No. Teen use is down. Mental health rates are stable.

The post Fact check: Is legalization hurting teen mental health? appeared first on Leafly.

The post Fact check: Is legalization hurting teen mental health? appeared first on Paradise Found.

Amidst the growing cannabis reform across the West, there have been growing conversations surrounding cannabis-induced psychosis, suggesting that regular cannabis use and highly concentrated products may exacerbate mental health symptoms as access increases.

However, a recent study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy took a closer look at shifting cannabis policy following Canada’s cannabis legalization in October 2018, ultimately finding no association with legalization and increasing rates of cannabis-related psychosis.

The research suggests that, at least so far, changing cannabis legislation is not related to increasing cases of psychotic disorders, though researchers also cautioned that “a longer post-legalization observation period … is needed to fully understand the population-level impacts of non-medical cannabis legalization.”

No Association Between Psychotic Disorders and Cannabis Reform

The research highlights the concern that has made waves in recent years, with cannabis as a “risk factor in the onset and persistence of psychotic disorders” and the notion that recreational cannabis legalization could elevate these risks.

A team of Canadian researchers examined regional changes in health services use and incidences of psychotic disorders over the months immediately following cannabis legalization through a cross-sectional interrupted time-series analysis from January 2014 to March 2020. 

Researchers examined psychosis-related outpatient visits, emergency department visits, hospitalizations and inpatient length of stay along with incident cases of psychotic disorders among people aged 14 to 60 years.

Ultimately, researchers did not find evidence of increase in health service use or incident cases of psychotic disorders over the short-term period, 17 months, following cannabis legalization. However, they noted “clear increasing trends in health service use and incident cases of substance-induced psychotic disorders” throughout the 2014-2020 observation window as a whole.

“Our findings suggest that the initial period of tight market restriction following legalization of non-medical cannabis was not associated with an increase in health service use or frequency of psychotic disorders,” authors concluded, stressing the need for a longer, post-legalization observation period to fully understand the population-level impacts of legalization and reform. 

“Thus, it would be premature to conclude that the legalization of non-medical cannabis did not lead to increases in health service use and incident cases of psychotic disorder,” they state.

Further Proof That Legalization Does Not Increase Psychosis Instances

The study adds to a growing body of research similarly affirming that cannabis reform is not associated with significant changes surrounding cannabis-induced psychosis.

Another 2022 study looking at Canada’s cannabis legalization framework in relation to cannabis-induced psychosis and schizophrenia emergency department presentations also found that reform was not associated with these cases. Researchers still noted that there is a need for further research on the topic.

Looking at the United States and recent reform trends, recent research has also suggested that states with legal cannabis programs do not have elevated rates of psychosis. A 2023 study looked at the relationship between adult-use cannabis legalization and psychosocial functioning among a cohort of 240 pairs of identical twins, with one residing in a state where adult-use cannabis was permitted and the other where it was criminally prohibited.

While researchers noted a slight uptick in the frequency subjects reported cannabis use, they found that legalization was not positively correlated with increased psychotic or substance abuse disorder instances, along with other adverse outcomes. The research also found that those in legal cannabis states were less likely to engage with problematic alcohol use behaviors.

Additionally, 2022 data examining a cohort of 233,000 European cannabis consumers found that cannabis consumption rarely triggers episodes of acute psychosis among those without a pre-existing psychiatric disorder. Authors reported that less than one-half of 1% of subjects reported ever having “cannabis-associated psychotic symptoms,” with those at higher risk being younger subjects and those with a prior diagnosis of bipolar, anxiety, or depressive disorder, or psychosis.

Cannabis and Psychosis Messaging: Modern Resurgence of ‘Reefer Madness?’

While further research on the topic is still needed, many cannabis professionals, experts and advocates have deemed the new trend of associating legal cannabis with newly onset psychosis symptoms as a modern-day form of “reefer madness.”

Many have drawn comparisons of these modern-day conversations, associating legal cannabis with psychosis symptoms and mental health concerns, as mirroring the conversations had in the 1900s, when cannabis use became more prominent and broader messaging suggested that cannabis use and access innately carries greater mental health risks across populations.

While research has found a correlation between schizophrenia and heavy cannabis use, and psychiatrists have also long known that substance abuse disorders carry psychiatric comorbidities, there is limited evidence showing how this relationship translates to the general population. There is also limited information surrounding how much substance use disorders are driven by such comorbidities.

Studies have shown that heavy alcohol use can be shown to cause organic psychosis and dementia, though these potential risks typically don’t promote the idea of avoiding alcohol use entirely, especially among those who don’t already have associated risk factors.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of pro-cannabis advocacy organization NORML, wrote about this topic last year, noting that those with certain psychiatric disorders or predispositions may carry additional risks of increased mental health symptoms when it comes to cannabis consumption, “but sensationalizing the potential risks of cannabis will do little to protect them.”

