Strong and unanimous reaction from the medical community against projects to legalize cannabis for therapeutic purposes, which, according to a general opinion, can convey a false sense of safety and security about this substance that contributes to increasing addictions and the personal and social problems that it causes. They derive.
The Col•legi de Metges de Barcelona considers that the legislation on substances derived from cannabis should not be modified “until there is clinical evidence that can provide security, support and sufficient health guarantees.” In a document in which it takes a position on this matter, the entity expresses its concern about “the trivialization and, in some cases, a certain normalization that has occurred in our environment regarding consumption and/or inappropriate use.”
In a colloquium held yesterday at the college headquarters, numerous addiction specialists warned about the dangers of cannabis. Albert Batlle, Deputy Mayor for Security at Barcelona City Council, was especially energetic.
He rejected the frivolization and trivialization of hemp consumption to which, in his opinion, different legislative initiatives in Congress and Parliament are aimed and called to “combat recreational use.” “It’s a criminal business,” he said. “We have to declare a war on frivolization and trivialization,” he proclaimed, and denounced “the power of the lobbies” in order to build a positive image of drugs. “The port of Barcelona is becoming an exporter of marijuana when until now it was an importer,” he stated.
Jaume Padrós, president of the Col•legi de Metges de Barcelona, ??expressed “great concern on the part of the medical profession and the entire health system” about the situation. “Many times the dialectical resource of mixing a possible therapeutic indication is used as a justification for its regulation for leisure consumption,” he warned. “It is as if we were saying that as if we had the initiative to regularize the leisure consumption of morphine,” he added. .
Eduard Vieta, head of Psychiatry at the Clínic hospital, stressed that smoking cannabis is associated with poor mental health and almost doubles the risk of suffering from psychosis. “There is a false progressivism in certain ideas,” he denounced regarding the opening projects.
Vieta, the most cited researcher in the world on bipolar disorder, participated in the largest meta-analysis carried out on the uses and benefits and harms of cannabis.
The latter clearly outweigh the former: “Smoking cannabis almost doubles the risk of suffering from psychosis or bipolar disorder and is very bad for people who have already been diagnosed with a mental illness.”
According to Vieta, it is not until the age of 25 that the harms of this substance lose some relevance. In this sense, experts defend that the ‘age of majority’ for consumption should in no case be below 25.
Josep Matalí, from the Sant Joan de Déu addictive behavior unit, pointed out two reasons that induce young people (before the age of 15 on average) to start using: personal or social pleasure and the false belief that Cannabis “will help you solve life’s problems.”
Frequent cannabis use during adolescence is associated with attention and memory deficits, impaired learning, increased rates of absenteeism and school failure, increased suicide attempts, and increased risk and early onset of serious psychotic disorders.
And the benefits? “There is little evidence to suggest that cannabinoids improve depressive disorders and symptoms, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder or psychosis,” the school indicates. of doctors. “There is not enough evidence yet to provide guidance on the use of cannabioids for the treatment of mental disorders within a regulatory framework.”
This statement coincides with the intervention in the colloquium by Professor of Pharmacology Rafael Maldonado: “There is a lot of promise and little evidence, with enormous marketing behind it, regarding the therapeutic benefit of cannabidiol”, a component of cannabis. According to Maldonado, it is in neuropathic pain, where there is a great need for treatments, the pathology where cannabis-based drugs may have the greatest potential: “There is moderate evidence for a 30% improvement and low evidence for a 50% improvement. There is something, but we need more data.”
For Lidia Martínez, an emergency pediatrician from Sant Joan de Déu, ‘liberalisation’ cannot bring anything good. Beyond the visits of adolescents for intoxication, this doctor stated that cases of “young children who become intoxicated by cannabis because it is more available are increasing. We see cases that go to the ICU. The more the impression of safety, the worse, and families do not have the impression that it is toxic.”
In Vieta’s opinion, behind the new regulatory projects there is “a false progressivism.” Albert Batlle asked to look at the example of the Netherlands, “the mecca of all stoners.” At the reception on the occasion of the national day, the ambassador “left us cold,” the mayor recalled. “He wanted to thank the police forces for the attention they give to young people in the Netherlands who have fallen into drugs and wander the streets of Barcelona.”
