Month: September 2021

In collaboration with our national and international colleagues, we have just updated the lower-risk cannabis use guidelines according to the most recent evidence. Remember that the only way to avoid the harms associated with cannabis is to completely abstain from consuming it. For those who would like to consume it, it is safer to delay initiation of use as late in life as possible. For those who consume it, choosing products with a low THC content and/or high CBD: THC ratios which are administered by other routes than inhalation, reducing the frequency of consumption and refraining from driving a motorized vehicle after using cannabis are behaviours that reduce the risk of harms. Among the changes since 2017, we note the advice to stop or decrease (the intensity, the frequency of) cannabis use in people with cognitive impairments in order to improve their cognitive performances and to use legal cannabis products and/or devices that are quality controlled. Read the original open access article in the International Journal of Drug Policy.   

The CHAMPS study begins this month at our partner site, the JAP clinic affiliated with the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal. This pilot clinical trial aims to assess the acceptability and efficacy of the new CHAMPS (Cannabis Harm-Reducing App for Managing Practices Safely) smartphone app aimed at reducing cannabis-related harms in 100 young cannabis users with psychotic disorders who are followed in clinics for first psychotic episodes. Recruitment is by invitation only and will continue at our four other partner sites across Canada (Alberta, Nova Scotia, Quebec) until 2023. To find out more about this project, see the study webpage or the clinicaltrials.gov website.