Neuroscientists in the IU Gill Center for Biomolecular Science recently received more than $2 million from the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse to use mice to better understand the impact of cannabis use during adolescence, with a goal of developing therapies to treat adverse effects in humans.
“This is a significant public health concern,” said Hui-Chen Lu, director of the Gill Center and a professor in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “Today’s cannabis strains are being bred for increased THC content. It’s very different and much riskier than the more traditional strains used in the past. There’s an urgent need to understand the effects of these new strains.”
Ken Mackie, a Jack and Linda Gill Chair of the Gill Center and a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, said studies indicate that heavy use of cannabis with high THC — particularly cannabis use that begins between ages 12 and 14 — increases the risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders from two- to five-fold.
“One of the functions of the prefrontal cortex is working memory, as well as processes like planning and impulse control,” Mackie said. “That part of the brain is still developing in adolescence, and developing brain structures are particularly vulnerable to environmental impacts, such as drug use or stress.”