“Calling for the re-criminalization of cannabis in state-legal markets won’t either,” Armentano writes. “Rather, the establishment of a regulated market designed to keep cannabis products away from young people, and that provides clear warnings to those specific populations who may be more vulnerable to its effects — coupled with a policy of consumer education — is the best way to protect public health and mitigate consumers’ risks.”

The post Study: Canadian MJ Legalization Has No Association with Increasing Psychosis Rates appeared first on High Times.

The post Study: Canadian MJ Legalization Has No Association with Increasing Psychosis Rates appeared first on Paradise Found.

The United Nations’ (UN) narcotics watchdog issued a press release on March 9, saying that U.S. adult-use cannabis laws are out of sync with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, (with roots in Reefer Madness) and that the “trivialization” of youth harms from cannabis is a major cause for concern.

The UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that it is “warning” in its Annual Report 2022 that the wave of adult-use efforts in U.S. states “contravenes the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs” and sends the wrong message to youth.

“The most concerning effect of cannabis legalization is the likelihood of increased use, particularly among young people, according to estimated data,” the INCB wrote. “In the United States, it has been shown that adolescents and young adults consume significantly more cannabis in federal states where cannabis has been legalized compared to other states where recreational use remains illegal.”

The UN 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs states that UN member States must carry out the provisions of the Convention within their territories. U.S. state laws don’t appear to carry much weight. “The internal distribution of powers between the different levels of a State cannot be invoked as justification for the failure to perform a treaty,” the Convention reads. 

The INCB continued, saying, “There is also evidence that general availability of legalized cannabis products lowers the perception of risk and of the negative consequences involved in using them. New products, such as edibles or vaping products marketed in appealing packaging have increased the trend. INCB finds that this has contributed to a trivialization of the impacts of cannabis use in the public eye, especially among young people.”

“The expanding cannabis industry is marketing cannabis-related products to appeal to young people and this is a major cause for concern as is the way the harms associated with using high-potency cannabis products are being played down,” said INCB President Jagjit Pavadia.

Pavadia continued, “Evidence suggests that cannabis legalization has not been successful in dissuading young people from using cannabis, and illicit markets persist.”

The legalization of adult-use cannabis—not candy-flavored Adderall, sometimes used by six-year-olds—is the UN’s cause of concern in the U.S. Edibles and vape pens with candy and cereal flavors also raise an alarm at the INCB.

Ironically, the 1961 Single Convention can be traced to the Reefer Madness era in the U.S., and shouldn’t be used as any real metric, according to NORML. 

“Cannabis policy reform advocates have been readily vexed by the United Nation’s extreme anti-cannabis advocacy and propaganda since the 1970s, and arguably after America’s original drug czar Harry J. Anslinger, in his last act as a life-long anti-cannabis zealot and 30-year plus federal drug czar, he watched President John F. Kennedy commit the world and then American-dominated United Nations to America’s Reefer Madness via the signing of the Single Convention Treaty in 1961,” wrote former NORML executive president, Allen St. Pierre.

The report then says that the U.S. should decriminalize and depenalize cannabis alternatively instead of legalizing adult-use.

According to the INCB, the UN provides more than enough leniency: “The convention-based system offers significant flexibility for States to protect young people, improve public health, avoid unnecessary incarceration and address illicit markets and related crime.”

The post UN Issues ‘Warning’ to U.S. Over Adult-Use State Laws, Suggesting Repeal appeared first on High Times.

The post UN Issues ‘Warning’ to U.S. Over Adult-Use State Laws, Suggesting Repeal appeared first on Paradise Found.

In the U.S., it’s an all-too-familiar story that Black and Mexican folks have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs, but in France, they have a similar issue with the impact cannabis laws have on Muslims. 

France, like many other countries around the world, are finally flirting with the idea of ending prohibition. They have CBD cafes now, which are gaining popularity, and the European Union is slowly starting to change the tune about how they treat cannabis. But like in many other spots, it is the marginalized folks who have been impacted the most. 

New research shows that the past 50 years have been rough for Muslims when it comes to the War on Drugs. Close to one-fifth of prisoners in the French prison system currently were arrested for drug offenses, and most of them are men. It is hard to gain specific demographics in France because their “absolute equality” law makes it illegal to collect data based on race, ethnicity, or religion. 

However, sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar studies the French prison system and found that half the people incarcerated today in France are either of Muslim or Arab descent. This means that half of the 69,000 people who are incarcerated are Muslim or Arab, although those demographics only make up 9% of the 67 million people in France. 

Another study from 2018 commissioned by the French National Assembly shows that when looking at the 117,420 of the arrests in 2010, 86% of them were over cannabis charges, and the amount of people arrested for cannabis use between 2000 and 2015 rose from 14,501 to 139,683. When all these studies are compared, it paints a clear picture of Muslim and Arab folks being arrested for cannabis at a disproportionate rate.

