Monitoring positive, negative effects of legal weed vital, researcher says
As legalization finally becomes a reality, an Ontario-based cannabis researcher says careful monitoring of its impacts after Oct. 17 is critical.
“We’re embarking on a grand, national experiment,” said Duncan Mackillop, co-director at the Michael G. Degroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research at Mcmaster University in Hamilton.
“I think that it will be really critical for Canada to keep its eye on the ball to see how the landscape changes.”
Mackillop spoke at the annual forum of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, which is being held in Regina from Oct. 15-17.
His talk, which kicked off a series of information sessions on Tuesday, emphasized the need to look at both sides of the coin when it comes to cannabis.
It’s important to “not be overly preoccupied with health applications without considering potential risks and vice versa” and to think critically about where cannabis fits into the larger landscape, said Mackillop.
“It’s not just about cannabis, it’s about cannabis in the context of these other substances that people use, either medicines in health care or recreational drugs. like alcohol, in day-to-day life,” he said.
He says he’d like to see more research on whether cannabis can lead to the use of harder drugs.
“There’s been interest in cannabis as a gateway drug for over 40 years. The reality is, the data supporting that are not very consistent,” said Mackillop, adding there are many instances where cannabis users do not go on to use harder drugs.
“Many people have argued that other drugs may actually be more of a gateway, like alcohol or even tobacco,” he said.
In light of legalization, he said we must closely look at what the possible “downstream consequences” may be, including what influence it may have in terms of people migrating to other addictive drugs.
On the flip side, he said the ways legalization might contribute to a decrease in other drug use, like alcohol or pain medication, must also be monitored.
“A very interesting discussion is around the role of cannabis in the context of the opioid epidemic ... because there is relatively consistent evidence supporting cannabis as an approach to pain management,” he said, adding there has been a strong push in the country to reduce the level of opioid prescribing and the opioid use disorders that result.
That doesn’t mean cannabis use comes without risk. In Mackillop’s opinion, the biggest risk of cannabis use is impairment, particularly motor co-ordination impairment, which can lead to motor vehicle collisions and workplace accidents.
He said the other major risk is overconsumption, especially if edibles become part of the marketplace in the future, adding that while overdosing on cannabis does not necessarily result in death as with opioids, it can cause delirium and psychosis.
“The biggest piece of advice I have to recreational users is to be very aware of all the different products that are out there,” said Mackillop. “There are extracts and concentrates and capsules and vaporizers, and the products that are available are very different strengths.”
And contrary to what some may believe, it is addictive, he said.
“It does act on the critical brain regions that are responsible for reward and motivation and as a result, over time, the brain can become sensitized and people can develop a compulsion to use cannabis,” he said, adding its actions in the brain are similar to drugs like alcohol, cocaine and heroin, but that it is still far from being the most addictive drug.
As part of his research, Mackillop and his team will be monitoring a group of people’s changes in attitudes and behaviours six, 12 and 18 months post-legalization.
“In other jurisdictions there have been changes,” he said. “I think that in the Canadian experiment, we’ll have to very closely monitor the data to see what actually does change.”