People who use marijuana are more likely to have suicidal thoughts. That’s the latest round of anti-pot propaganda coming from a couple of bodies of research published over the last two months.

It’s enough to scare parents worried about their kids getting wrapped up in the novelty of weed and then being carted off to a very dark place. However, health professionals say the link between the consumption of cannabis and increased suicidal behaviour is not that cut and dried.

Two recent studies show a connection between marijuana use and suicide. The first comes from Stanford University, where researchers found an uptick in suicides where cannabis was legal. The study points a finger at the potency of legal pot products.

The next study is from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which found that people who use cannabis are more likely to experience suicidal thoughts. Findings note that weed users are at a higher risk for mood disturbances and self-harming attempts.

So, watch out, right? Well…

The relationship between cannabis and suicide is nothing new. For years, scientific minds have noted a connection between those who smoke marijuana and suicidal behaviour.

But it’s not as if the average, happy person is suddenly going full-blown depressive through the use of the herb. The research on the subject seems to show that people with pre-existing mental health conditions are more susceptible to the wrath of these adverse effects than healthy individuals.

Although cannabis might help people with anxiety, it can worsen the symptoms of severe psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It’s just not yet exactly how or why.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director at NIDA and lead author of the study, stops short of blaming cannabis for an increase in suicidal behaviour. Dr. Volkow says she believes more research on this topic is critical.

“As we better understand the relationship between cannabis use, depression and suicidality, clinicians will be able to provide better guidance and care to patients.” / PHOTO BY ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

“While we cannot establish that cannabis use caused the increased suicidality we observed in this study, these associations warrant further research, especially given the great burden of suicide on young adults,” she said in a statement. “As we better understand the relationship between cannabis use, depression and suicidality, clinicians will be able to provide better guidance and care to patients.”

Even though humanity could use some solid research to find out more about how cannabis reacts with the mentally ill, the fact is currently available data isn’t stopping legalization from happening all over the U.S. Somewhere around 17 states have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and over. There could even be a push this year to legalize it at the federal level.

“Most people who use cannabis are not suicidal, and most people who have attempted suicide may not have used cannabis, so cannabis is neither necessary nor sufficient to ‘cause’ suicide or mood disorders,” Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, told Healthline.

Still, the U.S. could use some of that additional marijuana research that Dr. Volkow mentioned in her study. To make those kinds of opportunities more available, however, the federal government must make changes to the Schedule I classification of the cannabis plant — downgrading it to a Schedule II.

This is something President Joe Biden said he would change during his campaign. Yet, nothing so far has been done to see it through.

Dr. D’Souza agrees the added science surrounding the purported correlation between cannabis use and suicide would be greatly beneficial. “Clearly, further work is necessary to tease the complex association between cannabis use, mood disorders and suicide.”