Much like how America demonized cannabis by equating it to a poison pedaled by Mexican drug cartels and Black criminals—a largely false and inflated narrative—French historians have done something similar with Muslims. French fiction talked of Muslim “hashish-eating assassins”  who were deranged, violent, and dangerous. French researchers also grew tired of working with cannabis when it was clear it was not a cure for cholera. The combined lack of medical interest and racist propaganda led to a distrust of cannabis throughout the culture. In 1953, medical hashish became illegal. 

They even have their own version of reefer madness: “folie haschischique.” French colonialists in Algeria claimed that hashish caused insanity and violent criminal behavior, often putting sober or self-medicating mentally ill folks into psychiatric care and claiming cannabis was the cause. 

In 1968, again mirroring events in the U.S., there were racial tensions against the North Africans who emigrated to France, claiming they were prone to violence and criminality due to the use of cannabis in their culture. This led to even harsher criminalization of the plant. The drug problem in France was referred to as a “foreign plague” and blamed on Arab and Muslim drug traffickers, people of color, and immigrants. There was talk of a cult of Muslim murderers inspired by cannabis and known as the “Hachichins.”

Today, of course, France is making a stand against such racist phrasing and thought, but it is still inherently a part of their culture when it comes to the backlash against cannabis, and it clearly shows in the numbers when prison data is pulled. Like many other places in the world, France has a lot of work to do when it comes to separating out what truly needs to be regulated about cannabis and what just comes from a history of racist propaganda. 

The post Cannabis Laws in France Have Disproportionately Affected Muslims appeared first on High Times.

The post Cannabis Laws in France Have Disproportionately Affected Muslims appeared first on Paradise Found.

Another alleged case of fentanyl-laced cannabis in Connecticut has gone up in smoke. 

In this case, the false alarm came out of Connecticut, where an investigation has revealed that “nearly 40 Connecticut overdoses [that] were possibly linked to fentanyl-laced marijuana—sparking widespread attention and concern—turned out to be one confirmed case and was probably caused by accidental contamination,” according to a story by CT Insider.

That marks a major walk back from a bulletin in November issued by the Connecticut Department of Public Health, which said that it had “recently received reports of overdose patients who have exhibited opioid overdose symptoms and required naloxone for revival,” and that the “patients denied any opioid use and claimed to have only smoked marijuana.”

That press release detailed a total of 39 overdoses in the state between July and November of last year. In one such incident that took place in October, police in Plymouth, Connecticut were said to have responded to one overdose scene where they secured a sample of cannabis that later tested positive for fentanyl.

“This is the first lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” said Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani.

Now, the department is acknowledging that it overstated the extent of the problem in its initial reaction. 

According to CT Insider, Chris Boyle, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said that at least 30 of the 39 documented overdose cases involved individuals with a history of opioid use. The website reported that the “the Plymouth sample was the only one that has tested positive for fentanyl,” and that the “state reviewed all marijuana samples submitted to the state Division of Scientific Services Lab from July 1 to Nov. 30 and found no other cannabis submissions that contained fentanyl.”

Boyle said that it’s believed that the contamination occurred when the dealer “failed to clean their instruments before processing the marijuana and cross-contaminated it with fentanyl.”

“Based on the information gathered since the positive confirmation of marijuana with fentanyl, the CT ORS [Connecticut Overdose Response Strategy] assesses that the positive confirmation of marijuana with fentanyl was likely accidental contamination and an isolated incident,” Boyle wrote in an email, as quoted by CT Insider. 

“Anything bought off the street, including cannabis, has the potential to contain other substances, one of those being fentanyl,” Boyle continued. “CT DPH has documented evidence, from not just the State Police Forensics Lab, but from the DEA lab as verification of the seized drug sample, that cannabis was contaminated with fentanyl.”

The findings are the latest splash of cold water on a mania that erupted late last year regarding this very same issue. 

Reports of fentanyl-laced cannabis emerged out of Vermont in November, with local news outlets causing nationwide hysteria over reports of the spiked weed being found in Brattleboro, Vermont.

But the following month, police in Brattleboro said that the seized cannabis “was submitted to a forensic laboratory where testing was conducted” and that the department “was notified no fentanyl was found in the marijuana in either case.”

“​BPD stands by its previous public safety advisory that it is wise for consumers of marijuana to know the source and history of any marijuana they ingest,” the Brattleboro Police Department said in a statement at the time.

The erroneous reports have left cannabis advocates frustrated. 

“Despite this claim receiving prominent headlines over the past several years, there exist few, if any, confirmed cases of these claims being substantiated,” Paul Armentano, deputy director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told CT Insider. 

The post Claim of Fentanyl-Laced Cannabis Overdoses in Connecticut was False appeared first on High Times.

The post Claim of Fentanyl-Laced Cannabis Overdoses in Connecticut was False appeared first on Paradise Found.

An accused insurrectionist says he ‘smoked a significant amount of marijuana’ before storming the Capitol. America’s stoners set him straight.

The post A Proud Boy claimed marijuana made him storm the Capitol. Stoner Twitter owned him appeared first on Leafly.

The post A Proud Boy claimed marijuana made him storm the Capitol. Stoner Twitter owned him appeared first on Paradise Found.