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where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

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This is Lindsay Smith-Rogers.

In recent years, the reputation of cannabis has gone from a mind-altering party drug to something less dangerous, with the rise of medical marijuana and the approval of recreational use in many states.

But cannabis shouldn't be considered a panacea.

Stephanie Desmond talks to Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Dr. David Walensky about something he and his colleagues are seeing more of

in adolescence and young adults in particular. Cannabis induced psychosis. Let's listen.

David Wollinski, thanks so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me here.

So today I want to talk about cannabis. There's been a lot of talk about cannabis in the last decade, well, for decades, but really

in the last decade we've seen that it's being used in medical situations.

It's being made legal for recreational use in many states.

And people really think that it's fairly harmless.

And I'm curious, you know, what your

experience has been. Yeah, absolutely. I can comment on that. So working in the clinical

setting, especially as a psychiatrist, you will come across a lot of individuals who will say,

oh, you know, cannabis is what helps me sleep or it helps with my anxiety or mood.

And at best, there really hasn't been much consistent evidence to show that it can work for these symptoms.

And at worst, it's potential that it could actually worsen certain

symptoms. For instance, it's possible that cannabis withdrawal symptoms could, or some of the

anxiety and insomnia that people are experiencing could potentially reflect cannabis withdrawal,

...