NO MORE BONGS? –

June 8, 2023 – As marijuana use in the United States reaches record highs among young adults, there is a growing need to address its potential for addiction, experts say.

An experimental pill, the first in a new class of drugs, has shown promise in treating cannabis use disorder, according to the results of a small trial published Thursday in Nature Medicine.

The drug, known as AEF-0117, was found to reduce the perceived “good effects” of cannabis by up to 38 percent in a double-blind randomized controlled phase 2a trial led by researchers at Columbia University. Phase 2a typically means researchers are determining the proper dosage for the next stage of testing.

Meg Haney, the lead author of the study and director of the cannabis research laboratory at Columbia University, described the preliminary findings on the medication as “very encouraging.”

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