Cannabis is popularly classified in the ranks of what are (incorrectly) referred to as soft drugs, which are socially accepted and perceived as less harmful. Like tobacco or alcohol. But there is no harmless drug. Neither soft nor hard. All affect physical and mental health and carry a high risk of addiction. In none of the cases is there a 100% safe consumption, but scientists have tried to refine how much unquestionably triggers the health risk. Regarding cannabis, researchers at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and IDIBAPS have agreed on a scientific consensus that five or more joints of marijuana or hashish per week is considered harmful to the body.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 147 million people, 2.5% of the world’s population, use cannabis. It is by far the most commonly grown, trafficked and used illicit substance, ahead of cocaine or opiates, for example, which are used by around 0.2% of the world’s population. And although it’s been called a soft drug, and even has therapeutic effects described – for example, to treat nausea and vomiting in advanced stages of cancer or AIDS – its adverse health effects are dozens offold: it affects cognitive development, memory, psychomotor function, attention span and can cause respiratory lesions, among other things.
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Mercé Balcells, head of the clinic’s Addictive Behavior Unit and a member of the working group that created the consensus, points out that cannabis use is by no means harmless. “There is no such thing as zero risk. You smoke a joint for the first time today and you have a panic attack, for example. You can be a sane person, smoke a joint and let things happen. And I can’t tell you that nothing will happen to you. It’s a substance that goes to your brain,” he explains.
However, in the area of public health, a pattern of risk consumption is usually established beyond the individual case. That is, the tipping point at which the risk of having a problem related to the use of a substance grows exponentially. For alcohol, for example, it is 20 grams per day for men (two glasses of wine) and 10 grams for women. For cannabis, it’s five or more joints a week, according to the Clínic working group, which presented the results at a scientific conference in Granada.
Balcells points out that quantity but also frequency influence risk measurement: 3.7% of Spaniards use cannabis daily or almost daily, indicating that they have a health-risk consumption pattern. The expert acknowledges some societal downplay of the risks of cannabis and warns of its complexity: “There’s a tendency to portray it as something risk-free, natural… But the fact that it comes from a plant doesn’t mean there won’t be any effects.” have on health.”
A man makes a marijuana joint Leonardo Álvarez Hernández (Getty Images)
The potency of cannabis is also a key element in risk calculation, adds the specialist. “In 2014 we defined a standard joint unit and looked at the amount of THC that causes the damage. The potency of marijuana will be important: if it is more than 10%, it is a risky consumption, “he adds. But it’s “difficult” for consumers, he admits, to know how much THC is in their joint: “What we’re seeing now is that the potential of what’s being marketed is increasing. Before, a few years ago, I had less quantity in the preparation,” he warns. Higher THC levels mean more addictive behaviors and a greater risk of mental health disorders like psychosis or an earlier onset of other illnesses like schizophrenia.
Very vulnerable groups
Balcells also highlights that there are particularly vulnerable populations, such as B. People under the age of 21, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers or people with underlying physical or mental illnesses. For these groups, even the smallest or infrequent consumption poses a health risk. “Consumption at an early age lowers IQ and leads to cognitive changes.”
The scientific consensus reached is in line with that agreed by Canadian researchers, which begins by recommending total abstinence to reduce the risks that cannabis poses to health. From there, experts from Canada point out that early onset of use — before age 16 — is “associated with several adverse social and health outcomes later in young adult life,” particularly when heavy use is added to early use. Canadians consider populations to be particularly vulnerable to the risks of cannabis as “individuals with a predisposition or first-degree family history of psychosis and substance use disorders, and pregnant women (primarily to avoid adverse effects on the fetus or newborn). “.
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