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Cannabis Shows Same Effect on Adolescents and Adults in Study
A study of how regular cannabis users of different ages respond to inhaling cannabis with different levels of cannabidiol (CBD) has found that the short-term effects of vaporized cannabis do not differ between adolescents and adults. Further, CBD was found to not dampen the effects of the drug.
Findings from the study, conducted by University College London and King’s College London, were published in the journal Addiction.
The study included 24 adolescents, ages 16-17, and 24 adults between the ages of 26 and 29. All 48 participants in the study were classified as regular cannabis users, engaging in use 0.5 to 3 days per week, with an average of 1.5 days per week. For 3 weeks, participants were given either a placebo, a strain of cannabis high in THC, or a high-CBD and high-THC version. Doses administered were comparable to those in typical recreational use.
Participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing how the drug affected them at regular intervals. They were also asked to complete assessments of their verbal memory and psychotic-like effects of the drug, including delusions, cognitive disorganization, and paranoia.
All expected effects of cannabis were observed, including patients reporting a sense of feeling high or anxious, having mild psychotic-like experiences, and memory impairment. Notably, however, there was no evidence of a difference in responses between adults and adolescents.
“Regularly producing transient psychotic-like effects and memory impairments through cannabis use is likely to augment the risk of psychological distress, especially in those who are vulnerable to these harms,” study lead author Will Lawn, PhD, a psychology lecturer at King’s College London, said in a news release. However, critically, our results also indicate that 16- to 17-year-old cannabis users were not more sensitive to the acute harmful effects of cannabis than adults.”
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