But that we aren't just hearing that cannabis is safe or it's not just being implied that cannabis is safer . But many more people are talking about the positive effects of cannabis without a lot of discussion about the negative effects of cannabis . And I realized that saying this is going to upset some people out there because I know that there are a number of people who fought very hard for the legalization process .
And the takeaways from this study are very clear . First of all , chronic cannabis use , so more than twice per week has consistently been associated with mental health disorders . I'm pulling some phrases directly from the paper heavy cannabis use , meaning cannabis use more frequent than twice per week has been associated with four times the risk of psychosis later in life .
But when you couple that with the fact that the most frequent adopters of cannabis use are in this age bracket of 16 to 24 they're twice as likely to use as other individuals or to start using cannabis as are other individuals . Plus the general perception out there because of the way that cannabis is discussed in the media and by sports figures and by celebrities and by , by politicians et cetera that it's not as bad as alcohol and maybe not that bad and maybe even has health benefits . Then you're essentially setting up a system where young people are far more likely to adopt and continue cannabis use without realizing these serious health consequences that await them later .
And as they point out , and again , I'm paraphrasing here . This is the first systematic review of the association of cannabis potency and all of the data point to a very clear conclusion , which is the more potent the THC concentration , the higher probability of developing psychosis or a major depressive episode or a major anxiety disorder later in life . That should be of particular concern because we know we are absolutely clear about the fact that with the advent of all these new strains of cannabis and with the engineering and availability of cannabis at much higher potency , meaning THC potency , the risk of psychosis is going up and up and is likely to continue going up unless something is done to reduce the frequency of cannabis use to zero ideally or to very low frequency , very low potency in adolescents and teens and people age 25 or younger .
There's a 33 0 , 30 times greater likelihood that you have bipolar disorder if you have a first relative who has bipolar disorder . And then it's also the case that using cannabis , especially during adolescence and the teen years and up until age 25 create a four times greater risk of psychosis for those that have a predisposition to bipolar disorder and or schizophrenia . Now , I don't hear very much about this in the media .
