• Methylphenidate: A drug for attention deficit disorder is being studied as a possible replacement therapy to resolve cocaine addiction
  • United Kingdom: 'Tranq', the new 'zombie' drug based on a tranquilizer for horses, arrives in Europe

A review of 101 meta-analyses (50 observational and 51 clinical trials) shows that cannabis, cannabinoids and cannabinoid-based medicines can improve some medical conditions such as epilepsy, pain and inflammatory bowel disease, but the harms outweigh the benefits, especially in certain population groups – adolescents and young people, people with a predisposition to mental disorders, pregnancy and drivers-.

Specifically, an increased risk of psychosis has been found in young people, adolescents and people with a predisposition to have a mental health problem; low birth weight in pregnant babies, and car accidents due to drowsiness.

This study, which contradicts the popular belief that cannabis use has no health consequences and is the largest international study to date on cannabis, is published today in the British Medical Journal.

Find out more

Fentanyl crisis.

Narcan: The Antidote to the Worst Drug Crisis in U.S. History

  • Written by: PABLO SCARPELLINI Los Angeles

Narcan: The Antidote to the Worst Drug Crisis in U.S. History

Bless you.

From Recreational Drugs to Hope to Solve the Mental Health Crisis: Ecstasy to Heal Trauma and Hallucinogens to Treat Depression

  • Written by: LUCAS DE LA CAL (Asia Correspondent)Shanghai

From Recreational Drugs to Hope to Solve the Mental Health Crisis: Ecstasy to Heal Trauma and Hallucinogens to Treat Depression

It has been led by Elena Dragioti, from Linkeping University; Marco Solmi, from the University of Ottawa, and Jae Il Shin, from Yonsei University. Eduard Vieta, head of the Psychiatry and Psychology Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the Bipolar and Depressive Disorders group at Idibaps, researcher at CIBERSAM and professor of Psychiatry at the University of Barcelona (UB), and Joaquim Raduà, head of the Image of Disorders Related to Mood and Anxiety (IMARD) group at Idibaps, participated in the event. researcher at CIBERSAM and associate professor at the UB.

Vieta, in a meeting with Raduà with the press, confirmed that, according to this study, "no one under the age of 25 should consume cannabis". The risk of developing psychosis, he specified, occurs even in a single or first opportunity of consumption. There could be a genetic factor behind it, but he recalled that for now there is no way to know who is more or less at risk. It is estimated that there are 24 million people in the world with a disorder due to its use.

Among the cannabinoids, more than a hundred, are tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), which are the most clinically relevant. CBD is increasingly used in indications, including neurological disorders such as treatment-resistant childhood epilepsy, and care and cosmetic products.

Vieta has indicated that in the case of CBD there would be no risk but has recommended that products containing this compound be carefully analysed "because they may contain cannabinoids that are more harmful to health".

On the other hand, the UN decided in 2020 to remove cannabis from Schedule IV, reserved for the most dangerous drugs without any use such as heroin, and include it in Schedule I, that of drugs that must be kept under control but that have therapeutic properties of some kind, such as morphine. And countries such as Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, and more than half of the states in the United States, have authorized its medicinal use.

In Spain, in 2021, three initiatives – by Más País, Podemos and ERC – were presented in the Congress of Deputies urging the approval of a law that regulates its medicinal and also recreational use, since prohibition has not stopped its use. Ciudadanos has tried it before, in 2017.

  • Psychiatry
  • Drugs