Deluded Pot Heads & Crazy Docs

Smoking pot may now be legal more often but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy as “More Teens Who Use Marijuana Are Suffering From Psychosis.” More potent cannabis & frequent usage ain’t helping, experts say.

The alarming, if long-expected news, was detailed in a WSJ article based on the most recent research indicating “thousands of teenagers & young adults … have developed delusions & paranoia after using cannabis.” And, the problem is sweeping the country as legalization efforts have made cannibas more readily available in much of the US. The problem of increased psychotic episodes is apparently stemming from today’s marijuana being “many times more potent as strains common three decades ago.” Says Dr. Deepali Gersham of Campass Health Center in Northbrook, Ill. “This isn’t the cannabis of 20, 30 years ago.” She suspects up to 20% of her caseload now is of patients for whom she suspects cannabis use triggered a psychotic episode. Meanwhile, rates of diagnoses for cannabis-induced disorders were more than 50% higher than just 4 years ago, said healthcare analytics company Truveta.

Of course, many young pot users are likely to respond by saying, “You’re crazy, man,” just as their ancestors did during the 1960s when smoking marijuana became mainstream on college campuses. And, it’s true, says Yale’s Dr. Deepak D’Souza, that cannabis can’t be isolated as the culprit in any particular case. Yet, he adds, large studies clearly do show a link between frequent & more potent cannabis use & higher rates of psychosis, particularly among young users.

Davd Soul