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12 HE ALTH • Spring 2019 Now with shops legally selling mari- juana products in Central Massachusetts – Cultivate opened in November in Leicester, and Good Chemistry will open in April in Worcester – doctors and researchers are readying to find out if the effects they foresaw will come true. Thanks to unresolved research, no one is quite sure what to expect. Studies in more mature legal mari- juana markets have found some health changes but none officials in those states have deemed concrete evidence of changed habits or harms. Regardless, the new marijuana mar- ket appears unlikely to settle debates over the drug's benefits and harms. "The jury is definitely still out," said Dr. Mark Neavyn of UMass Medical School in Worcester, who specializes in emergency medicine and toxicology. "People spend a lifetime trying to figure that out," Neavyn said. "I don't think we'll see any concrete evidence either way any time soon." Unsettled science If there's one thing changed with marijuana over the years, it's been public perception about the drug. A Pew Research Center poll released last October found 62 percent of Americans say marijuana should be legalized. That's up from just 32 per- cent in a Pew poll from 2010 and 16 percent in 1990. Each successive generation has been more accepting, with 74 percent of Millennials saying the drug should be legal, Pew found. Even as acceptance has spread, experts aren't any closer to agreement on whether marijuana's benefits out- weigh its risks. "Based on what I've looked at, there is a potential health benefit" to mari- juana, Neavyn said. "But at the same time, we have to recognize that with any psychoactive element, it can poten- tially be harmful to people." Dr. Katherine Fitzgerald, a primary care physician at Heywood Hospital in Gardner who specializes in addiction, is more cautious. She's found in her addiction clinic that cannabis can cause Even with marijuana legal in Massachusetts, health officials still don't know the impact on the public health • By Grant Welker Unknown side effects F or the past decade, when Massachusetts was con- sidering legalizing marijuana for any adult to use, medical groups warned against the new industry opening up access for youth or acting as a gateway toward more serious drugs. Others extolled the health benefits. After all, Massachusetts voters approved marijuana for medicinal use in 2012, before recreational was on the table.