Marijuana shown to relieve depression

More evidence that smoking marijuana is actually good for you.

ALBANY, NEW YORK—In the largest-ever study of marijuana and depression, to be published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, daily or weekly marijuana users had fewer symptoms of depression than non-users. Marijuana users were also more likely to report positive moods and fewer somatic complaints such as sleeplessness. Noteworthy differences were also found between those using marijuana for medical purposes and non-medical or "recreational" users.

..."Not only does marijuana not cause depression, it looks like it may actually alleviate it," said Mitch Earleywine, co-author of the new study and associate professor of psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Unsurprisingly, the least depressed group were regular non-medical users. Medical users were found to be depressed from their illness and MMJ users reported less depression than non-users. My personal experience bears this out, but it's good to see it scientifically proven.

Thanks to Mycos for the pdf and in full disclosure, I took part in this study. Maybe you did too. I posted on it at the time and it was open to all.