In an effort to convince the youth of America that continued prohibition is in the interest of public health, the federal government is now paying researchers to develop an app that persuades kids to work out rather than smoke weed.
The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $715,000 grant to the University of New York at Buffalo to begin working on study cleverly titled “Use of exercise to reduce young adult marijuana use there is an app for that.” The goal of this research is to create a smartphone app that appeals to the teenage wasteland and encourages them to get into physical fitness as an alternative to getting stoned.
Despite marijuana being legal for medicinal and recreational purposes in half the United States, Uncle Sam remains driven to convince the public that weed is turning kids into out-of-control marijuana addicts. “Currently, marijuana (MJ) is the most popular illicit drug, with prevalence studies indicating increasing use among young adults,” according to NIH’s project information. “Even so, there are few effective interventions to help MJ users reduce their intake to avoid negative consequences, including MJ dependence.”
Not surprisingly, federal lab rats have found evidence that suggests marijuana cravings can be hindered with moderate exercise. “Our research also has shown that short (i.e., 10 minute) bouts of moderate or intense exercise reduce craving/urges to use MJ,” writes the NIH. “Exercise interventions have successfully reduced use of licit substances, such as tobacco and alcohol, but have not been adequately tested for MJ use.”
Last year, R. Lorraine Collins, PhD, who has been assigned to lead this waste of tax dollars, said, “This newest NIDA grant to develop the smartphone app has evolved out of our use of cell phones to collect data in real time, as well as our plan to develop an effective intervention that can make a difference in the lives of young people who want to cut down on their marijuana use.”
Ultimately, researchers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to research and develop a useless smartphone app aimed at curbing marijuana addiction, a disease, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that only effects nine percent of its users.
