High potency THC may lead to psychosis, suicide, according to former Pueblo psychiatrist
High potency tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products found in medical and recreational marijuana dispensaries may lead to depression, psychosis, suicide and other afflictions with frequent use, addiction psychiatrist Libby Stuyt said Tuesday.
Stuyt, the former medical director of the Circle Program, a state-funded residential treatment program for individuals with mental health and substance use issues, led a presentation on the risks associated with high-potency THC on June 7 at the Pueblo Police Department.
She said that when she started with the Circle Program in 1999, she and her colleagues weren't particularly concerned about cannabis. But following the 2014 legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, she said she began to see more patients coming into treatment with marijuana as their primary or only drug.
"I started seeing the worst psychotic symptoms that I have ever seen," she said. "Worse than methamphetamines and the worst delusions I have ever seen."
More local news: Pueblo County won't allow Arise music festival so producer looks next-door
It was the potency of THC that was causing the psychotic symptoms and delusions, she claimed. She cited a study conducted in the U.K. that found those who smoked marijuana with a concentration of more than 15% THC per gram daily were five times as likely to develop psychosis.
"If they were using the stuff that was less than 5%, there was no increased risk of psychosis," she said. "That's why we didn't see this before because we didn't have these really high potent products."
Stuyt believes high potency THC meets the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causality, a set of guidelines used by epidemiologists to determine what causes something, when it comes to psychosis. She also believes it meets the criteria when it comes to teen suicide.
"In Colorado, if you look at teens who die by suicide, the number one drug present is marijuana in toxicology," she said. "Most people who die by suicide, alcohol is the number one drug."
Stuyt is not against the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana, but she believes the industry needs to be regulated more strictly.
"If you look at the research on cannabis, the research is all (on marijuana) less than 10% (THC)," she said. "There is benefit for some conditions and it's less than 10%."
Stuyt referenced a 2017 study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, that researches the health benefits of cannabis, including treatment of chronic pain. None of the smoked cannabis concentrations in the study exceeded 10% THC per gram.
A 2018 Market Size and Demand Update for Marijuana in Colorado report found Colorado marijuana flower has a THC concentration of 19.6% per gram. For THC concentrate products, the average concentration is around 68.6% per gram, according to the report.
"Basically, most everything you get is greater than 15%," Stuyt said. "It is very difficult to find anything of the old kind of cannabis. It just doesn't exist anymore to genetically modify these plants to produce a significant amount of THC."
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: High potency THC may lead to psychosis, Pueblo psychiatrist says
