Evidence for cannabis as a primary mental-health treatment is mixed and limited compared to other therapies.

If one is already prone to anxiety, depression, or psychotic disorders, cannabis can amplify symptoms.

Higher THC levels are linked to increased risk of anxiety, panic, and mental health flare-ups.

As a budding writer, I was sent home by my fifth-grade teacher for writing the following on my brown lunch bag: “I have a few good reasons for drinking, and one has just entered my head. If a man can’t drink when he’s living, how the hell can he drink when he’s dead?”

My ode to alcohol was a harbinger of things to come, commencing in a bout of alcohol poisoning at 15. When denial and distraction from the world’s woes no longer work, many (e.g., your anxiety prone author) turn to substances for relief with varying effects.

Which Came First, the Mental Disorders or the Drugs?

The relationship between substance use and mental health has been a long and complex debate. Nearly half of people who have a serious psychiatric illness such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD also have a co-occurring substance use disorder.1 Because mood disorders increase vulnerability to drug abuse and addiction, the diagnosis and treatment of the mood disorder can reduce the risk of........

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