Canada: Addiction, health-care specialists need to brace for cannabis legalization: CAMH:
Addiction, health-care specialists need to brace for cannabis legalization: CAMH
Jenny Yuen Published: September 22, 2018
A Centre for Addiction and Mental Health director said they’re expecting an upswing in cannabis “poisoning” when federal legalization for pot takes hold on Oct. 17.
Dr. Peter Selby, the director of medical education for the organization, said he’s concerned that legalization will make more people aware of the substance and want to try it. Where health workers are likely going to see a change is more curious first-timers trying it out because of the legalization, who may come to harm from it.
“Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it safe,” he said this week.
“That’s the key thing people should it understand. And just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it mean you mean you use it everywhere for every condition without understanding how it’s made and how it affects you.”
With a lack of standardized dosing or guarantees the marked level of THC on the label is actually what you’re getting, it may also be a contributing factor to the disorder. Selby dismisses cannabis users that infer that smoking weed isn’t addictive.
“Not addictive is not true because why would people otherwise get addicted? The issue is what is the relative addiction risk?, which is low compared some of the legal drugs we have on the market like tobacco and alcohol, but it’s not innocuous,” he said.
“People want to conflate many things here. They get into this absolutist kind of thing, but it’s not accurate. If it isn’t addictive, why are we getting people coming in for addiction treatment for their cannabis use.”
In the last year, 289 patients came to the CAMH emergency room because of problematic cannabis use, representing 2.4% of all patients. If you include patients who came because of cannabis and other issues, including alcohol and mental illness, the number is 721, representing 6% of all patients.
For complete story Toronto Sun — Legal IS NOT SAFE!