The young are most at risk – and could suffer psychosis

PEOPLE might think that eating cannabis is safer than smoking it, but in many ways the opposite is true. The biggest problem is that users don’t know how much is in the product they are ingesting or how strong the cannabis in it is.

Then there is the delay between consuming the cannabis edible and feeling its effects, which can vary from 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

This delayed reaction not only varies from person to person, but can be different for the same person depending on the strength of what they have taken.

Unlike smoking, where the drug is processed by the lungs before it affects the brain, edibles go through the body more slowly and are processed by the liver before they reach the brain.

There is a clear danger that some people could ingest an edible and wrongly think it isn’t working so take more. This can lead to problems which go beyond just feeling nauseous and could potentially trigger a panic attack or even a psychotic experience.

Those most at risk are younger people and naive users who have no tolerance to cannabis.

Using images and logos familiar to children clearly makes these edibles attractive and may fool children into thinking they are harmless.

In fact, children’s bodies process chemicals like cannabis differently to adults, meaning a dose that an adult might tolerate could cause a child to lose co-ordination, suffer a rapid heartbeat or develop breathing problems.