First longitudinal MRI paper from our CannTeen study (n=96) shows that over 1-yr #cannabis use is associated with reductions in activity in the ventral striatum when anticipating money #reward. Congrats to Dr Martine Skumlien lead author and the whole CannTeam. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper led by Cassie Bloy - analysis of our KARE trial data. Studied acute psychoactive effects of IV ketamine in AUD over 3 infusions and if they explained clinical benefit. Strong altered states, but subjective effects did not mediate reduced drinking. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Please do this 5-minute survey which asks how you feel about people who use cannabis: qualtrics.kcl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_... One of my excellent undergraduate research project students has designed the study, and needs more participants. Thanks!! Fully anonymous. No payment.

@brendadacres.bsky.social @janetdaby.bsky.social I live on Littlewood, London, SE13 6SD. Please can you repave and start weeding the pavements on Littlewood and Fordyce Road? The pavements are so cracked and weeds have grown so big that the pavement is unusable for prams and wheelchairs. Thanks!

We have published our new review 'Recent Innovations to Detect and Intervene to Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths' led by Basak Tas and John Strang. kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/pu...

See our 4-year longitudinal CannTeen findings in our pre-print here: osf.io/8hmy9/ Joint first authors: Ayse Doga Lamper and Layla Sadek.

Pleased to say that I've been awarded a small Impact Acceleration grant to scale up my cannabis education school assemblies and explore their acceptability and short-term impact on early-mid adolescents.

We analysed data from the KARE trial (n=96) to examine ketamine’s (0.8mg/kg infusion) psychoactive effects in alcohol use disorder and whether they mediate treatment response. Drug effects were strong and mainly onsistent across 3 infusions, but did not mediate reduced drinking. osf.io/kbswd

The London Drugs Commission report on cannabis makes several recommendations which I support. We must (1) deliver research-informed cannabis education to *early* adolescents, (2) offer evidence-based, specialist treatment for CUD to youth and adults. www.london.gov.uk/programmes-s...

Enjoyed presenting at #SOBP2025 on a #cannabis symposium organised by @emesekroon.bsky.social & @jcousijn.bsky.social. I presented 4-year longitudinal CannTeen data: teens who quit cannabis have reduced psychotic-like symptoms, and over 4 yrs teens are > sensitive to impact of frequent C use on CUD.

I've been asked why negative effects might happen in universal school MH interventions, so going to share thoughts here. Short answer is we don't know, but there are multiple (not mutually exclusive) possibilities: (thread)

We need to better understand ketamine use in YP. And we need to improve prevention of and treatment for problem ketamine use. But when you read stories like this www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... you would think all YP are doing k. SDD in YP shows 0.4% 14-yos & 2.5% of 15-yos have used k in past yr.

Credit to Dr Basak Tas and Sir John Strang for this important and challenging work which I had the privilege of being involved with. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the lab model of OD. More work needed to really explore impact of dose on respiratory depression @kingsioppn.bsky.social

The long-awaited evaluation of Project ADDER is now out, and makes fascinating reading for all with a concern for illicit drug problems in England and Wales. A thread: 1/? ttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/project-adder-impact-evaluation/project-adder-impact-evaluation#key-findings

Dr Basak Tas has published her important experimental work investigating the respiratory depressant effects of diamorphine in people with OUD. She increased dose of drug by 10 & 20% and measured respiratory function, in n=4. Honoured to be a part of this work. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🚨New Paper- How does the brain value #cannabis vs. snacks? 🍃🍔 Using fMRI & real purchases, we found strong cannabis value signals in reward regions (vmPFC, ventral striatum, dpCC), but not for snacks. Thanks to PI & lead author @gillbedi.bsky.social 🔗 Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Gray et al. (2025) report a well-powered (n=192) clinical trial testing 12 weeks of daily n-acetylcysteine for youth CUD. Prelim research suggested NAC might help youth stay abstinent when trying to quit. No significant difference NAC vs. placebo here. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am delighted to see @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social in the top 10 in the world for psychology. So much hard work goes into our work, and whilst rankings are not the be-all and end-all, it's a nice way to start 2025. www.timeshighereducation.com/world-univer...

Thanks to Catch22 and Tracy Scares for inviting me to speak at their Substance Misuse meeting about adolescent cannabis use. I've worked with Catch22, supporting them in their development of new PSHE cannabis education resources, which has been super rewarding.

