But an unexpected force is driving medical marijuana legalization in the United States: America’s armed forces veterans.

The push by U.S. veterans to legalize marijuana is largely tied to the drug’s proven efficacy in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain, two of the most common afflictions of active and non-active U.S. service members. According to the Veterans Cannabis Project, a non-profit organization with the mission of increasing the accessibility of medical marijuana for veterans, up to 20 percent of active service members suffer from post-traumatic stress. In many cases, this stress leads to significant self-harm or suicide. The numbers are staggering: each day, an average of 22 veterans commit suicide. Chronic pain affects an estimated 75% of female veterans and 50% of male veterans. The two disorders appear to be linked: according to researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, up to 80 percent of Vietnam veterans with PTSD reported chronic pain.

Traditional medical practitioners doled out prescription medications as an attempt to address this epidemic in veteran populations, but in turn created an even larger epidemic. Veterans became addicted to many of the drugs that were prescribed, most notably opioids. According to Reuters, veterans are twice as likely to die from an opioid overdose than non-veterans. This coincides with the national epidemic of opioid abuse sweeping the nation.

Reuters also reports that opioid drug abuse has claimed more American lives than the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam wars combined.

Veterans organizations have taken to lobbying for the legalization of medical marijuana to treat PTSD and coinciding chronic pain, in hopes of providing alternative, less addictive treatment options for suffering veterans. Their efforts have been fairly successful. 29 states list marijuana as an approved treatment for PTSD. Prominent political figures across parties have also endorsed the use of medical marijuana to treat PTSD and chronic pain in veterans, an unusual occurrence considering the drug’s controversial nature.

Among the most prominent groups lobbying for the legalization of marijuana to treat PTSD and coinciding disorders is the American Legion, a traditionally conservative organization.

The American Legion is pushing not only for legalization, but for insurance coverage for patients seeking marijuana treatment. The New York Times recently reported that many veterans who are eligible for medical marijuana treatment are not able to receive insurance coverage for the treatment. This is likely due to the fact that marijuana, while legal in 29 states, is still a federally classified Schedule 1 drug, placing it in the same group as heroin, LSD, and Ecstasy. This makes possession/consumption of methamphetamine, “meth,” and cocaine a lesser offense than possession/consumption of marijuana. While it might be hard to believe – both meth and cocaine are only Schedule 2 drugs – a lesser classification than Schedule 1.

Unfortunately, due to the complexity of legislation surrounding marijuana and the evolving perception of the drug, it might be many years before it is widely accessible and affordable for veterans in all states. This means that veterans organizations and other allies in the legalization of medical marijuana likely have their work cut out for them.

This is partly due to the increased accessibility of marijuana with legalization of the drug across the country. Recreational marijuana is now legal in seven states, making the drug nearly as easily obtainable as alcohol – all you need is a valid identification that proves you are twenty-one or older. And medical marijuana is legal in 29 states. But is using marijuana safe for parents with children, especially young children, under their watch? And what are the risks that mothers and expectant mothers, in particular, face? Here are the pros and cons of using marijuana as a mother.
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PRO: Post-Partum Depression Cure?

Nearly 80% of new mothers experience some form of mood disturbance after giving birth, including mood swings, sadness, and irritability. One in nine mothers is diagnosed with postpartum depression, a severe mood disorder that causes prolonged withdrawal from family and friends, inability to eat and sleep, excessive mood swings, and difficulty bonding with the baby. Marijuana has been found to successfully treat postpartum depression, offering reprieve for mothers that are unresponsive or uncomfortable with traditional medical treatment.
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CON: Possibility for Birth Defects

For expectant mothers, however, marijuana might present more risk than potential benefit. According to the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health, smoking or using marijuana while pregnant may pose significant risk to fetal development. Studies have found that frequent marijuana use while pregnant is associated with low birth weight, increased risk of stillbirth, and cognitive delays in newborns.
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PRO: Anxiety Treatment

