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Cannabis, a word in its defence

Dear Editor,I am writing in reference to your article ‘Doctors fearful as rising psychosis cases linked to medical cannabis’, published on Sunday, 18th February 2024.These kinds of articles make it hard for the public to know who to trust when it comes to the complementary field of herbal medicine and the nascent field of cannabis medicine.On one hand we have untrained (in most cases) ‘Cannabis Clinic’ doctors authoring scripts for products containing levels of THC that would put a seasoned user on their backside. They are throwing these at patients with common mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and PTSD.

On the other hand we have a psychiatrist (or two) ringing alarm bells saying: “A shocking number of patients who have never had a mental health problem in their lives are turning up to hospitals with psychosis after being prescribed medical cannabis… And half of those patients are at risk of ending up with serious, lifelong conditions like schizophrenia”.Just exactly how many is a shocking number? Later news stories quoted it as one, and the psychiatrist as one-in-ten (1:10) patients. Many of those new to cannabis could well experience psychological effects that can be a little scary. These can be acute in the uninitiated, but disappear, i.e. are only temporary, after a good night’s sleep. However, when the uneducated in use of cannabis as a medicine take themselves to hospital, they suddenly become a cannabis psychosis statistic.

But here is the deal. Psychiatric conditions have no medical diagnosis. There’s nothing to verify they exist. There is no way to test for them or differentiate between them and some other cause. All diagnoses therefore come from the opinion of each specific doctor, who may or may not have a pre-disposition to negative views on cannabis, creating a medical bias.When admitted to a psychiatric facility with suspected psychosis patients are questioned and inevitably asked: “Do you use Cannabis?” Once you say yes, they stop questioning you and you are pigeon-holed as another case of cannabis induced psychosis – even though there are usually other contributing and causative factors the patient has not disclosed, because no further questions were asked.

We see this in general medicine as well. The current batch of medical professionals in the public sector in particular, hear the word ‘cannabis’ and that’s it, you’ve got a diagnosed ‘substance abuse disorder’, ‘cannabis hyperemesis’ or ‘cannabis induced psychosis’ and they stop looking.That’s how so many actual disorders and health issues get overlooked!

Who is telling the truth here? Who can we trust on this issue?In many cases patients have a better knowledge and understanding of cannabis than their prescribing doctor who is untrained in cannabis therapeutics, just rubber stamping the patient’s choice.

High THC flower with no CBD is unbalanced, and a large part of the problem with corporate cannabis. CBD is good for treating many minor mental health conditions, and THC in combination works for many others, but with such poor understanding of the plant, by clinic doctors who are simply employed as the marketing arm of vertically integrated businesses, we will continue to see problems with “psychosis”, real or imagined.

for further information, Cannabis Facts and Cannabis Facts In Depth.