Julio Nunes, MD, a psychiatry resident, is author of the peer-reviewed article, "Challenging the 25-year-old ‘Mature Brain’ Mythology: Implications for the Minimum Legal Age for Non-Medical Cannabis Use" in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse and the opinion piece, "From Mailbox to Glovebox: The Dose That Saved a Life" in Psychiatric News.
"Challenging the 25-year-old 'Mature Brain' Mythology: Implications for the Minimum Legal Age for Non-Medical Cannabis Use"
This Perspective examines whether brain science supports setting the minimum legal age for non-medical cannabis use at 25. Reviewing contemporary neuroscience, the authors show that brain maturation is gradual, region-specific, and does not reach a clear “endpoint” at age 25, nor is there evidence that people 18–25 experience greater long-term cannabis-related brain harm than those older than 25. They conclude that an age limit between 18 and 21 is scientifically defensible and argue that policy should also consider legal, equity, and sociocultural factors, not biology alone.
"From Mailbox to Glovebox: The Dose That Saved a Life"
This op-ed tells the story of reversing an opioid overdose that required three doses of naloxone, the last of which came from a free, mail-based distribution program (Next Distro). The narrative highlights how community naloxone access – including harm-reduction organizations that ship it directly to people’s homes – can mean the difference between life and death. It closes with a call for sustained federal support for mail-based naloxone and policies that make this kind of low-threshold access routine rather than exceptional.