"Our results provide evidence that the non-cannabimimetic constituent of marijuana, cannabidiol, exerts clinically relevant antipsychotic effects that are associated with marked tolerability and safety, when compared with current medications."

"It is estimated that 90.2 million adults in the European Union (aged 15-64), or 27.2 % of this age group, have used cannabis at least once in their lifetime. Around 15 % (18.0 million) of young adults (aged 15-34) report using cannabis in the last year, with males being typically twice as likely to report use than females. Among the 27 countries that undertook surveys between 2014 and 2018, considerable variation exists, with last year use rates among young adults ranging from 3.5 % in Hungary to 21.8 % in France.

"• Substantial differences were found in perceived availability of the various drugs. The percentage of 12th graders reporting it would be fairly easy or easy to get a drug varied from 16% or less for heroin and PCP to above 80% for alcohol, vaping devices, and an e-liquid with nicotine for vaping.

"As noted in the illicit drug use section, an estimated 24.0 million Americans aged 12 or older in 2016 were current users of marijuana (Figure 15). This number of past month marijuana users corresponds to 8.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older (Figure 17). The percentage of people aged 12 or older who were current marijuana users in 2016 was higher than the percentages from 2002 to 2015.

Cannabinoids and PTSD: "A chart review of patients diagnosed with PTSD who were referred to a private psychiatric clinic suggests that the synthetic cannabinoid, nabilone, has beneficial effects beyond its official indication in regard to abolishing or greatly reducing nightmares that persisted in spite of treatment with conventional PTSD medications.

"It is clear, however, that cannabis use did not compromise substance abuse treatment amongst the medical marijuana using group. In fact, medical marijuana users seemed to fare equal to or better than non-medical marijuana users in every important outcome category. Movement from more harmful to less harmful drugs is an improvement worthy of consideration by treatment providers and policymakers. The economic cost of alcohol use in California has been estimated at $38 billion [30].

Primary Cultivation States: "California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia are the primary marijuana cultivation states (M7 states). Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP) data show that more than 8 million plants were eradicated in 2008, 89 percent (7,136,133 plants of 8,013,308 plants) of which were eradicated in the M7 States."

"• Cannabinoids, the active components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, act in the organism by mimicking endogenous substances, the endocannabinoids, that activate specific cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids exert palliative effects in patients with cancer and inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals.

"Cannabinoids have a favourable drug safety profile. Acute fatal cases due to cannabis use in humans have not been substantiated, and median lethal doses of THC in animals have been extrapolated to several grams per kilogram of body weight. Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated in animal studies and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of most conventional chemotherapeutic agents. For example, in a 2-year administration of high oral doses of THC to rats and mice, no marked histopathological alterations in the brain and other organs were found.

"Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory animals (rats, mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses of up to 1,000 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram). This would be equivalent to a 70 kg person swallowing 70 grams of the drug—about 5,000 times more than is required to produce a high. Despite the widespread illicit use of cannabis there are very few if any instances of people dying from an overdose.