If you have not yet encountered patients using synthetic cannabinoids or hear about its use in your community, a new study by Palamar et al. (10.1542/peds.2017-1330), being early released this week in our journal, may be the wake-up call you need. Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) are compounds that are considered psychoactive substances that bind to know cannabinoid receptors and can be up to 100 times as strong as marijuana. They have been reported to result in agitation, seizures, psychosis and death with significant neuro- and cardio-toxicity compared to natural marijuana. What’s even scarier is that SC may be being used more and more by adolescents, especially if they are already using natural marijuana. To examine this problem, the authors of this study looked at data from a nationally representative survey of high school seniors asking them if they had used synthetic cannabinoids during the past 30 days in 2014 or 2015. The authors also inquired about use of other drug use and compared this to those who use conventional marijuana only. The results showed that 2.9% of the 7800 respondents have used synthetic cannabinoids in the month prior to being surveyed and almost half had used use these products more than three days a month. What’s even more alarming is that synthetic cannabinoid users were more like to use other worrisome drugs such as LSD, cocaine, heroin and nonmedical use of opioids compared to teens who only use recreational natural marijuana.
So are there risk factors or demographics for which teens are more apt to use synthetic cannabinoids? According to this study, the answer is yes—but you’ll need to link to this article to see just what the risk factor and demographic profile is for a user of synthetic cannabinoids. Do you ask about use of these agents in your teen patients? After reading this concerning study, perhaps you should.
