• DPMC Moderators: thegreenhand | tryptakid
  • Drug Policy & Media Coverage Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Drug Busts Megathread Video Megathread

Scientists find link between ’skunk’ weed and psychosis but thats not the whole story

N

noone1

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
Messages
1,462
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/...-and-psychosis-but-thats-not-the-whole-story/

Scientists have found a link between regular use of powerful so-called “skunk” marijuana and psychosis in some users. However, extracts of cannabis are being used to ease the symptoms of mental illness in other patients.

New Scientist reported on a study by researchers at King’s College London who found that regular users of the powerful “skunk” were three times more likely to suffer from psychosis and that daily users were five times more likely.

However, people who smoked regular hashish — which contains the same psychoactive ingredient as ultra-powerful marijuana strains, but is not as potent — showed no variations away from or toward psychosis.

Team co-leader Robin Murray spoke to New Scientist about the study’s findings, which explored possible contributing factors in 410 people newly diagnosed with psychosis and compared their lives with a control group of 370 regular people with no history of psychosis.

Psychosis is a blanket term for any mental state involving a disconnection from reality. Psychosis could mean any symptoms from mild to severe depression, temporary or lasting paranoia, slowed or impaired cognition, or other sensory disruptions.

So-called “skunk” weed is the result of years of cultivation by marijuana growers interested in producing a more potent high in users. The new strains of pot are Murray said, “far richer than hash in delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the ingredient that creates the drug’s high but which also triggers psychosis. Even more important, skunk contains hardly any of a substance called cannabidiol, or CBD, which has been shown to counteract the psychotic effects of THC.”

Amir Englund, also of King’s College, said, “In traditional hash, the proportions of THC and CBD are about equal, at 4 per cent each. In skunk, THC reaches around 14 to 15 per cent, while CBC tumbles to barely a trace.”

Englund reported that a U.K. company called GW Pharmaceuticals is reportedly having success using CBD to treat symptoms of psychosis in patients with schizophrenia.

The company is testing 80 individuals in the U.K., Poland and Romania to see if doses of CBD calm their psychotic symptoms.

Murray cited a German study that followed 33 patients with schizophrenia and found that CBD treated their symptoms as well as their prescribed medication, amisulpride, but without the prescription drug’s side-effects.
Click to expand...
 
How is hash less potent than normal weed? And wtf does "skunk" even mean? This whole debate makes my head hurt.
 
crimsonjunk said:
How is hash less potent than normal weed? And wtf does "skunk" even mean? This whole debate makes my head hurt.
Click to expand...

I think they where implying that because hash is made with less potent cannabis it still has the CBD's and other chemicals to balance out the thc unlike the selectively bred very high THC content cannabis.

It is kind of a poor article I don't know if I really believe it without reading over the study myself. The definition they're using for psychosis is bullshit.
 
I use to see Big Skunk and Skunk #1 all the time back in the late 90's, not so much anymore. In fact, I don't see skunk strains very often anymore.
 
^"Skunk" doesn't refer to a particular strain of weed, it's the media's term for anything a pothead would call "dank".
 
Skunk is a term used by the same parents, politicians, and journalists that called Mephedrone "meow meow"
 
Of course, if hash is made from weed, and the weed is "skunk" (= strong), the hash will do the same thing.
Some strains of cannabis have decently high CBD levels, and high THC levels, so that should remove the danger of "psychosis".
We have known for a long time that pure THC can cause psychosis, since they injected people with pure THC, but mixed with CBD it is much safer in that regard.
Article makes some common and lame errors. Not even really news.
 
Trying2Iso said:
Skunk is a term used by the same parents, politicians, and journalists that called Mephedrone "meow meow"
Click to expand...

And the same idiots who claimed that 'Molly' (MDMA) is somehow short for 'Molecule.'

This is what happens when the drug / drug war-related opinions of clueless politicians and bureaucrats - who have zero first hand or personal experience with the substances in question - are considered credible. And the tragedy is that this has been occurring for several decades now in the most scientifically and technologically advanced nations on the planet. It's now far beyond the point of laughing at as if it's all a long-running sick joke.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top