How cannabis may impact mental health, development for young people

Scientist with the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence Dan Devoe talks about their research on cannabis and its impact on younger brains.

Since cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, we’re still learning about the impact of the drug on young brains. Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence scientist Dan Devoe joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton’s Kent Morrison to discuss his research on how cannabis may be having a negative impact on younger users.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: What are the primary concerns here?

Dan Devoe: When you think about the developing brain, cannabis, especially in high strengths, can worsen mental health and cognitive outcomes. What we’re seeing is impacts on memories, slower processing speed, and an increased risk of problems like anxiety, depression, paranoia and psychosis.

Kent: Research on this is still a bit slim. What do we still not know?

Dan: What we still do not fully understand is the full long term impact of high potency cannabis on the developing brain. Especially when you start to use these things early and continuously over time, we don’t understand what will actually happen to some of these young people. Especially people that are much more vulnerable to serious mental health effects.

Kent: As this research continues to develop, there have been some myths. People think they know more than they do about this and one of them is this perception that cannabis is not addictive? Is that true?

Dan: That perception is not accurate. Cannabis can be addictive and the risk increases with the frequency of use and the THC strength. Here in Alberta, about 1/3 of young users report at least some difficulty stopping and some are using cannabis daily, or nearly daily. Legal doesn’t mean harmless and cannabis can absolutely be addictive.

Kent: Potency is also something that is evolving. Can you tell us about the potency of products online?

Dan: What we’re seeing is much higher potency and an increased access to cannabis especially in younger people and everybody across the age spectrum. This is going to increase your risk of developing mental health concerns in addition to developing psychosis.

Kent: People say that they use cannabis to help them deal with anxiety, for example. In your experience, does that work?

Dan: Some people may feel short term relief, but over time cannabis can actually worsen anxiety and other mental health symptoms, especially with regular use or high strength use.

We also know many young people are using cannabis to cope, which can create a pattern where it replaces healthier ways of managing stress. What feels like relief in the moment can quietly make things worse over time.

Kent: What is your advice to people overall who are using this or considering its use?

Dan: My advice to people would be to understand the risks that we don’t know everything that’s going on and what the evidence tells us is that it can impact your mental health in the long term and that it can be addictive.