Pot Products Are Now So Potent They Can Trigger Psychosis

LONDON (Reuters) - Policymakers should regulate the potency of cannabis products such as skunk and oil, aiming for a chemical balance that reduces the risk of psychosis without losing the drug’s pleasurable effects, experts said on Thursday. With cannabis laws becoming more liberalized in many countries ― particularly the United States ― there is also an urgent need for more detailed and accurate scientific studies to explore how cannabis use can be made safer, the experts said. “Worldwide there is a trend towards liberalization and increasing consumption,” said Robin Murray, a professor at King’s College London’s the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. “More people are going to be smoking cannabis, whether we like it or not, so we want to explore whether there are safer varieties,” he told reporters at a briefing in London. While most users of old-style herbal and resin cannabis are unlikely to suffer mental health problems, recent studies have shown that regular use of skunk and other potent forms of the drug can dramatically increase the risk of suffering psychosis. According to Murray and Amir Englund, who together published a paper in the Lancet Psychiatry journal entitled “Can cannabis be made safer?”, the potency of cannabis has on average doubled worldwide in the past 40 years. There is also evidence of a greater number of people in Europe and the United States seeking help for cannabis u...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news