Men\'s Health UK - 10.2019

MEN’S HEALTH 83

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MMMikeee Tyyssoonnn

In 2016, he founded

Ty s o n H o l i s t i c

Holdings, which sells

premium strains and

edibles. He’s building

a 400-acre resort with

the world’s longest

lazy river. He also has

a podcast: Hotboxin’

with Mike Tyson.

GGGwwyyyneetthh Paaalttrooww

Paltrow welcomed

marijuana dispensary

chain MedMen into

her empire with a

Goop collaboration

last year. Goop also

hosts articles on CBD

dinner parties and

stylish cannabis

flower gift boxes.

JJooe MMoonnttannna

The Hall of Fame NFL

quarterback invested

in cannabis-focused

media outlet Herb

in 2017. This year,

he was part of a

$75m investment

in Caliva: a marijuana

dispensary behemoth

based in California.

DDDaan Billzzeeriaaann

The self-proclaimed

King of Instagram

co-founded the

cannabis company

Ignite. His goal?

To “create the first

global cannabis

brand” that becomes

“the Coca-Cola of

the weed industry”.

in perceptions of cannabis “baffling” and
“annoying”. “There’s some evidence that
cannabis helps with a few indications,”
he says. “But then you hear rubbish about
CBD curing cancer or treating depression.
The idea that you should give cannabis
to people with PTSD is fanciful.”
Meanwhile, the American journalist
Alex Berenson has been trying to draw
attention to the links between cannabis
and psychosis. His book, Tell Your
Children, argues that the cannabis lobby
ignored evidence that THC can help to
bring about schizophrenia. He cites a
2017 study, which found: “Cannabis use
is likely to increase the risk of developing
schizophrenia and other psychoses. The
higher the use, the greater the risk.”
Berenson’s book has been dismissed
as alarmist by many researchers, but he
is not wrong to caution that THC has its
risks. “There’s reason to be careful,” says
Lawn. “If you smoke skunk every day, the
risk of psychosis goes from 0.5% to 2.5%.
That’s a big increase. But we should keep
that in perspective. You’ve still got a 97.5%
chance of being OK.” Lawn sees excesses

on both sides, but he views it as “bizarre”

that even where cannabis is legalised, it

hasn’t been subject to basic regulations.

There are whole libraries of evidence

that alcohol is harmful, for example, and

many scientists would argue that it’s more

damaging than cannabis. Alcohol is legal,

but there are rules about how you can sell

it. It’s licensed. There are restrictions on

advertising, warnings on abuse. You won’t

find many people using their social media

platforms to tell you Jägermeister is good

for cramps, or that gin cures psoriasis.

“In the UK, the wellness angle is mainly

focused on CBD, which is harmless,”

Lawn says. “But in the US, the marketing

is strong for the use of high-strength

cannabis. That’s distasteful. We’ve

stopped tobacco adverts on TV. I don’t

like seeing gambling adverts and alcohol

adverts. Why go down that road again?”

Cannabis companies might not be able

to market these products in the UK yet,

but they are making their presence felt.

Instagram celebrity Dan Bilzerian set up

shop here in July with his brand Ignite,

while medicinal company Aurora urged

the UK to be a “leader, not a laggard”.

Those advocating for cannabis

reform will argue that the comparative

paucity of evidence-based research is

merely a symptom of how excessive the

anti-cannabis mood has been over the

years. Cannabinoids are of interest to

medical science, as are many restricted

drugs – diamorphine (heroin) is routinely

used as a pain-relief agent; ketamine is

sometimes used as an anaesthetic – but

restrictive drug laws have made it hard to

run the sort of randomised, double-blind

clinical trials that would give us the data

to prove cannabis’s efficacy.

Badcock of DrugScience argues that

this shouldn’t be an obstruction. “The

cannabis plant is a very complex thing. It

would take years to do all the trials you’d

need to understand it,” he says. “We can’t

wait for that. The evidence suggests it’s

less harmful than the government regards

it and how it’s depicted in the media.”

One of the problems for doctors is

knowing how to prescribe cannabis. In

what form? In what dosage? No responsible

doctor wants to encourage their patients

to start skinning up Purple Haze. But as

THE MARIJUANA MOGULS

The “cannabiz” is thriving, and it’s not

just Snoop Dogg buying in. Here’s

a roll call of the more familiar faces

THE PROPORTION OF BRITISH

ADULTS WHO NOW WANT TO

LEGALISE CANNABIS