Use caution if you have any history of addiction or any history or family history of mental illness, particularly psychosis or schizophrenia. Speak with your doctor (or a doctor that is able to be helpful, if your doctor isn’t) and exercise caution before starting cannabis. The use of cannabis, or any drug, can also make mental illnesses more difficult to diagnose and treat. When I was a child, I saw my great uncle, a physician, helping my cousin to clean and prepare his medicine – pot– so he could tolerate his chemotherapy treatments. Seeing through the Smoke clearly lays out the case for cannabis as a medicine while thoughtfully and calmly outlining its risks. Not only should everyone read this book, but they should share it with their loved ones, too.”– Julie Holland, MD , author of Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection, From Soul to Psychedelics What differences are observed between the eyes of different types of cannabis users (for example, occasional/regular/abusers or recreational/medicinal)? As the world slowly but unstoppably moves away from a century of cannabis prohibition, this book acts as an indispensable guide to the past, present and future of cannabis and its uses across the globe.

An unflinching and utterly personal journey through the often-confusing cannabis landscape.Readers will delight in the historical as well as the scientific focus brought to life by Grinspoon, whose roots and professional experience provide a unique and fascinating perspective. Seeing through the Smoke has something for everyone – from the novice to the expert and everyone in between with an interest in cannabis.”– Staci Gruber, MD, Director of Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Peter Grinspoon, M.D . is a primary care physician and cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a board member of the advocacy group Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, and has been providing medical cannabis care for patients for two decades. THE DISRUPTION OF MIND WANDERING We need to let our minds wander. By constantly being in a rush and distracting ourselves with tasks, distractions, and entertainment, we never give our minds the ability to just wander. And this is impacting our ability to be imaginative, thoughtful, and reflect on what is going on around us. And as we let our minds wander, we develop greater attention and focus. And by letting our minds wander, we form new connections between ideas and thoughts which can help us to solve problems. Since reading this chapter, I have put my phone down more, and just try to let my mind be freer. I have found this important. Overall, the amount of literature on the effects of cannabis use on vision is scant. The main challenge, at least in the US, is that cannabis is still a schedule I drug at the Federal level, and this makes obtaining institutional review board approval for research studies difficult. Even where cannabis is legal in a state or municipality, it is still not always clear to governing bodies how cannabis studies can be approved or funded with the Federal classification standing.S Ortiz-Peregrina et al., “Effects of cannabis on visual function and self-perceived visual quality,” 11, 1655 (2021). PMID: 33462319. In this lively, witty, and deeply personal book, Grinspoon takes readers on a fascinating tour of everything you ever wanted to know about the benefits of cannabis—especially what it can do to ameliorate suffering and enhance human potential—while always remaining grounded in the scientific evidence. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”– Jay Wexler, professor of law specializing in marijuana law, Boston University Use legalization as an opportunity to redress as many harms of the War on Cannabis as possible. Let nonviolent cannabis prisoners out, expunge all records for nonviolent cannabis offenses, and find a way to fund profits from the nascent industry to the families and communities that have been harmed heal their traumas and regain financial stability.

Peter Grinspoon is an ex-addict, marijuana enthusiast, and cannabis prescribing physician with a professional and moral obligation to know and tell the truth about cannabis’ relationship to driving, pregnancy, psychosis, autism, addiction, sleep, cancer, and much more.Never before have I read such an engaging and accessible review of the evidence.”– Ethan Nadelmann, founderand former executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance

As for the cannabis activists, I’m reminded of an aphorism from Nietzsche, which I can only paraphrase: “If you automatically react against something, you are just as controlled by it as if you comply.” Confronted with relentless negative, and at times dubious, information about cannabis from the U.S. government and from anti-cannabis researchers, cannabis advocates have counterreacted and reflexively dismissed concerns about potential harms. Many of these studies are valid and important, or at least hypothesis generating, with major implications for health and harm reduction. Cannabis Unites

