People who promote marijuana legalization will not be happy to hear this.
Colorado Politics reports:
High potency marijuana is associated with psychosis, Colorado university researchers concludeIs high potency marijuana bad for individuals with preexisting mental health conditions?The answer, according to university researchers, is yes.But it depends on which mental health condition.Researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus pointed to two studies showing that very potent marijuana is associated with psychosis. But it also offers some benefits, such as reducing anxiety and depression.Colorado’s General Assembly had tasked the school to conduct a review of the scientific literature into the physical and mental health effects of high-potency THC or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the main psychoactive compound in marijuana.The marijuana market has been shifting toward high-concentration products.Critics, who view the trend as alarming, often say today’s marijuana is “not your parent’s pot.””The potency of THC, the high-inducing ingredient in the marijuana plant, is the strongest it has ever been,” the group One Chance to Grow Up says on its website, adding the developing brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of THC, increasing the risk of addiction. “This is not the marijuana of the past. In fact, the potency has tripled since the 1990s. Dutch health experts concluded that THC potency above 15% classifies it as a hard drug.”Dr. Elizabeth Stuyt, an addiction psychiatrist, said adolescents, in particular, face the risk of addiction to drugs or alcohol because they’re in a development period “with increased neurobiological based tendencies for risk taking with decreased suppressive and regulatory control, and this is a period of decreased parental monitoring and increase in peer affiliations.”This period, she said, is a “perfect storm.”The New York Times’ Christina Caron explored this new frontier last year, noting that, while marijuana isn’t as dangerous as a drug like fentanyl, it “can have potentially harmful effects — especially for young people, whose brains are still developing.””In addition to uncontrollable vomiting and addiction, adolescents who frequently use high doses of cannabis may also experience psychosis that could possibly lead to a lifelong psychiatric disorder, an increased likelihood of developing depression and suicidal ideation, changes in brain anatomy and connectivity and poor memory,” Caron wrote, adding, “But despite these dangers, the potency of the products currently on the market is largely unregulated.”
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