very nasty public-health results. But meanwhile, we  may see pot stores pop up in most strip malls.

To read the Annals of Medicine report, please hit this link.