Cannabis and Mental Health: The Paradox
Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cannabis Studies Program invited campus and community members to attend a special lecture on Cannabis and Mental Health by Cannabis Studies lecturers William Dolphin and Michelle Newhart. Dolphin and Newhart’s lecture “Cannabis and Mental Health: The Paradox” took place on Thursday, October 3, 2024 at the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Siemens Hall, Room 108, from 6:00 pm-7:00 pm. Medicinal cannabis use is rapidly expanding and gaining acceptance, yet most physicians and laypersons hold diametrically different views on the effects of cannabis use on mental health. Among the millions of people using cannabis medicinally, roughly half report they do so to manage a mental disorder. Among medical professionals, there is widespread agreement that increased risk of psychosis and other mental disorders is the central harm associated with cannabis use. This talk explores that paradox in terms of competing medicalizations of cannabis—one driven by medical professionals enacting social control of users and the other by patients and their advocates seeking legitimacy for that use—which can be understood in terms of the differences between ‘system’ and ‘lifeworld’ standards for evidence and decision making. Newhart & Dolphin argue that substantial scientific uncertainty about both cannabis and mental disorders created a vacuum that allowed stigmatizing social constructions of both to dominate the scientific literature, public policy, and lay perceptions. They claim flaws in methods and concepts underlying psychiatric diagnoses related to cannabis use have persisted through five editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and explore in detail problems with the validity and reliability of such diagnoses, particularly in the context of medicinal use. Close attention is given to disputes over how cannabis use affects people diagnosed with schizophrenia, as well as problems with diagnosing problem cannabis use in the context of medicinal use.
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