Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: Importance After major policy changes in the United States, policymakers, health care professionals, and the general public seek information about whether recreational cannabis use is associated with physical health problems later in life. 
  
 Objective To test associations between cannabis use over 20 years and a variety of physical health indexes at early midlife. 
  
 Design, Setting, and Participants Participants belonged to a representative birth cohort of 1037 individuals born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973 and followed to age 38 years, with 95% retention (the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study). We tested whether cannabis use from ages 18 to 38 years was associated with physical health at age 38, even after controlling for tobacco use, childhood health, and childhood socioeconomic status. We also tested whether cannabis use from ages 26 to 38 years was associated with within-individual health decline using the same measures of health at both ages. 
  
 Exposures We assessed frequency of cannabis use and cannabis dependence at ages 18, 21, 26, 32, and 38 years. 
  
 Main Outcomes and Measures We obtained laboratory measures of physical health (periodontal health, lung function, systemic inflammation, and metabolic health), as well as self-reported physical health, at ages 26 and 38 years. 
  
 Results The 1037 study participants were 51.6% male (n = 535). Of these, 484 had ever used tobacco daily and 675 had ever used cannabis. Cannabis use was associated with poorer periodontal health at age 38 years and within-individual decline in periodontal health from ages 26 to 38 years. For example, cannabis joint-years from ages 18 to 38 years was associated with poorer periodontal health at age 38 years, even after controlling for tobacco pack-years (β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.05-0.18; P <.001). Additionally, cannabis joint-years from ages 26 to 38 years was associated with poorer periodontal health at age 38 years, even after accounting for periodontal health at age 26 years and tobacco pack-years (β = 0.10; 95% CI, 0.05-0.16; P <.001) However, cannabis use was unrelated to other physical health problems. Unlike cannabis use, tobacco use was associated with worse lung function, systemic inflammation, and metabolic health at age 38 years, as well as within-individual decline in health from ages 26 to 38 years. 
  
 Conclusions and Relevance Cannabis use for up to 20 years is associated with periodontal disease but is not associated with other physical health problems in early midlife. ||||| While using marijuana for as long as 20 years was associated with periodontal disease, it was not associated with some other physical health problems in early midlife at age 38, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. 
  
 Policymakers, health care professionals and the public want to know whether recreational cannabis use is associated with physical health problems later in life after major policy changes in the U.S. 
  
 Madeline H. Meier, Ph.D., of Arizona State University, Tempe, and coauthors used data from 1,037 individuals who were born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973 and were followed to age 38. The authors looked at whether cannabis use from age 18 to 38 was associated with physical health problems at age 38. 
  
 Self-reported and laboratory measures of physical health were obtained for periodontal health, lung function, systemic inflammation and metabolic health. 
  
 Just more than half of the 1,037 participants were male; 484 had ever used tobacco daily and 675 had ever used cannabis. 
  
 Cannabis was associated with poorer periodontal health at age 38 but was not associated with the other physical health problems, according to the results. Other analyses suggest cannabis users brushed and flossed less than others and were more likely to be dependent on alcohol. 
  
 Study limitations include self-reported cannabis use. The study also was limited to a specific set of health problems assessed in early midlife. 
  
 "This study has a number of implications. First, cannabis use for up to 20 years is not associated with a specific set of physical health problems in early midlife. The sole exception is that cannabis use is associated with periodontal disease. Second, cannabis use for up to 20 years is not associated with net metabolic benefits (i.e., lower rates of metabolic syndrome). Third, our results should be interpreted in the context of prior research showing that cannabis use is associated with accidents and injuries, bronchitis, acute cardiovascular events, and, possibly, infectious diseases and cancer, as well as poor psychosocial and mental health outcomes," the study concludes. 
  
 Explore further: Cannabis use increases risk of premature death 
  
 More information: JAMA Psychiatry. Published online June 1, 2016. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.0637 
  
  ||||| Middle-age people who have smoked marijuana for many years may have a higher risk of developing gum disease, according to a new study. 
  
