Thursday, October 06, 2022

Yes, THC causes psychosis

 When you're talking about modern marijuana or edibles, the stuff people are using now is a far cry from what people waxed poetic about decades ago.

While cannabis-induced psychosis won’t affect most people after they halt their use, for some, it can persist for weeks or months before things return to normal, Finn said. “So this is potentially a very dangerous product, particularly if there’s a young person that is exposed.”

There just aren’t enough placements available for the mental health care needed, he said.

“And in a very rare circumstance, sometimes [the psychosis] doesn’t reverse at all,” he added. “There’s a very strong correlation to cannabis use of high potency with schizophrenia, although it the link of a causal effect has not clearly been proven but it’s strongly suspected.”

Here's how I would explain it.

Way back in the foggy days of yore, the weed that people had access to was like a can of beer.  The weed people are getting now is that same can, only it's full of whiskey, not beer.  And people are still drinking the full can.

Soon it'll be full of Everclear.  And people will still drink the full can.  That ain't good for your mental health.

And as I've said previously, the increase in TCH does not have a corresponding increase in CBD.  TCH is the psychotic, CBD is the anti-psychotic.  People who get relief from marijuana (pain, cancer, etc) are getting relief from the CBD, not the THC.  So if all you're getting is a higher level of THC, then all you're getting is more of the psychotic agent.

That's not a good thing.  But in the end that almost doesn't matter, because most people today aren't using edibles or weed for pain relief, they're just wanting to get intoxicated.  I do know some people who use CBD for pain relief in my personal life.  They tend to grow their own, or they get a CBD compound that has small amounts of THC in it.

Anyway, this is just more of me saying "Don't let your kids think that smoking weed is harmless".  It's not.  Back in the day it just caused a bit of apathy.  Today?  The long-term effects are far worse.

6 comments:

Pat said...

Dave I'm 70 smoked off and on, mostly off, since my youth. Being in sales in high tech semiconductor fabrication equipment, booze was of course the mainstay, many customer dinners worth. I would on rare occasion find myself smoking a little if I met someone who had any, and the topic came up, so yeah rare. So for years I was "dry"; now retired and THC is my go to , I rarely drink these days.
Yes, the current weed is much more el potento, muchacho. So what? I can drink beer or Everclear, I can drink one beer or 12, I can smoke one bong hit or 7. As with any recreational drug, one learns how much to consume for what desired effect.
As a user, who knows and partakes with a myriad of other users, I see zero evidence of any major issues, certainly less issues than with alcohol. On occasion I smoke more than normal, and the biggest effect is I go to sleep early.
Big Pharma is a
problem, weed is not.

Ragin' Dave said...

Pat, I hear the same story from people. "Oh well, I smoke it and I'm fine". Great. That's you. And in the meantime, some nineteen year old girl is being admitted into an ER with a psychotic episode that came from smoking weed. "My friends don't ever have a problem!" Great. ERs are seeing more and more people coming in with THC overdoses, which back when I was in highschool never happened. Ever. The results we're seeing in kids who start smoking early is decreased IQ, decreased sperm counts, decreased motivation, decreased everything. The brain scans of adults who started smoking weed as teenagers shows entire parts of the brain that are damaged, or just shut down.

I agree that big pharma is a problem. But with a few exceptions, marijuana is NOT the answer.

p2 said...

But, Dave…… it’s all natural, organic and vegan even! Don’t you support a healthy lifestyle that’s free of the evil trappings and machinations of modern society? Seriously, the best stuff we had when I was a lad would be considered ditchweed today. I’ll stick to cigars & scotch, thanks very much.

Ragin' Dave said...

It IS all natural. So is arsenic, and hemlock. Every mushroom that can kill you within hours of eating it is all natural.

p2 said...

First couple sentences were pure snark…I totally agree with your point.

Ragin' Dave said...

I know. No worries!