In the United States, three out of ten marijuana users suffer from a substance addiction.
In Europe, health authorities have recorded a 76% increase in ten years in the number of people deciding to undergo treatment to get rid of a cannabis addiction.
A study published this Monday in
The Lancet Psychiatry
points to increasingly strong marijuana.
The authors of the work claim that the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in cannabis has increased worldwide.
They have established a link between a high dosage of THC and the resurgence of cases of addiction and mental illness.
To achieve their ends, the scientists compared the effects of marijuana on subjects consuming a product low in THC and people favoring the more powerful drug.
Both grass and resin are concerned
The latter multiply by four the risk of developing an addiction, explained to CNN the professor of psychology Tom Freeman, co-author of the study.
The researcher had shown in 2020 that the concentration of THC in herbal cannabis increased by 2.9 mg each year.
For cannabis resin, the annual increase was 5.7 mg between 1975 and 2017.
When the substance is illegal, buyers rarely have access to information about its composition.
Faced with increasingly strong cannabis, the specialist recommends putting less herb in a joint or inhaling less deeply.
The risk is indeed to see the appearance of generalized anxiety but also auditory or visual hallucinations.
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