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Brain changes from using THC too frequently cause withdrawal and craving. Cannabis causes two distinct changes in brain chemistry, physiology, and function that combine to create dependence. Its main psychoactive ingredient, THC, reduces the normal number of natural cannabinoid receptors, a process called downregulation. THC also alters reward circuitry, bending motivation toward continued cannabis use.                                                    

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Compared to babies of mothers who didn’t use cannabis before or during pregnancy, infants of those who still used it at 15 weeks had a smaller birth weight, head circumference and length. They were also born at an earlier gestational age.

This is cause for concern as these outcomes are strongly linked to future child health and development.

We saw bigger differences in these neonatal outcomes for women who used cannabis more than once a week than for those who used it less often.

We also found severe complications following birth, such as breathing problems and the need for admission to a specialist neonatal unit, were twice as likely for babies of mothers who continued to use cannabis at 15 weeks compared to babies of mothers who didn’t report using cannabis.

We’ve seen similar trends in recent studies from the United States and Canada.

Notably, we didn’t see differences in any neonatal outcomes among women who reported stopping cannabis in early pregnancy or just before becoming pregnant compared to babies of mothers who reported no cannabis use

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Rapper Stormzy, whose real name is Michael Omari, says he has stopped smoking marijuana, after realising the drug was harming his mental health. And because of who he is, his message is likely to reach a lot of people who urgently need to hear it.

He said: “I have suffered with mental health problems for the past few years… When I used to feel depressed, I would lock myself away and smoke weed and I would just get worse and worse and worse.” 

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Conclusions: These results demonstrate a moderate association between cannabis use and physical violence, which remained significant regardless of study design and adjustment for confounding factors (i.e., socioeconomic factors, other substance use). Cannabis use in this population is a risk factor for violence.

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Results showed that:

1. increases in recent cannabis use and cumulative prior years of weekly cannabis use were each associated with increases in depression symptoms and anxiety/depression problems. 
2. After controlling for time-varying covariates, increases in cumulative prior years of weekly cannabis use, but not recent cannabis use, remained associated with increases in depression symptoms and anxiety/depression problems. Specifically, each additional year of prior weekly cannabis use was associated with a small increase in depression symptoms and anxiety/depression problems.
3. As boys engaged in weekly cannabis use for more years, they showed increases in internalizing problems, suggesting the importance of preventing chronic weekly cannabis use. 

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