Increased cannabis use brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic might be causing more young people to lose grip with reality.
“A lot of people started using a lot of cannabis,” according to Dr. Allie Douglas, lead psychiatrist for the Canadian Mental Health Association’s first-step early psychosis intervention program serving Waterloo-Wellington.
“The number of people coming into service since COVID who are using much higher doses almost consistently have the same story. ‘Lockdown hit, I had nothing else to do, and so I started using cannabis every day.’”
The growing number of referrals for the program geared to help individuals between the ages of 14 and 35 is raising red flags for mental health experts.
Read the full article in the Waterloo Chronicle here: https://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news-story/10572523-our-changed-world-a-lot-of-people-started-using-a-lot-of-cannabis-cmha-says-referrals-for-early-psychosis-have-doubled/
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