An estimated nine percent of mothers are affected by severe postpartum anxiety, and an even larger percentage of mothers will experience anxiety over the course of their lifetime. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, women are two times more likely to suffer from anxiety than men. Occasional marijuana use has been shown to decrease symptoms of mild to severe anxiety, as well as other related disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and impulse-control disorder.
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CON: Breast Feeding Hazard

Similar to the risks of using marijuana while pregnant, marijuana use during periods of breast feeding can pose health risks to newborn babies. When a new mother smokes or ingests marijuana, ultra-concentrated amounts of THC can reach breast milk deposits. According to some studies, THC levels in breast milk may be eight times higher than a mother’s blood THC content. If ingested, this THC-heavy breast milk can cause babies to produce evidence of marijuana in their urine for several weeks following. THC exposure in babies and young children can cause impaired motor development, muscle weakness, and brain cell damage.
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PRO: Bringing Partners Together

Couples who smoke together, stay together. Some couples report that smoking marijuana together decreases the frequency of arguments, and increases sexual satisfaction and intimacy with a partner. This can be especially useful for parents, as rates of relationship dissatisfaction increase two-fold when a couple has one or more children.
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CON: Social Stigma

Even though recreational marijuana has been legalized in seven states, and medical marijuana use has been legalized in twenty more states, marijuana use is still highly stigmatized in many parent communities. Some mothers who have shared their marijuana use with other parents have been, for lack of a better word, shunned – their children banned from interacting with others. This negative perception of marijuana could disrupt relationships for both parents and children.
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PRO: Alternative to Prescription Drugs

Prescription drug abuse among women has increased by 500% in the past decade. Now more than 18 million women over the age of 26 use prescription drugs for uses other than prescribed, and the rate of abuse is suspected to be higher in mothers than non-mothers. Marijuana offers many of the same benefits of prescription drugs, most notably pain-relief, with a far lower addiction rate and fewer withdrawal symptoms.
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CON: Potential Employment Risk

Even though medical and recreational marijuana are legal in some states, marijuana is still a federally classified substance. This means that your employer may reserve the right to terminate your employment if your use of the drug interferes with company policy. Mothers looking to try marijuana should thoroughly read their company’s drug policy before using to better understand the risks they face.

These findings come in part from a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, which found that marijuana users have on average 20% more sex than non-marijuana users. Within that, sexual frequency increased as marijuana use increased.

That means more smoking, more sex.

Research also suggests that marijuana increases the complexity of neural pathways in the brain, improving one’s capacity to empathize and communicate with a partner. A study by researchers at Buffalo University found that married couples who used marijuana three or more times each month had a significantly lower rate of domestic violence than non-users.

Researchers have discovered that smoking marijuana, or “Mary Jane,” can offer married couples a wealth of benefits including:

• Enhanced sexual satisfaction
• Improved empathy and communication skills
• A decreased risk of domestic violence

Other studies, however, suggest that this relationship between sexual frequency and marijuana use is not without its limits, particularly for male users. One study found that the risk of erectile dysfunction for daily marijuana users is as much as three times as high for users than non-users. However – findings suggested the opposite for women.

 One study reported that 90% of women experience heightened sexual pleasure while using marijuana!

Like with most things – there is a spectrum of experience; for some, marijuana actually has the opposite effect, causing short-term social alienation, and feeling of being unable to relate to others. The differential factor – what makes some people react negatively and positively – is not yet known.

So, if you are considering trying marital marijuana, the lesson here is to proceed with some awareness, mindfulness, and a modicum of caution. Be communicative with your partner and see what works for your relationship. As they say, perhaps a puff a day will keep the divorce papers away.

Well, such a cure does exist, and it comes from a rather unexpected place: the cannabis plant.

That’s right, smoking marijuana can cure your hiccups – no lemon or pinching or sugar involved.

The finding comes from a 1998 study published in the Lancet journal, in which doctors used marijuana to treat an AIDS patient with intractable hiccups, a medical condition that causes hiccups to span hours, days, or even weeks. In this case, the hiccups developed after a minor surgery and lasted for a full nine days.

