Drug is a threat to mental health - Cannabis research

CANNABIS is sometimes seen as a relatively innocuous drug, especially when compared to other, harder, more destructive substances. 

That reputation, for the stronger forms of cannabis at least, was holed below the waterline by findings published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal.

The research, carried out over six years, concluded that powerful “skunk-like” cannabis is associated with one-in-four new cases of psychosis and that the potent form of the drug led to a three-times higher risk of psychosis in casual users. This ratio rose substantially for daily users.

Warning that using strong forms of cannabis can lead to serious mental illness, Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience IoPPN at King’s and senior researcher, pointed out that the milder form of cannabis — hash — risked no such complications.

The debate about the legalisation of cannabis has gone on for decades but it hardly provokes the passion or urgency that suggests it will be concluded any time soon. Therefore research pointing out the risks involved in using the more potent form of the drug should influence users. In a country already plagued by drug misuse — alcohol — it may be difficult to convince cannabis users, a drug that’s tacitly accepted by many in society, that the risk to their mental health is so significant that it might be wise to avoid it.