 However, the study did not find a link between long-term marijuana use and several other health problems associated with cigarette smoking, the researchers said. 
  
 "What we're seeing is that cannabis may be harmful in some respects, but possibly not in every way," Avshalom Caspi, a co-author of the study and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said in a statement. "We need to recognize that heavy recreational cannabis use does have some adverse consequences, but overall damage to physical health is not apparent in this study." [11 Odd Facts About Marijuana] 
  
 In the study, the researchers looked at 1,037 people who were born in New Zealand in 1972 or 1973, and followed them until the people were 38 years old. The researchers examined whether the people had used marijuana when they were between 18 and 38, and whether they had physical health problems at age 38. 
  
 The researchers found that, among the 38-year-olds who had regularly smoked pot for 15 to 20 years, 55.6 percent had gum disease, also called periodontal disease. In comparison, only 13.5 percent of the 38-year-olds who had never used marijuana had gum disease. In some cases, this disease may lead to tooth loss. 
  
 The results also showed that the people who had smoked marijuana for up to 20 years had brushed their teeth and flossed less frequently than those who had never smoked marijuana, according to the findings, published today (June 1) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. However, the less-frequent brushing and flossing did not explain the link between marijuana use and gum disease, which suggests that marijuana use itself may lead to damage to the gums. [5 Surprising Ways to Banish Bad Breath] 
  
 Researchers have long known that cigarette smoking has been associated with a higher risk of gum disease, said Dr. Ronald P. Burakoff, chairman of dental medicine at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, New York, who was not involved in the study. "So I am not surprised that marijuana use also is associated with periodontal disease," Burakoff told Live Science. 
  
 In the new study, the researchers also looked at the dental and general physical health of 484 people in the study who had smoked cigarettes on a daily basis at some point in their lives. In line with previous research, they found that those people were also more likely to have gum disease than those who had never smoked. 
  
 But these people were also more likely to have problems with their lung function, higher blood sugar levels and inflammation than those who had never smoked cigarettes. 
  
 In contrast, when the researchers looked at the same aspects of lung function and cardiovascular health among the people who had smoked marijuana for up to 20 years, they did not find these aspects were worse than they were in the people who had never smoked marijuana. 
  
 One limitation of the new study was that the researchers looked only at specific aspects of the people's health assessed at a specific age, the researchers said. This means that the use of marijuana still may be linked to other health problems, such as cancer, that tend to occur later in life, they said. 
  
 Previous research has found links between the use of marijuana and weight gain, brain changes and the worsening of sexual function, among other health problems. 
  
 The new results "should be interpreted in the context of prior research showing that cannabis use is associated with accidents and injuries, bronchitis, acute cardiovascular events and, possibly, infectious diseases and cancer, as well as poor psychosocial and mental-health outcomes," the researchers wrote. 
  
 Originally published on Live Science. |||||
Output:
A new study finds you can toke for up to 20 years without suffering any worse physical health effects than a couple of loose or lost teeth, Live Science reports. That's right: According to researchers studying long-term marijuana use, the only drawback, as far as physical health is concerned, is gum disease. Their findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers tested the periodontal health, systemic inflammation, metabolic health, and lung function of 1,037 New Zealanders—675 of whom reported smoking pot, according to a press release—through the age of 38. The Guardian reports they found 55.6% of people who had used marijuana for more than 15 years had periodontal disease. Only 13.5% of people who'd never used marijuana did. Researchers were unsure what was causing the poor gum health—the less-frequent brushing and flossing of marijuana-users wouldn't be enough—and believe it's possible cannabis itself is bad for gums. Researchers were surprised to find periodontal disease—and not the poor lung function associated with smoking cigarettes—was the only negative physical health effect of long-term pot use. But that doesn't mean you can cheef with impunity. “Our results should be interpreted in the context of prior research showing that cannabis use is associated with accidents and injuries, bronchitis, acute cardiovascular events, and, possibly, infectious diseases and cancer," the press release quotes the study as saying. (Being tired may make you snack like a pot-smoker.)