Doctors unsuccessfully tried a wide variety of treatments on the patient, including acupuncture, lidocaine injections, and valproate, a prescription medication used to treat epilepsy, among other conditions. They resorted to even stranger methods – including removing a hair from the tympanic membrane in the inner ear, and flooding the ear canal with the anesthetic Marcaine – before administering marijuana.

The first dose temporarily cured the hiccups, and the second made them go away for good.

Though it’s highly unlikely that your case of the hiccups is intractable (intractable hiccups are estimated to affect only 1 in every 100,000 people), this finding combined with other studies on marijuana provide good reason to believe that marijuana can treat your everyday hiccups.

Several studies show that marijuana is proven to reduce the intensity and frequency of muscle spasms, and a case of the hiccups is just a series of inconvenient spasms of the diaphragm muscle.

So, experiencing a stubborn case of the hiccups that you just can’t shake? You may want to reach for a lighter before reaching for that lemon.

Here, we break down the famous marijuana leaf…

First, the iconic marijuana leaf is not “marijuana.” Let me explain. Appropriately called a “fan leaf,” as its many points can stretch out to over eight inches in diameter, it belongs to the cannabis plant family, and can be found on many different varieties of cannabis plants. The large leaves offer an advantage for the plants by creating more surface area to collect sunlight for the plant energy-making process known as photosynthesis. But while these leaves are the plant’s largest source of energy, they are very low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical compound responsible for a marijuana “high.” Therefore, cannabis fan leaves are rarely smoked or used to produce marijuana products.

The highest THC concentrations in the cannabis plant are found in the flowers, which grow towards the top of the female cannabis plant.

These flowers are more tightly-packed than the sprawling fan leaves, and have a fuzzy appearance due to small resin glands on the flower surface. Flowers are the most commonly used part of the marijuana plant for smoking and production of marijuana products like edibles. Within the flower are cannabis seeds, which are not used for smoking but can be processed to produce THC oil, a popular ingredient in marijuana edibles.

Cannabis plants are not just for marijuana production. Marijuana is actually just a slang term to describe strains of cannabis specifically bred for their psychoactive properties. Other non-psychoactive varieties of cannabis plants can be used to make pretty much any product you can imagine. Shoes, drywall, automobile fuel, beauty products, diapers, and paper are only a few of the over 50,000 known uses for “hemp,” or strains of cannabis plants that have been bred specifically for their fibers.

These plants have little to no THC content, but pack quite the physical and nutritional punch.

Hemp seeds are rich in “good” fats such as omega-3s, and are shown to fight skin diseases, promote healthy hair and nails, and stop the growth of cancerous cells.

Hemp seeds can be sprinkled on a salad, ground into a flour for baking recipes, or processed to make hemp milk, a popular, nut-free alternative to other non-dairy milks such as almond milk.

Hemp fibers can be woven to create a fabric that is stronger than cotton, making hemp an excellent option for durable clothing, textiles, ropes, and shoes. For centuries, hemp was one of the most popular textiles for the creation of ship sails and artists’ canvases.

In fact, it’s likely that Columbus sailed to the Americas using hemp sails and hemp ropes, and that many of the classic paintings of Europe in the 17th century—such as those by Rembrandt—were painted on hemp canvas. Surprisingly enough, hemp used to be a major staple crop of American agriculture.

In the mid 19^th century, Kentucky was the leading the U.S. hemp production industry, churning out 40,000 tons of hemp each year.

So, what happened?

In 1938, the U.S. passed a law that made the production of cannabis illegal, as an effort to curtail the use of marijuana. Since marijuana and hemp ultimately come from the same plant, cannabis, and farmers were no longer allowed to cultivate cannabis plants of any kind for any purpose, both hemp and marijuana were made illegal. As such, hemp fell out of popular use.

