In the United States, more and more adolescents who use marijuana suffer from psychosis

When Braxton Clark was in high school, he used marijuana to control his emotions. When I was 17, I used it every day.

When he was 18, he had a psychotic episode after using cannabis and was hospitalized. He spent the next three years sober. Then one day he tried cannabis again. Shortly after, he was back in the hospital.

“I had lost my faculties. It made no sense said Clark, now 24.

He has been sober for a year and is thriving in college thanks to medication. Doctors diagnosed him a psychotic disorder caused by cannabis use.

Braxton is one of thousands of teenagers and young adults who have developed delusions and paranoia after using cannabis. . Legalization efforts have made cannabis more available across much of the United States. According to doctors and recent research, more frequent use of marijuana, which is several times more potent than the strains common three decades ago, is causing more psychotic episodes.

“This is not the cannabis of 20 or 30 years ago said Dr. Deepali Gershan, an addiction psychiatrist at Compass Health Center in Northbrook, Illinois. Up to 20% of their cases are patients in whom they suspect that cannabis use has triggered a psychotic episode.

Diagnosis rates for cannabis-induced disorders were more than 50% higher at the end of November than in 2019, health analytics company Truveta said this week. This trend contributes to an increased burden of care for people who have developed mental health and substance use problems during the pandemic.

Symptoms of serious mental disorders, including schizophrenia, usually appear during adolescence. Cannabis cannot be singled out as the culprit in any particular case, But large studies show a clear link between frequent and more potent cannabis use and higher rates of psychosis, particularly among younger users, said Dr. Deepak D’Souza, professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.

Even a psychotic episode after cannabis use was associated with a 47% chance of a person developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, a 2017 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed. The risk was higher among people aged 16 to 25 and higher than for substances such as amphetamines, hallucinogens, opioids and alcohol.

At Boston Children’s Hospital, doctors are treating more children who develop psychotic disorders due to cannabis use. Nearly a third of adolescents who present themselves for checks say they use cannabis. About a third of children who use cannabis report having hallucinations or paranoia.

Doctors and other health care workers from the hospital’s adolescent drug and addiction program make weekly rounds to review cases. Recently they talked about a young cannabis user who thought she was being followed . A young man almost crashed his car because he thought he was being chased by demons. A teenager suffering from cannabis use disorder threatened to kill his mother.

“A big part of my life is figuring out what to do with these kids. said Dr. Sharon Levy, chief of addiction medicine at the hospital.

Until recently, marijuana referred to plant material. Today, these can be plant extracts containing highly concentrated THC, the substance responsible for the intoxicating effects of marijuana, or laboratory-created derivatives that were rare a few years ago.

The average THC content of cannabis seized by the DEA was 15% in 2021, compared to 4% in 1995. Many products advertise THC concentrations of up to 90%.

“It attacks young brains said Dr. Roneet Lev, an emergency room physician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego.

Jahan Marcu scientific adviser to the Cannabis Programming Reform Coalition, which represents cannabis companies, said research on links between psychosis and cannabis does not sufficiently distinguish between different types of products.

“Whenever we talk about a substance, it is just one factor among many. This can be a good factor or a bad factor. “, said.

Dr. Karen Randall moved to Pueblo, Colorado, to work in an emergency room more than a decade ago, after working in Detroit for 18 years. He thought it would be like retiring early . He bought a ranch where he could ride horses in an area that locals today call the Napa Valley of cannabis.

“I see more psychotics here than in Detroit “, says. “We’re just creating this huge population of people that we can no longer cure.”

He plans to quit medicine.

Randy Bacchus He started smoking marijuana when he was a freshman in high school in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. By the time he was old enough to move out, his life had spiraled out of control.

In one of hundreds of videos his parents found on his phone after his death, Randy Bacchus told potential fans he was going to become a rap star. The 21-year-old held a vaporizer in his hand, stopping to take puffs at regular intervals.

He regularly talked about smoking cannabis in his videos. His interactions with his parents had become increasingly angry and erratic. He claimed to have spoken with God and the devil.

One night, after using cannabis, he was so afraid of people chasing him that he ended up in a snowstorm in Denver and got lost for 24 hours. He survived with frostbite and infected toes.

“I was in full psychosis “, he said in another video.

His parents called the police for a welfare check, but they said that since he was an adult and did not pose a danger to himself or others they couldn’t force him to undergo treatment.

“I think I’m going to quit smoking for a second because I enjoy it so much. “, he said in a March 2021 video.

In July 2021, he texted his mother that he wanted to stop using cannabis and quit music.

“I love you and I’m sorry for everything. I love Dad and the same for him. I wish I was a better person ” he wrote at 2:09 a.m.

His mother told him that life is not easy and that it is never too late. Today is a new beginning, he said. The police found him dead 48 hours later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Doctors who treated Randy said his cannabis use triggered psychotic episodes. In videos on his phone, he said he believed cannabis was to blame for his delusions.

“I didn’t know marijuana could cause paranoia. said Heather Bacchus, Randy’s mother. “They don’t even know what they’re smoking.”