Dr Bertha Madras (the honourable) gave a strong statement in her keynote contribution. The war on drugs does not lead to addiction, which is often used as an argument by the pro-legalisation movement. The change in drug views, politics, and law cannot be dismissed before looking into a specific drug, such as Cannabis. Cannabis is also not so innocent as it is believed to be. It does cause many negative health conditions, such as psychosis, schizophrenia, mental health problems, traffic deaths, etc. there is also evidence that people using cannabis are more likely to develop opioid dependency.
Dr Madeline Meier shared her significant research on the cognitive effects of long-term cannabis use. Her longitudinal study has shown that there is a large difference in the development of IQ between non-cannabis users and highly frequent cannabis users. The lather has seen a reduction of 8 IQ points, which on a long-term, affects their social developments, education, work, relationships, etc.
Prof Mary Cannon and Dr Emmet Power continued on the topic of Madeline. They showcased that marijuana is a gateway drug and leads to poor outcomes of those using it in earlier life. This relates to the fact that adolescence their brains are still developing. Cannabis is having severe effects, sometimes even worse than alcohol. Mega-analysis show evidence of a significant increase of depression, suicide attempts, increase of homicide, etc. Therefore, legislation is powerful.
Dr Peter Allebeck highlighted the misconceptions of Cannabis and that there are acute effects and chronic effects after high and long-term use of cannabis, such as amotivational syndrome and anxiety syndrome. The most specific, however, be would be the development of chronic psychosis and the possible development of schizophrenia. The risks of these psychosis were also elaborated on. Therefore, his message is to warn young people on the effects.
Dr Robert L. DuPont elaborated on the risks of impaired driving. Whereas currently there is a strong focus on alcohol impaired driving and its effects, there is les awareness on the dangers of cannabis impaired driving. As he phrased it, if the focus is safety, you don’t want anyone using drugs at all. With cannabis impaired driving, there is a more risk-taking behaviour, leading to higher fatality. Cannabis also, in general, affects the driving performance longer compared to alcohol. Therefore, the focus should be more on testing. Yet, this is also a separate challenge.
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Dalgarno Institute Communications Team