A new study conducted by New York’s Columbia University researchers used a massive database from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in an effort to determine whether cannabis users had higher levels of any of 17 different metals in their blood or urine. 

The study ultimately revealed that cannabis-only users had higher lead levels in their blood and urine, compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis, along with elevated levels of cadmium — ultimately affirming the need for testing of cannabis products for heavy metals in the legal market and the need for regulated cannabis as a whole.

Examining Cannabis Use and Heavy Metals in Body

Cannabis is a hyperaccumulator, a class of more than 700 plants that accumulate metals from soil, water and fertilizers at levels far greater than average, often hundreds or thousands of times more than other plants. 

To investigate the amount of metals in the blood and urine of cannabis users, researchers analyzed data from 2005 to 2018 representing 7,254 participants who reported on their diet, health, demographics and drug use, while providing single blood and urine samples. Researchers could not tell what kind of cannabis these individuals used, where it was sourced from or where participants lived, though they adjusted for other factors that can affect exposure to and excretion of metals (namely race/ethnicity, age, sex, education, and seafood consumption).

The study found that cannabis-only users had 27% high blood lead levels and 21% more lead in their urine when compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis. They also had higher levels of cadmium — 22% more in their blood than non-users. Lead and cadmium can cause long-term health damage, like cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cognitive impairments and increase the risk of cancer. 

In regulated cannabis markets where products are tested, any cannabis that fails must be destroyed or remediated, with legal cannabis states often issuing recalls for any products that fail and mistakenly hit store shelves.

Tobacco Users Fare Much Worse

None of the other 15 elements researchers evaluated — like arsenic, cobalt, manganese and mercury — has a clear causal association with cannabis use, though tobacco users saw much higher levels. 

Urinary cadmium levels among tobacco users were three times higher than those of cannabis-only users and their blood lead levels were 26% higher. The study also found that tobacco use was associated with higher levels of antimony, barium, tungsten and uranium. 

In general, regulated cannabis undergoes more intense testing than tobacco, and previous studies have long documented the heavy metal content in cigarette smoke.

Underscoring the Importance of Legal Cannabis Regulation and Testing

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest known study on biomarkers of metal exposure in participants who exclusively use marijuana in a representative population of U.S. adults,” authors noted. The study findings reinforce that regulated, legal cannabis provides for more consumer safety, as illicit cannabis does not undergo this same testing.

Authors note that the study was limited by its small sample of exclusive cannabis users, along with its inability to hone in on the type of product used (i.e. vapes, combustibles and edibles) which kept researchers from determining the difference in metal concentrations by product.

Given that the data was taken from 2005 to 2018, it’s also uncertain how much cannabis was obtained through the legal or illicit markets — though it’s likely that most was illicit use, as the first states to legalize cannabis only began in 2014 and adult-use legalization was still limited in the years that followed.

“We found overall associations between internal metal levels and exclusive marijuana use, highlighting the relevance of marijuana for metal exposure and the importance of follow-up studies to identify the long-term implications of these exposures,” researchers stated. 

“Future investigations of cannabis contaminants must assess other contaminants of concern and potential health effects to inform regulatory, industry and other key stakeholders, to safeguard public health and address safety concerns related to the growing use of cannabis in the United States.”

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Salem, a city notorious for its 17th century witch trials, is creating a new reputation for itself by ceasing a modern-day witch hunt. As of this month, Salem is ending arrests for psilocybin mushrooms, Psychedelic Spotlight reports. It is now the sixth Massachusetts city to do so, after a 9-0 city council vote supporting the measure. Psilocybin is understood to be perhaps one of the safest drugs out there. Findings published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology shared that only 0.2% of magic mushroom users have sought emergency medical care after use. For those who had a lousy experience, it was a negative psychological (a bad trip) that resolved within 24 hours. In addition, you cannot die from a psilocybin physical overdose. (Comparatively, the World Health Organization reports that 3 million deaths yearly result from the destructive use of alcohol, representing 5.3% of all deaths.) 

The passage of the Salem measure comes after the FDA has classified psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” for depression. Salem resident and neuroscientist Miyabe Shields said, “This is a win for science and the neurodivergent community to advance life-saving research on the complex innerworkings of our brains,” Psychedelic Spotlight reports.

As too many people know (according to Columbia University, one in ten Americans have depression), the standard treatment for depression, medicines like SSRIs and SNRIs, only improve symptoms in about 20 out of 100 people, data from the National Library of Medicine shows. Psychedelic options such as psilocybin and ketamine are literal lifesavers for the many folks who do not respond to traditional pharmaceuticals. Additionally, while medicines like SSRIs take several weeks to yield results, psychedelics can reduce depression in a matter of hours. Speaking about the measure, as Psychedelic Spotlight reports, disabled Marine Corp Veteran Michael Botelho, an active organizer with both Bay Staters and New England Veterans for Plant Medicine who served in combat during the Gulf War, shares that: “Through the VA system, I was prescribed over 160 medications, including opiates, to cope with PTSD before finding psilocybin mushrooms. For the first time in nearly 25 years, I have been able to sleep, overcome addiction to opiates, and work again.” Certainly, more New Englanders experiencing depression will feel comfortable using psychedelic treatments now that the risk of arrest is off the table. 

