Marijuana is Too Strong (THC turbocharged)

For some, it can be dangerous. In the past few years, reports have swelled of people, especially teens, experiencing short- and long-term “marijuana-induced psychosis,” with consequences including hospitalizations for chronic vomiting and auditory hallucinations of talking birds. Multiple studies have drawn a link between heavy use of high-potency marijuana, in particular, and the development of psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, although a causal connection hasn’t been proved. “It’s entirely possible that this new kind of cannabis—very strong, used in these very intensive patterns—could do permanent brain damage to teenagers because that’s when the brain is developing a lot,” Keith Humphreys, a Stanford psychiatry professor and a former drug-policy adviser to the Obama administration, told me. Humphreys stressed that the share of people who have isolated psychotic episodes on weed will be “much larger” than the number of people who end up permanently altered. But even a temporary bout of psychosis is pretty bad. Marijuana Is Too Strong Nowhttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/high-potency-marijuana-regulation/679639/

Emergency Medicine News – THC Dosing of Edible Marijuana in Colorado is Insane.

Avoid couchlock! Four things to know about cannabis pharmacology | The Poison Review.

Recently, the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd got into trouble in Denver when she overdosed on a cannabis candy bar and experienced 8 hours of paranoia and couchlock.

Toxicology Rounds: Four Things Maureen Dowd Should Have Know… : Emergency Medicine News.

THC dosing of edible marijuana in Colorado is insane. Richard Zane, MD, the chairman of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, said on the National Public Radio talk show On Point that the amount of THC in some marijuana edibles is completely irrational. The usual recommended moderate starting dose is approximately 10 mg THC, and some cookies can contain six doses and some lollipops as many as 10. Dr. Zane said the university’s ED sees out-of-state marijuana tourists every day who present with bad reactions to THC, such as agitation, unremitting violent vomiting, hallucinations, and psychosis.

And finally, a link to Maureen Dowd’s column.

Don’t Harsh Our Mellow, Dude – NYTimes.com.

In March, a 19-year-old Wyoming college student jumped off a Denver hotel balcony after eating a pot cookie with 65 milligrams of THC. In April, a Denver man ate pot-infused Karma Kandy and began talking like it was the end of the world, scaring his wife and three kids. Then he retrieved a handgun from a safe and killed his wife while she was on the phone with an emergency dispatcher.