4/19 pot panel wants to clear the air regarding cannabis and youth

published on April 17, 2018 by Bronwyn Beairsto in Richmond News

On the eve of 4/20, CBC is hosting a panel to give kids and parents the information they need before anyone tokes up.

Titled 4/19, the free evening event at Vancouver Technical secondary hosted by CBC’s Gloria Macarenko is aimed at informing teenagers and their parents about the medical, social and legal impacts of cannabis use for youth, with legalization in sight.

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University of British Columbia professor and researcher for the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, M-J Milloy says the link between cannabis and brain development is still merely by association.

“There’s a great number of scientists worldwide working on this issue, but there’s been no smoking gun,” Milloy said.

Zach Walsh, another UBC researcher specializing in cannabis, concurs. “The evidence is weaker than the rhetoric.”

According to Walsh, there appears to be a link between schizophrenia and other psychosis and marijuana use, but this could just be an association rather than causal.

He notes that there’s been a dramatic increase in cannabis use in recent years, especially in Canada, but schizophrenia levels have stayed stagnant.