Mental health specialists have warned that weed gummy candies, chocolate and cookies are just as damaging as smoked marijuana – if not more.
Marijuana you can eat – known as edibles – is often marketed as a less potent, ‘healthier’ alternative to inhaling the drug.
Many popular products are presented in brightly-colored packaging and shaped to look like teddy bears or jelly snakes.
Yet speaking to DailyMail.com, top experts have accused the firms who make the candies of ‘decieiving’ consumers into ‘believing they are safe’.
Although not smoking cannabis spares you lung and heart damage, psychiatrists say eating it is more harmful for mental health.
While weed gummies may seem less potent than smoke, it is easy to eat more quickly, and the psychoactive ingredient takes longer to enter the bloodstream – which means you may consume more to chase a greater effect
Risks include severe mental illness such as sudden psychosis, schizophrenia and depression, according to a wealth of studies.
One major 2019 analysis found regular use of cannabis was linked to a five-fold increased risk of severe psychosis.
‘Edibles are more dangerous than marijuana in some ways,’ Dr Libby Stuyt, a board-certified addiction psychiatrist working in Colorada told DailyMail.com.
‘With edibles, it takes a while for THC [the psychoactive compontent in cannabis] to end up in the bloodstream, compared to the quick peak you get with inhaling.
‘The delayed reaction – maybe two to four hours after eating – means that people often end up eating a lot more because they think nothing is happening.
‘Then they get a great big whack of THC – and the high lasts a lot longer.’
What’s more, she says consuming marijuana alongside fatty foods – including chocolate and cookies which are popular edibles – can increase the potency of THC four-fold.
Weed edibles come in all sorts of forms – gummies, brownies, cakes and chocolate
‘Fat helps the body digest the chemical, so you absorb more of it,’ she explains.
Edibles are more ‘deceptive’, too. ‘ They are packaged looking more like normal things so people underestimate their potency.
‘But there have been numerous cases of violent psychosis involving edibles.’
Online, retailers selling weed gummies claim that eating the drug-infused sweets can in fact ease some mental health conditions, including anxiety an depression.
However in May, a study of 68,000 US teenagers found that those who used cannabis recreationally were between two and four times more likely to develop suicidal depression, compared to never-smokers.
Although the research does not prove a direct causal link (another factor may be behind the psychiatric illness) the scientists say the strength of the association suggests a cause and effect.
They add that other research demonstrates that recreational cannabis use in adolescents can decrease volume in areas of the brain involved in motivation and emotion.
The mental health risks are thought to be due to the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in the marijuana plant, which affects brain chemicals and is responsible for the ‘high’.
The substance stimulates areas of the brain involved with mood, attention and memory – and triggers the release of the ‘pleasure’ hormone dopamine.
In small, irregular doses, THC has little little harm. But in larger hits and when taken over long periods of time, it can disturb the signalling in key brain areas.
A major review published in June 2023, looking at the results of 101 studies into the health impact of cannabis, found use of any frequency was associated with an increased risk of psychological problems and worsening of psychotic symptoms.
The analysis, published in the British Medical Journal, included studies where the drug was both smoked and ingested.
A 2019 review of nearly 10,000 hospital visits by doctors in Colorado, where the drug has been legal since 2012, found that edible marijuana – in the form of gummies, brownies and chocolate, were associated with a greater number of psychiatric emergencies, compared to inhaled cannabis.
Another 2016 study noted that many of the recent reports of cannabis-induced psychosis have, ‘followed the ingestion of an edible’.
It has also been suggested that the blood concentration of THC may be higher from edibles, compared to smoking.
‘It is estimated that 1 mg of D9-THC [the most common form of THC] in a CE [cannabis edible] may produce similar behavioral effects as 5.71 mg in inhaled cannabis,’ read a recent paper published in US Pharmacist.
Experts have also raised concerns about the increase in potency of marijuana available in the US over the past two decades – in both edibles and inhaled forms.
In 2018 experts in Colorado found that between 1995 and 2015, the THC content in the marijuana flower increased by 212 per cent in the state.
By 2017, the most popular strains found in Colorado dispensaries in Colorado had a range of THC content from 17–28 per cent, according to the report by doctors at the University of Colorado Health Science Program.
In comparison, the average THC strength in the early 90s in the state was roughly four per cent.
The experts’ warnings come a week after rumours surfaced online that notorious cannabis-smoker and rapper Snoop Dogg planned to switch from smoking the drug, to eating it.
Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, claimed to have quit smoking marijuana, despite the habit being a large part of his personal brand. Fans speculated he could be switching to edible marijuana, such as gummies. In fact, his statement (below) was a PR stunt for cooking brand, Solo Stove
In what turned out to be a PR stunt for the fire pit brand Solo Stove, the 52 year-old announced he was ‘giving up smoke’ on his Instagram page.
It triggered a wave of rumours among fans, who took to Twitter to speculate as to whether the rapper was genuine in his pledge to kick the puff.
‘This is going to end up being an ad campaign for gummy edibles or something isn’t it,’ tweeted the journalist and podcast host Matt Binder, in response to Snoop’s announcement.
‘This is probably just gonna be some viral campaign where he launches his own line of vapes or edibles or something,’ read another Tweet that received 19,000 likes.
It wouldn’t be the first time the star put his name to a cannabis treat.
In October 2022 he partnered with edibles company Tsumo Snacks and put his name (and face) to two new lines of onion rings infused with THC, called ‘Snazzle Os’.
The 128g packets contain 100mg of THC per bag – at least five times the amount found in one spliff.
Earlier this month, a pediatrician based in Portland, Oregon warned parents to keep cannabis edibles out of reach of children – following recent data showing 7,000 children under six had eaten them between 2017 and 2021.
Dr Beth Ebel of the University of Washington told Yahoo News: ‘We are seeing this all day long.
In October 2022, rapper Snoop Dogg partnered with Snazzle Os on a range of onion ring snacks that contain 100mg of THC per packet – the same as around five joints
‘My emergency department friends see kids coming in and they are trying to decide, does this child have bleeding in her brain or a brain tumor? Or is this a child who really has a low level of consciousness because they have ingested something.
He added that the risks to childrens’ health could be ‘irreversible.
‘One of the very concerning things is that these high potency products have a strong association with schizophrenia and a psychotic break.
‘I’ve seen kids in the hospital who’ve been using some of these higher potency products: young kids doing great in school, and they come to [Harborview Medical Center] after a psychotic break.
‘Sometimes this is a lifelong onset of schizophrenia, and it can be precipitated by these potent products.’
Recreational use of cannabis is legal in 24 US states, with Ohio the latest to green-light the drug in November 2023.
