Celso Arango, president of the SEP.
The subcommittee that studies the regulation of the use of cannabis started a round of appearances at the end of February that will last until next June in the Congress of Deputies. A date, where following the passage of 26 appearing scheduled, a technical report on its medicinal use will be prepared. Among the personalities called to participate, is Celso Arango, president of the Spanish Society of Psychiatry (SEP), who is clear that at the moment “there is no scientific evidence” and that the relationship cannabis and the mental disorders “is proven”, especially in psychotic disorders.
“Us we speak of medicinal when it is something that is approved by regulatory agencies, not something that is sold in pharmacies or herbalists. As medical professionals we abide exclusively by the parameters that any product has to meet to obtain the approval of a regulatory agency”, says Arango.
For the psychiatrist, currently there is no regulatory support in the use of medicinal cannabis, although he points out that if there were, it would be welcome. “I myself am studying cannabidol in psychosis. But one thing is to investigate it and another is to take the leap for commercial reasons. In science there are no shortcuts, we cannot ignore the evidence and the randomized controlled clinical trials once morest placebo. We cannot make the leap from investigating to saying that it is working because there are a series of cases or an open study that does not meet scientific standards that are needed to show evidence”, claims the specialist.
Given this situation, Arango believes that there are decisions that are not political. “Congress cannot meet and vote if aspirin is good for reducing the risk of heart attacks. There are things that transcend politics and have to go another way”says the president of SEP.
Medical cannabis, a risk factor for mental health
In what yes there is a numerous scientific evidence is the risk factor that represents the use of cannabis for the appearance of mental disorders, although this does not mean that everyone who uses cannabis suffers from a mental disorder, in fact the majority do not.
“In countries where there are increased cannabis use and this one is more powerful there are more psychotic disorders. The relationship psychosis-cannabis it is clear In short, it is scientifically proven that the more cannabis consumption there is, the worse the mental health of that population will be”, explains Arango.
The difficulty is identifying which person is vulnerable and which is not. “Currently, we do not have that facility to say who is and who is not. We can indicate some of them because they are the children of a person with a serious mental disorder or because they have some genetic alteration that increases the risk of psychosis, but unfortunately most of them we cannot know. So it’s a Russian roulette, there are people who are vulnerable and others who, no matter how much cannabis they take, absolutely nothing happens to them or they have any mental health problems. If we were able to identify who was and who was not, it would be different”, concludes the psychiatrist.
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