Know the relevant laws in your area, and don’t get tangled up with law enforcement. You can’t (yet) legally fly with cannabis. Other states where the legality is different might not accept your medical cannabis card and could even arrest you if they don’t (yet) have legal medical cannabis. Learn enough about cannabis so that you can be your own advocate; this will help you speak with doctors and budtenders alike. NIH Central Resource for Grants and Funding Information, “Notice of Information: Establishment of a Standard THC Unit to be used in Research” (2021). Available at: https://bit.ly/3X0zecj At the same time, there are separate medical cannabis conferences, for cannabis supporters, that, to a certain extent, “preach to the converted,” because if you are there, you have an interest, belief in the benefits of, and probably some facility with medical cannabis. This subject needs to be taken seriously, by our entire profession, as seriously as patients take it, if doctors wish to be viewed as legitimate, trusted partners and reliable sources of information. Legalizing sensiblyEducating people about the higher risks that likely pertain to specific populations, such as teens; those with, or predisposed to, certain psychiatric conditions; and pregnant/breastfeeding women. The Reefer Pessimists must forget, or at least contextualize, much of what they have learned because so much of this knowledge was manufactured with an agenda (if not flat-out fabricated) by the dictates of the War on Drugs. This led to unrealistically negative beliefs and a lot of unhelpful mythology (e.g., breasts, sperm, I.Q.). The cynicism regarding cannabis from the War on Drugs, along with vastly lopsided funding into purported harms (but not into potential benefits), created an echo chamber of presumed negativity and flat-out dismissiveness, which continues to artifactually distort and obscure continuing explorations into the true nature of cannabis. Public opinion surrounding the recreational use and therapeutic potential of cannabis is shifting. This review describes new work examining the behavioural and neural effects of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, highlighting key regions within corticolimbic brain circuits. First, we consider the role of human genetic factors and cannabis strain chemotypic differences in contributing to interindividual variation in the response to cannabinoids, such as THC, and review studies demonstrating that THC-induced impairments in decision-making processes are mediated by actions at prefrontal CB 1 receptors. We further describe evidence that signalling through prefrontal or ventral hippocampal CB 1 receptors modulates mesolimbic dopamine activity, aberrations of which may contribute to emotional processing deficits in schizophrenia. Lastly, we review studies suggesting that endocannabinoid tone in the amygdala is a critical regulator of anxiety, and report new data showing that FAAH activity is integral to this response. Together, these findings underscore the importance of cannabinoid signalling in the regulation of cognitive and affective behaviours, and encourage further research given their social, political, and therapeutic implications. Most of the literature has examined occasional users and this where our current state of knowledge exists on most vision functions, such as those mentioned above. Some studies have looked at more regular users – and the law enforcement work has typically looked at recreational, “on the street” usage. In my opinion, there isn’t enough literature examining similar vision functions or eye effects across the different types of users. These types of studies would certainly have value – it is easy to imagine that those using higher doses will experience more severe effects. How should ophthalmologists and optometrists factor cannabis use into patient assessment and care?

Overall though, the book is a good read and will make a great resource for students, patients, doctors, activists – anyone interested in cannabis and drug policy. Definitely one to add to the library if you haven’t already – and the latest in a series of books from Professor Nutt, including ‘Drugs Without The Hot Air’ that have become compulsory reading for those involved in drug policy reform circles. When I was a child, I saw my great uncle, a physician, helping my cousin to clean and prepare his medicine – pot– so he could tolerate his chemotherapy treatments. Seeing through the Smoke clearly lays out the case for cannabis as a medicine while thoughtfully and calmly outlining its risks. Not only should everyone read this book, but they should share it with their loved ones, too.”– Julie Holland, MD, author of Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection, From Soul to Psychedelics

A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth about Marijuana

Arnold JC, Boucher AA, Karl T. The Yin and Yang of Cannabis-induced Psychosis: the Actions of Delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol in Rodent Models of Schizophrenia. Curr Pharm Des. 2012;18:5113–5130.