Marijuana will no longer be classified with drugs like heroin and LSD as a Schedule I drug, gaining the attention of many Americans — especially those curious to use medical marijuana for their mental health-related issues. Does marijuana help with some forms of mental illness, and if so, what are the potential side effects? How does marijuana compare to traditional psychiatric medications, both with respect to efficacy and side effects? And finally, what are the cost differences between commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals, and medical marijuana? These are the types of questions I am regularly asked at my office, and while clear answers are still tough to come by in this moment, with marijuana being de-classified we will soon benefit from an abundance of new research that will help provide clarity to the questions above.
Examining marijuana
While people have illegally used marijuana as a recreational drug for a long time, it has only been in recent years that states have elected to allow marijuana to be purchased legally for medical (and in some states, recreational) usage. To date, medical marijuana is not a drug commonly prescribed for mental health issues, but will this soon change as we learn more about marijuana? With marijuana being removed form the Schedule I drug list, scholars can now conduct controlled studies examining the effect marijuana has (if any) on conditions like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, to name a few. At the same time that we are studying the effects of marijuana, previous marijuana stigmas are going by the wayside, allowing for more people to explore if marijuana makes sense for them as it applies to their mental health condition.
Another important piece to the discussion about medical uses of marijuana centers around how marijuana compares to other commonly prescribed psychotropic medications — many that include very dangerous potential side effects. For example, some anti-depressants include “suicidal ideation” as a potential side effect, whereas marijuana does not. In fact, many of the prescription drugs commonly used today include very serious potential side effects (in addition to suicidal ideation), creating a need for alternative, safer options for people to consider. To be clear, we do not yet know what, if any, positive effect marijuana has on mental health conditions, but we do know that many of the traditional drugs prescribed do come with very serious concerns.
There is no argument that using marijuana to remedy mental health issues may lead to unexpected consequences, including potentially exacerbating the very condition that marijuana is being used to treat. The question, comparatively, centers around whether the negative effects of marijuana are any different and/or worse than the vast majority of prescription psychotropic medications that are commonly used every day? Compare potential marijuana side effects against common side effects people experience from anti-depressants (below):
One thing we know for sure is that medical marijuana, if shown to be effective with specific mental health issues, will not be without its own potential side effects. What has yet to be learned is whether marijuana side effects will be as serious as the known side effects of current anti-depressants prescribed to millions of people daily? While it remains to be seen if medical marijuana will soon become a mental health option, there is a growing curiosity around if medical marijuana can prove to be helpful, as well as the potential side effects associated with such a choice.
Final thoughts
The “genie is out of the bottle” as it applies to medical marijuana, leading to increased interest in the potential utility of medical marijuana as it is applied to mental health concerns. Soon scholars will closely study the efficacy of medical marijuana used to treat specific mental health issues, and the results will be matched against other current prescription drugs to gain an objective sense of what treatments work best. Similarly, more will be known about medical marijuana potential side effects, and if they are as (or more) serious as current known side effects of commonly prescribed, traditional psychiatric drugs.
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