Health committee  I would not be able to comment on that from a scientific perspective, other than on fetal exposure to cannabis through maternal smoking, as I responded earlier.

Health committee  As for therapeutic use, I think more research is needed. If you were to use a compound as a medication, then just as for any other kind of medication, you have to know as a scientist but also as a doctor what is in that medication. Sorry to use this as an example, but if I had a

Health committee  There are obviously two different questions here. One is the relation between cannabis and subsequent addiction to other substances, which is also known as the gateway theory, which has been studied and reported on for a number of years. It basically says that a lot of studies ha

Health committee  I go back to what I said earlier that, in general—and in general is very important—cannabis is rarely harmful, but there are some specific people for whom cannabis may be harmful, and there's also a very specific aspect of cannabis, including the ratio of THC and CBD, that should

Health committee  There are two things. Is it surprising? Not really. We know that cannabis is among the first substances used when someone starts using drugs, with tobacco and also alcohol. We know that cannabis will be one of the first drugs used by youth in general. We also know that the peak f

Health committee  We have much better data on the impact of exposure during pregnancy for alcohol and tobacco, for sure, but we have emerging data for the impact of cannabis exposure. I have to say, though, that all the research in that area is very difficult to conduct, just for ethical reasons

Health committee  Yes. We can talk about it for a long time, but obviously disclosure is a main problem for the validity and quality of the information reported by women saying whether or not they have used cannabis. It's a huge problem to conduct a really good study in that field.

Health committee  Actually, they're different things. You can have psychotic symptoms that include hallucinations, obviously, and delusions and ideas outside of the reality. That can actually occur in a lot of different kinds of circumstances, such as when you're severely depressed or when you hav

Health committee  I'm not sure if I understand the question. Is it about the availability of the drug, or whether the change in the law would make it more available for youth? Or is it about what the long-term effects would be?

Health committee  Yes, there are data. As I said, actually, it is quite clear, as Dr. Wood mentioned in some way.... The data for now shows that in general and for the general population the risk associated with cannabis actually is relatively minor in some ways, when someone is not vulnerable, bu

Health committee  I want to thank the committee for inviting me to talk about what, in my opinion, is probably one of the most controversial but also very scientifically challenging topics in mental health. Talking about mental health and addiction, psychiatrists leading the addiction psychiatry u