Cannabis Conundrum

Cannabis and tobacco use often go hand in hand. For young people who already show early signs of psychosis, that habit may carry more weight than anyone assumed. Two linked studies from the same North American cohort point to a higher chance of developing a psychotic disorder, and weaker results on thinking tasks, among those

A new systematic review and meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine puts hard numbers on the cannabis violence risk. The authors pooled 63 peer reviewed studies covering 265,079 people. Cannabis users had significantly higher odds of committing violent acts. Giulia Trotta and colleagues from King’s College London and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust searched

Hemp is moving from the field to the feed trough. The science that should guide the move is lagging behind. Before 2014, US hemp acreage stood at zero. By 2020 it had climbed to a peak of around 400,000 acres. Regulators have now taken the first steps towards letting the crop into animal feed. That

Teen cannabis use is under fresh scrutiny after a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the drug in 42.7 per cent of overdose deaths among 12 to 17 year olds. That is the highest share of any age group. However, detection alone does not prove causation, so the

A driver eats a cannabis gummy, waits a while, gets behind the wheel and returns a low THC reading. Surely that settles it? A new randomised trial says it does not. Cannabis edibles and driving do not follow the tidy rule that a small number in the blood means a clear head.That rule matters because

The oral fluid THC test can flag recent THC use in a driver with high accuracy. But it cannot say how much THC sits in the blood. That is the verdict of a Columbia University study published in Injury Epidemiology in 2018. Meanwhile, Australia’s food regulator has explained in a letter what the law covers

Executive SummaryÄ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis, induces persistent epigenetic modifications — DNA methylation changes, histone post-translational modifications, and altered non-coding RNA expression — that disrupt mesolimbic reward circuitry, impair neuroplasticity, and elevate risks of addiction, cognitive decline, and psychosis. Cannabidiol (CBD), while pharmacologically distinct and non-intoxicating, offers only limited mitigation of these

More than 20,000 marijuana related deaths appeared on US death certificates between 2000 and 2024. That is the finding of a new analysis of the CDC’s WONDER database. The figures count marijuana poisoning or a marijuana related disorder as the underlying cause of death or a contributing one. Taken together, they suggest cannabis related deaths

Rising rates of cannabis use worldwide have renewed scientific attention on a question long overshadowed by the tobacco debate: what does inhaling burnt cannabis actually do to the human airway? A newly published Canadian investigation, presented recently through the IASIC Speaker Series webinar “The Lung Health Implications of Cannabis Smoking,” moderated by Dr Russell Kamer,