Medical marijuana and the developing role of the pharmacist

Seamon, Matthew J.; Fass, Jennifer A.; Maniscalco-Feichtl, Maria; Abu-Shraie, Nada

doi:10.2146/ajhp060471

Cited by 63 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…To be included as an adverse effect, side effects were gathered from published literature and listed side effects of dronabinol and nabilone. 3,4,11,17,18 The second domain, which measured student attitudes, contained a series of twenty-three 5-point Likert-scale questions (15strongly disagree to 55strongly agree). Students were asked about their attitudes regarding medical and recreational use of marijuana, and they were surveyed on their confidence levels in answering questions regarding efficacy, safety, and drug interactions of medical marijuana.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacy Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Medical Marijuana

Moeller

Woods

2015

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

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Objective. To determine pharmacy students' knowledge of and attitudes toward medical marijuana and to determine if pharmacy students need additional education on the topic. Methods. Pharmacy students were asked to complete a survey on medical marijuana that assessed their knowledge of, medical uses of, adverse effects with, and attitudes toward medical marijuana through 23 Likert-scale questions. Results. Three hundred eleven students completed the survey. Fifty-eight percent of the students felt that medical marijuana should be legalized in all states. However, the majority of students did not feel comfortable answering consumers' questions regarding efficacy, safety, or drug interactions related to the substance. Accurate responses for diseases or conditions for permitted medical marijuana use was low, with only cancer (91%) and glaucoma (57%) identified by more than half the students. Conclusion. With an increasing number of states adopting medical marijuana use, pharmacy schools need to evaluate the adequacy of medical marijuana education in their curriculum.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacy Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Medical Marijuana

Moeller

Woods

2015

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

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“…In addition, 11 states have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, which may further increase its use as the medicinal applications of cannabinoids continue to be developed and refined (Klein, 2005;Marx, 2006;Seamon et al, 2007). However, there is still little information about the biologic consequences of marijuana smoke on the lung and the mechanisms that mediate them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clarifying CB2 receptor-dependent and independent effects of THC on human lung epithelial cells

Sarafian

Montes

Harui

et al. 2008

Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

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Marijuana smoking is associated with a number of abnormal findings in the lungs of habitual smokers. Previous studies revealed that Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) caused mitochondrial injury in primary lung epithelial cells and in the cell line, A549 (Sarafian et al., 2003;Sarafian et al., 2005). The role of cannabinoid receptors in this injury was unclear, as was the potential impact on cell function. In order to investigate these questions, A549 cells were engineered to over-express the type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) using a self-inactivating lentiviral vector. This transduction resulted in a 60-fold increase in CB2R mRNA relative to cells transduced with a control vector. Transduced cell lines were used to study the effects of THC on chemotactic activity and mitochondrial function. Chemotaxis in response to a 10 % serum gradient was suppressed in a concentration-dependent manner by exposure to THC. CB2R-transduced cells exhibited less intrinsic chemotactic activity (p < 0.05) and were 80-to 100-fold more sensitive to the inhibitory effects of THC. Studies using SR144528, a selective CB2R antagonist, verified that these effects were mediated by the CB2R. Marijuana smoke extract, but not smoke extracts from tobacco or placebo marijuana cigarettes, reproduced these effects (p < 0.05). THC decreased ATP level and mitochondrial membrane potential (Ψ m ) in both control and CB2R-transduced cells. However, these decreases did not play a significant role in chemotaxis inhibition since cyclosporine A, which protected against ATP loss, did not increase cell migration. Moreover, CB2R-transduced cells displayed higher Ψ m than did control cells. Since both Ψ m and chemotaxis are regulated by intracellular signaling, we investigated the effects of THC on the activation of multiple signaling pathways. Serum exposure activated several signaling events of which phosphorylation of IκB-α and JNK were regulated in a CB2R-and THC-dependent manner. We conclude that airway epithelial cells are sensitive to both CB2R-dependent and independent effects mediated by THC.

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“…However, it has to be mentioned, that use of cannabinoids can have side effects. Several scientists have warned about the negative effects of marijuana use on the cardiovascular, respiratory and nervous system (Cannon, 2010;Corless et al, 2009), and psychological dysfunction including loss of memory (Seamon et al, 2007) and pointed out the necessity for further investigation of the effects of cannabinoids. Moreover, recent legislative efforts to support legalization of medical marijuana suggest the need for more precise understanding of the typical patterns and determinants of marijuana use, and…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%