Five things you need to know about marijuana use

Watch above: Dr. Samir Gupta offered five things people should know about marijuana

TORONTO – Canada’s largest mental health and addiction organization said Thursday marijuana should be legalized.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto said in a policy paper legalizing and regulating the consumption of pot through a government-controlled monopoly like the LCBO would be the best way to control the drug.

“Legalization means that we remove all penalties for cannabis possession and use by adults,” said Jurgen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at CAMH. “Canada’s current system of cannabis control is failing to prevent or reduce the harms associated with cannabis use.”

But it’s not because the drug is completely safe. Instead, Rehm said legalization would be the best way to reduce the harm associated with its use.

And Dr. Samir Gupta explains marijuana – commonly seen to be a fairly harmless drug- does have several negative health effects.

Gupta is a respirologist and says his patients commonly complain their asthma flares up after they’ve smoked pot.

“The lungs are obviously the organ that’s most affected by that marijuana smoke,” he said. “We know from studies that marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins as tobacco smoke and that includes three times as much tar, 50 per cent more carcinogens and it causes lots of inflammation in the airways.”

Dr. Samir Gupta offered five things people should know about marijuana

Tetrahydrocannabinol – commonly referred to as THC – is the active component in marijuana that gets people high and its health effects have been studied extensively. But, Gupta said, the conclusions are associations and researchers can’t definitively say if THC is always the cause of the problem.

Brain Development

There have been studies showing lower IQ and memory problems among adults who smoked marijuana as teens, Gupta said.

Gupta also noted some MRI studies have shown shrinkage in certain parts of the young smokers’ brains.

Mental Illness

Marijuana may also trigger mental health issues. Systematic reviews have shown schizophrenia can be triggered or worsened by marijuana use, Gupta said.

However depression is not associated with pot use, he said.

Risk of motor-vehicle accidents

Gupta said marijuana use can impair a person’s driving ability.  According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence there were 3,952 fatally injured drivers who tested positive for some kind of drug –marijuana being the most common.

Cancer Risk

Gupta said it’s hard to know whether marijuana can cause cancer because many pot users also smoke cigarettes.

While some studies have found an association between marijuana and lung cancer, Gupta pointed out, other studies did not.

Benefits of marijuana use?

Most of the studies that have looked at the efficacy of THC usually test it in a pill form. But there have been a few proven health benefits of the drug, including suppressing chemotherapy-induced nausea.