Do high THC levels cause psychosis? – Cannabis | weed | marijuana
Do high THC levels cause psychosis? This has been the mantra of the modern cannabis temperament movement. Because cannabis cannot cause a fatal overdose and appears relatively harmless (compared to most drugs), public health officials had to find a new perspective.
Ergo, high THC levels cause psychosis.
It’s not your grandparents’ cannabis, they tell us. Potent cannabis can disconnect you from reality. You might hallucinate and create delusions about friends and family that compel you to hurt them.
Drug-induced psychosis is not a new phenomenon, and cannabis is not the only culprit either. What’s going on here is more nuanced. But this opinion will not be understood by the “High THC content causes psychosis”.
This is a topic that we have already covered. But what we haven’t discussed is the history of cannabis and psychosis.
If high THC levels cause psychosis in otherwise healthy adults, how does one explain the early 20th century?
Cannabis-induced psychosis in history
While patients used cannabis oil for medicinal purposes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the masses rarely smoked it in the way we consume it today.
Cannabis use was rare and far less effective. However, it was during this period that the number of admissions to psychiatric hospitals for cannabis-induced psychosis was at its highest.
Suppose high THC levels cause psychosis because the effects are too strong for the individual user. So how does one explain the cannabis moderation movement for low-THC psychosis in the early 20th century?
In the 1960s, a researcher began investigating this history of cannabis-induced psychosis. He showed that the side effects of cannabis steadily decreased over the decades up until the 1940s.
What happened? Cannabis found wider use. A subculture emerged. Thanks to the early beatniks and hippies, people were educated about THC. They knew what to expect.
Therefore, they responded to phytocannabinoids not with fear or anxiety, but with pleasure and relaxation. Because of their expectations (set and setting), consumers experienced neither terror nor psychosis.
As we discussed earlier, when considering the effects of cannabis on the mind, we consider cultural beliefs, learned contexts, and situational factors.
The physical effects of high-THC cannabis cannot “cause” psychosis.
Could High THC Levels Cause Psychosis? A personal story
Maybe you disagree. Of course, high THC levels cause psychosis. You may have experienced a severe or borderline psychotic episode before.
i know i have it
Once, about ten years ago, I did a big dab. Far too big for my tolerance limit. I thought it would be fun.
It wasn’t.
At the peak of the high, it felt like someone or something was broadcasting the voice in my head. Pretty scary, right? It definitely put me off making big dabs.
What was really going on here? I wasn’t entirely upset – I knew these schizophrenia-like “symptoms” were merely the effects of heavy THC and that they would wear off once I calmed down.
Now I understand that it wasn’t even the effect of THC. It was my interpretation of what happens in the brain every day.
But drug-related psychosis is “the fear response of a naïve user induced by fear that the transient symptoms of drug use represent an enduring mental disorder.”
Where are people supposed to get this idea from? Could it be from the same public health actors claiming to help?
The “brain disease” model of drug addiction is bullshit, yet they propagate it as if the theory were undeniable science. But who does this serve?
High levels of THC in cannabis are new to Western society. After years of ban, farmers are now free to test different genetics. Consumers also have choices between high and low THC levels, as well as other cannabinoids they may wish to consume.
By perpetuating the myth that high THC levels cause psychosis, public health is embarking on a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Instead of educating cannabis users about the effects of high-THC cannabis, they blame them.
Do high THC levels cause psychosis?
Do high THC levels cause psychosis? No. Drug-induced psychoses are caused by ignorance. You would not take LSD without ensuring your emotional stability and the safety of those around you.
If you are new to cannabis, you should exercise caution with high THC levels.
But don’t think it will permanently ruin your brain. It won’t. But combine cannabis ignorance with public health misinformation and you have the perfect storm.
Do high THC levels cause psychosis? No, that’s what drug war propaganda does. The propagators of this nonsense have always interpreted the effects of cannabis as “madness” or “madness”.
Even so-called “scientific research” raises the question.
It’s reefer madness. Plain and simple. If you think cannabis will drive you insane, you will live it. Public health creates what it tries to prevent.
And maybe that’s the point.
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