Additionally, research shows that psilocybin has an influential role in the harm reduction movement. A study of 44,000 Americans in the U.S. Journal of Psychopharmacology discovered that psilocybin is associated with a 40% reduced risk of suffering opioid addiction. Data from the CDC shows that opioids were involved in 68,630 overdose deaths in 2020 (74.8% of all drug overdose deaths). This powerful property of psilocybin gained the Salem measure a surprising supporter. You don’t have to turn off N.W.A.’s “Fuck The Police,” but know that Lucas Miller, the Chief of Police for the City, endorsed the measure before the city’s final vote. “The indications that psilocybin could be helpful for opiate addiction is something that should not be ignored. We lose about 20 people in Salem a year to opioid overdose,” Miller says, Psychedelic Spotlight reports.

Salem may be the sixth Massachusetts city to end arrests for psilocybin mushrooms, but it won’t be the last. 

The grassroots group who deserves credit for successfully implementing the campaign, which was years in the making, Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, has partnered with Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton, Easthampton, and Amherst to pass similar measures. In addition, the organization is currently pushing state legislation, which includes An Act Relative to Plant Medicine, which would legalize home growing and sharing of psilocybin and related plants. 

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At the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2022 Annual Meeting that began on May 21 in New Orleans, Louisiana, COMPASS Pathways unveiled the “largest randomized, controlled, double-blind study of psilocybin therapy ever completed,” according to a May 24 press release, and the data shows “significant” improvements to treatment-resistant depression (TRD) symptoms.

Participants were given a single dose of investigational COMP360 psilocybin, in doses of 25 mg or 10 mg, compared to 1 mg in patients with TRD. For the study, 233 patients with TRD received either 1 mg, 10 mg, or 25 mg COMP360 psilocybin, along with psychological support from therapists. Symptoms of depression were calculated using the Montgomery-Åsberg depression rating scale (MADRS).

The MADRS system has been used in the world of psychiatry since 1979 and measures apparent sadness (despondency, gloom), reported sadness, inner tension (discomfort, turmoil, dread), reduced sleep, reduced appetite, and concentration difficulty, typically in a ten-item questionnaire.

The people who received a 25 mg dose of COMP360 psilocybin with psychological support experienced a “highly statistically significant reduction in symptoms of depression after three weeks.” The difference between the group that received 25 mg and the group that received 1 mg was -6.6 on the MADRS depression scale at week three.

The effects also lasted very long—for three months, in some cases. The findings show that psilocybin provides “a rapid and durable response for up to 12 weeks.”

Twice the number of patients who received 25 mg (20.3%) had a “sustained response” at week 12, versus those who received 1 mg (10.1%). Tolerability and adverse effects were both reported mostly favorably, despite some reports commonly seen in people with TRD such as self-injury, but it was typically over a month after treatment.

“Treatment-resistant depression is one of the biggest challenges we face in psychiatry, and chances of success decreases with each treatment that a patient tries,” said David J Hellerstein MD, a Principal Investigator on the trial and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “It’s rare to see such positive outcomes of clinical trials in this disease area, which is why these results are so significant. I hope this represents a major step in finding new options for people living with treatment-resistant depression.”

Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry said last year that its study is the “largest to date using psilocybin to treat depression in people who aren’t helped by existing therapies.” Tough challenges require thinking outside the box, in this case, with the active alkaloids from psilocybin mushrooms. Even Canadian Senator Larry Campbell admitted that he takes microdoses of psilocybin for the treatment of depression.

“Our mission is all about developing mental health innovations through scientific evidence, which is why we’re so honored to present the largest study of its kind at the APA,” said Dr. Guy Goodwin, Chief Medical Officer, COMPASS Pathways. “In this study, a significant number of patients experienced improvement in their symptoms of depression after just a single dose of 25 mg psilocybin with psychological support, with effects lasting for up to three months of the study. We now need to continue our research to understand if this can be replicated in even larger trials.”

COMPASS is based in London, with offices in New York City and San Francisco, with clinical studies in North America and Europe.

There’s a divide in beliefs surrounding serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). While some say SSRIs are a life-saver, others say they instead create an unnatural imbalance of neurotransmitters. Only a doctor can give you the final answer to that, and it’s assumed that people with TRD have already ruled out SSRI drugs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and Celexa.

The study cites data showing that over 320 million people globally suffer with major depressive disorder (MDD). About a third of these patients—a whopping 100 million people—aren’t helped by existing therapies and therefore have TRD.

And the most sobering data point? As many as 30% of them attempt suicide at least once during their lifetime.

In any case, psilocybin presents an entirely new mechanism for controlling treatment-resistant depression. The APA will also hold an online experience June 7-10 in case you missed the May event in New Orleans.

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