Highly potent marijuana tied to worse mental health outcomes

Written by Cassidy Morrison on August 8, 2022. Posted in Current News

Cannabis products with exceptionally high concentrations of THC have been associated with increased instances of depression, anxiety, and dependence.

Marijuana is the third-most commonly used drug globally, after alcohol and nicotine.

Its potency, measured by the concentration of THC, has steadily increased over the past few decades, raising the risk of users experiencing psychosis and addiction, according to an analysis published in the Lancet last week that was conducted by a team of mental health experts at the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology in the UK.

The psychologists analyzed the association between the types of marijuana people use and addiction and mental health issues, drawing on 20 studies involving nearly 120,000 people.

“These results are important in the context of harm reduction which aims to minimise the negative consequences associated with drug use,” said lead author Kat Petrilli. “While the safest level of use for cannabis is of course ‘no use,’ it is important to acknowledge that a significant number of people across the world use cannabis regularly and to ensure they can make informed decisions that could reduce any possible harms associated with it.”

Herbal cannabis potency has climbed steadily since 1970, when THC concentration hovered around 2% . THC levels in the marijuana flower grew to 4four percentin the ’90s, and between 1995 and 2015, there has been a 212 percent increase in THC content. In 2017, the most popular strains found in legal dispensaries in Colorado had a range of THC content from 17–28 percent, according to addiction psychiatrist and a senior instructor for the University of Colorado Health Science Program, Department of Psychiatry, Elizabeth Stuyt.

Herbal marijuana is only one of many ways to consume THC. Users can now vape oil cartridges that use concentrated forms of cannabis flower, which extract high levels of THC ranging from 70 to 90 percent.

“If you really just want to make it legal, then you need to really do a lot of informed consent and have strict regulations,” Stuyt told the Washington Examiner. “There needs to be warnings about potential problems like psychosis, like suicide, like cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, like depression, increased anxiety, all these things that research has shown the higher potency does.”

The Lancet analysis found that people who used high-potency cannabis had a higher likelihood of experiencing a psychotic episode. One study the team of experts used in the analysis found that people who used highly potent marijuana daily were five times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with those who never used it.

Authors of the analysis also found little evidence to suggest an association between higher-potency cannabis use and depression. Only one study included in the investigation showed such a link. The link between highly potent marijuana and anxiety is blurry, according to the report’s authors who reviewed four separate relevant studies.

One found that the use of higher potency cannabis was associated with a twofold increased risk of generalized anxiety disorder, compared with lower potency cannabis, in a sample of more than 1,000 people who had used cannabis in the past year.

But in another study of more than 181,000 people, the risk of an anxiety disorder diagnosis was not higher for people who used higher-potency herbal cannabis compared with people who used lower-potency herbal cannabis.

The risk of becoming addicted is also much higher when the primary product consumed has a high concentration of psychoactive chemicals. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that as many as 30% of people who consume cannabis may have some degree of problem use.

Like other addictive substances such as heroin and cocaine, THC activates the brain’s reward pathway, increasing dopamine concentration levels in the nucleus accumbens, a mechanism believed to underlie the rewarding effects of drugs and trigger the neurological adaptations that result in addiction. And like other addictive drugs, long-term use of high-potency marijuana can lead to a blunting of the dopamine system.

The medical use of cannabis is permitted in 37 states and D.C. Marijuana is recreationally legal in 19 states as well as D.C. At least half a dozen states, such as South Dakota and Arkansas, will include the question of legalization on the ballot this November, but advocates are concerned that voters are not sufficiently educated on the way marijuana potency has changed over time and the various health risks that it poses.

The drug has been touted as a medical tool for so long that many people will not see its legalization as problematic.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is also leading a push to decriminalize marijuana federally and allow states to set their own marijuana policies without fear of punishment from Congress.

The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act has been a long time coming. Schumer and fellow Senate Democrats Ron Wyden and Cory Booker first released a discussion draft of the bill over a year ago . The latest iteration of the bill faces a steep uphill battle in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to get over the finish line.

“We need to educate the public on what this new high-potency marijuana is and what the studies say about how it impacts you,” said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president at Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an organization that opposes marijuana legalization and commercialization. “It’s totally different. The days of Woodstock weed are long gone, and the public needs to know that.”

See more here: washingtonexaminer

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

Trackback from your site.