A London scientist whose research on marijuana has also paved the way to a commercial enterprise has discovered that when it comes to schizophrenia, the use of pot can be the best and worst of times.

It turns out that though one of the major chemicals in marijuana is linked to psychosis, another may serve as an effective treatment, said Steven Laviolette, an associate professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

“Within the same plant, you’ve got two different chemicals that are producing opposite effects,” said Laviolette, whose study was published in the journal Neuroscience.

His interest is not only academic. He and his partners last year sought investors for a startup called Indica Agrifarm — Indica being a major type of marijuana plant.

A chemical found in marijuana called cannabidiol, or CBD, affects the brain in a way that makes it an ideal treatment option for schizophrenia. This research comes just months after the same lab found that adolescent exposure to THC, the other major compound found in marijuana, may lead to the onset of schizophrenia in adulthood.

Using rodents, Laviolette and his team, led by postdoctoral fellow Justine Renard, showed that CBD corrects schizophrenia-like disturbances in the brain’s dopamine system, lessening symptoms such as psychosis and cognitive problems.

“One of the biggest problems in treating schizophrenia is that there hasn’t been an effective new treatment on the market in a very long time,” Laviolette said. “The drugs on the market today have limited efficacy and horrible side-effects; there is a desperate need for safer alternative medications.”

Though CBD has shown promise as a treatment for schizophrenia in previous studies, this research is the first to show exactly how it acts on the brain to have positive results in mitigating psychiatric symptoms without causing the fatigue, lack of motivation and other side-effects associated with traditional medications, he said.

“The effects of CBD were bypassing traditional molecular pathways that are activated by antipsychotic drugs. We think that’s one of the reasons that it has better tolerability and fewer side-effects,” he said.

His work is timely because the federal government says it will introduce legislation next spring to legalize marijuana.

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