Because of the variety of uses for the cannabis plant family, some believe that cannabis plants are one of the most sustainable crops available for cultivation, promising climate-friendly solutions to other more toxic modern materials such as rubber and metals. However, the legislation against growing cannabis combined with the public perception of cannabis as a drug has slowed the growth of it as a major industrial crop. With the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, it is quite possible that the stigmatization of the non-THC cannabis varieties could decrease, and hemp could once again become a viable production crop. Maybe then the truth would be out about the true complexity behind that iconic marijuana leaf.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just millennials that are taking advantage of increased access to the drug – grandparents are, too. A recent study by Marist and Yahoo found that 52% of marijuana users are actually older than millennials. And within that, grandparents are the fastest growing group of marijuana users. Here are ten reasons why more grandparents than ever are using marijuana.
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1.  IT HELPS CUT DOWN ON DAILY PILLS

Americans aged 65 to 69 are given an average of 15 prescriptions each and that number increases with age: Americans aged 80 to 84 take an average of 18 different medications each year. Marijuana’s broad anti-inflammatory properties allow it to treat a variety of conditions that may otherwise be treated with separate pills, including high blood pressure, anxiety, and chronic pain. For many, using marijuana is a simplified version of their daily routine, one that is less of a hassle and produces fewer side effects.
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2.  IT FIGHTS CANCER

Cancer rates are increasing at exponential rates, with some studies placing the risk of developing cancer as high as 1 in 2. And 25% of all cancer cases are diagnosed in people aged 65 to 74, putting grandparents at a higher risk than other populations. Research suggests that marijuana can prevent cancer from metastasizing, as well as encourage cancerous cell die-off and tumor shrinkage.
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3.  IT FIGHTS ALZHEIMER’S

Marijuana’s active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), helps to prevent the build-up of toxic protein “plaques” that have been linked with the development of Alzheimer’s. This makes marijuana an attractive option for seniors looking to decrease their risk of developing the disease, which can cause severe memory loss and disorientation among other symptoms.
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4.  IT’S ACCESSIBLE

Twenty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana in some form. Seven states – Maine, Massachusetts, Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington – have legalized recreational marijuana use, making the drug as easily attainable as beer or liquor. Acquiring marijuana, a process that once required risking jail time, is now as simple as going to the doctor or driving to a dispensary down the street.
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5.  IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

Grandparents aren’t the only ones using marijuana – their children are using it too. A recent study found that 54% of adults who use marijuana are parents, many with children under the age of eighteen. The more widespread the use of marijuana in a family is, the more likely it is that other family members will join in. 41% of marijuana users report regularly using marijuana with other people. And in case you were wondering, most marijuana users who are parents report never using the drug in front of their young children.
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6.  IT MAY HELP RESTORE ARTHRITIC JOINTS

The pain-relieving effects of marijuana for arthritis patients have been proven by several studies. Researchers at a Canadian university are now embarking on a study to measure not only the pain-relieving effects of marijuana for arthritis patients, but the restorative properties as well. The lead researcher believes that cannabis may help repair nerve damage that leads to the (often) severe pain associated with the condition.
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7.  IT KEEPS YOU YOUNG

THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, has been proven to prevent age-related cognitive decline in mice, leading some scientists to hypothesize that marijuana use in humans can do the same. Marijuana can also foster social activity, which plays a large role in the mental health of seniors.

Marcel O. Bonn-Miller, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and his coauthors asked for laboratory content analyses of cannabidiol products, including oils, alcohol-based tinctures and vaporization liquid.

Of the 84 products that were bought and analyzed, 43 percent had more cannabidiol than was noted on the product label, 26 percent had less cannabidiol than was noted on the product label, and 31 percent were accurately labeled.

The wide ranges found in the products highlight the need for manufacturing and testing standards if these products are to be used for medicinal purposes. There is growing consumer demand for cannabidiol, but discrepancies between federal and state cannabis laws have resulted in inadequate regulation and oversight.

The research was published in JAMA.