Are cannabis products required to warn people with schizophrenia or other mental disorders about possible adverse reactions?

Senator Richard Pan introduced Senate Bill 1097 (the Cannabis Right to Knowledge Act) on February 16. It is sponsored by the Public Health Institute which is a non-profit. The bill was supported by the Committee on Business and Professions on the 21st of June, and it was then amended at the Committee on Business and Professions.

While some researchers believe people should already be at risk for schizophrenia, others argue that this is not the case. Others say certain types of products shouldn’t be a big concern.

“Cal NORML agrees that consumers should be educated about the risks of psychotic reactions, especially in connection with high-THC concentrates and dabs,” Dale Gieringer told Chronic News. “Cyclical vomiting syndrome is another concern. But, label warnings may not be an effective way to warn them. The proliferation of absurd Prop. 65 warnings.”

Gieringer has been the state coordinator of California’s NORML branch since 1987, before adult-use regulations took effect, ramping up safety efforts. Requiring warnings like this on products like topicals and CBD products isn’t the solution, he says.

He continued, “We don’t think SB 1097 is the right answer. It doesn’t make sense to be posting these warnings on harmless products like topicals or high-CBD varieties. Consumers weren’t consulted by the authors of SB 1097. We think more research is needed to determine the best way of informing consumers about the risks of THC over-consumption.”

This entry was posted on June 30, 2010 by Kaiser Health NewsWe profiled a case of a teenage who experienced an adverse reaction while smoking pot. Later, it became clear that he had schizophrenia. Liz Kirkaldie’s grandson didn’t have a good experience with cannabis, but he suffered from schizophrenia. It appeared that the pot could increase delusions such as hearing voices. “They were going to kill him and there were people coming to eat his brain. Weird, weird stuff,” Kirkaldie said. “I woke up one morning, and no Kory anywhere. Well, it turns out, he’d been running down Villa Lane here totally naked.”

“The drug use activated the psychosis, is what I really think,” she said.

You can search and you will find. There are many peer-reviewed studies showing the adverse effects of cannabis use. A study in The Lancet PsychiatryOn March 19, 2019, high-potency marijuana is the main topic. The risk for anyone who uses high-potency cannabis daily is four times higher than that of those who never smoke. These risks can be exaggerated.

Fearmongers have relied on such studies, like Alex Berenson’s, which was published in Share the Truth with Your Kids: Marijuana, Violence, and Mental Illness—who was permanently banned from Twitter for you guessed it, the spread of misinformation. It seems that schizophrenia is not uncommon because of the way arguments are presented.

However, what does other research say about the relationship between schizophrenia and cannabis?

Other researchers say drugs, nicotine, and other factors that aren’t pot muddy up the results in studies searching for a real correlation between pot and schizophrenia, nor other mental disorders.

Ashley C. Proal of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Lynn E. DeLisi, of Harvard Medical School, conducted a 2014 study that included pot smokers who had or didn’t have a family history. They also interviewed non-smokers without and with such histories. However, It is nowThe pot smokers did not have any previous drug use, which allowed them to rule out other factors. What they actually found was a heightened schizophrenia risk among people with a family history—regardless of cannabis use.

“My study clearly shows that cannabis does not cause schizophrenia by itself,” Dr. DeLisi told the New York Times2019 “Rather, a genetic predisposition is necessary. It is highly likely, based on the results of this study and others, that cannabis use during adolescence through to age 25, when the brain is maturing and at its peak of growth in a genetically vulnerable individual, can initiate the onset of schizophrenia.”

Other experts backed up Dr. DeLisi’s guess that schizophrenia warnings could be a bit inflated. “Usually it is the research types who are doing ‘the sky is falling’ bit, but here it is switched,” said Dr. Jay Geidd, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. “The researchers are wary of overselling the dangers, as was clearly done in the past. However, clinicians overwhelmingly endorse seeing many more adolescents with ‘paranoia’”

Now, SB 1097 is headed to the appropriations committee. It was sent June 22nd for another reading.