We’re at @wellcometrust.bsky.social for the launch of the Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets - a free online platform that maps longitudinal datasets around the world🌎 @larseneault.bsky.social @mqmentalhealth.bsky.social 🔗https://atlaslongitudinaldatasets.ac.uk/ #AtlasLongitudinalDatasets

Fantastic to see the UK’s first drug consumption room finally open its doors in Glasgow. Congratulations to all those who made this happen. As the experience from more than 200 drug consumption rooms around the world shows, The Thistle will save many lives: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

It was a privilege to exhibit TheDifference's IncludEd25 event, advertising my assemblies and workshops about cannabis to educators from mainstream and alternative provision schools. Everyone's efforts to boost inclusion are inspiring. Great to make such meaningful connections.

New podcast episode with @jamesnicholls.bsky.social 'Culture, politics & drinking' Please check it out/leave a review etc! www.buzzsprout.com/1275176/epis...

Great opinion piece from James Nicholls and Geoffrey Hunt. Dismissing the pleasures/benefits that people get from alcohol is naive, over-simplifies debates & ignores important motivations (-> reducing intervention efficacy). This doesn't prevent recognition of huge harms caused by alcohol.

New paper in @deppjournal.bsky.social looking at ethical and political divergences within drug policy reform advocacy through the lens of three key concepts in liberal thought: positive/negative freedom; rational autonomy and social contract www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New paper from the icps. People living in legal-cannabis US states and Canada are more likely to seek help for a cannabis problem using a health professional than people living in cannabis-illegal states in the US, who use alternative options www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The UK advisory council on misuse of drugs has published their SOP on how they say they evaluate harm and class of illegal recreational drugs. I'm sharing thanks to seeing Owen Bowden-Jones's tweet on X. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6777c924…

Osborne et al. analysed the #ABCD cohort to investigate the relationship between #cannabis use and #psychotic like symptoms in 10-15 year-olds. They found evidence for shared vulnerability and self-medication, & mixed evidence for cannabis contributing to harm (1/6) jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Doggett et al. report that, in the very early stages of Canadian cannabis legalisation, high-risk emerging adults show *less* of an 'age-ing out' trajectory (falling cannabis use while growing up) than similar ppl in Memphis USA (where cannabis is illegal). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Jayawardhana et al. report in JAMA Psychiatry that medical #cannabis laws are associated with an increase in #CUD and cannabis poisoning rate, and #recreational cannabis laws are associated with an increase in cannabis poisoning rate, using health insurance claim data 2011-2021 tinyurl.com/2p928nxw

Cannabis use is a known risk factor for psychosis but we've shown that cannabis withdrawal may also be associated with psychosis onset. Also, if these people keep using cannabis after psychosis onset, they have a much higher risk of relapse. doi.org/10.1192/bjp....

Brilliant work by Marta Di Forti et al. In this single-arm, feasibility study they show that their cannabis clinic, for people with comorbid psychosis and cannabis use disorder, is feasible and is associated with reduced cannabis use and P symptoms & improved functional outcomes tinyurl.com/mstsrpxf

Amazing blog post from Matt about how to create these circle plots. I was lucky to see some sneak previews of our CannTeen data in this form, showing how vaporised thc and thc+cbd alter the 'persistence homological scaffold’ 🤷. To me, how modular different networks are. More to come from Matt soon!

New YP (under 18s) drug treatment data published. Cannabis and alcohol still by far the main drugs of concern, but ketamine presentations have increased by 2.6 % points since last year, and from 512 in 2021/2022 to 1201 in 2023/24 www.gov.uk/government/s...

Will Donald Trump's favourite word stop the influx of fentanyl into the US!? Innovative international drug policy here we come

WHO advocates for improved treatment of teenagers with #SUD, which I completely support. But we must first understand the drivers and lived experience of contemporary, early #adolescent drug use, in order to update and improve our early interventions. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A new longitudinal study from Denmark (n~5,000) has not found any -ve relationship between cannabis use, frequent use, age of initiation and age-related cognition. In fact, men with a history of use had slightly less cog decline from early to midlife decline onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Dr Amir Englund has penned a short piece for the Conversation about what we can learn from the legalisation of adult recreational cannabis use in various states in the US and in Canada: theconversation.com/what-are-the...

Prof Ann McNeill's keynote lecture at #SSA2024 was a tour de force. It was disappointing to hear that KCL researchers who promote evidence-based and effective tobacco harm reduction interventions have received harsh international criticism. Vaping isn't safe, but it's far safer than smoking tobacco.

My poster at #SSAConf2024 shows teenagers are at greater risk of problematic use of cannabis vs. adults, after adjusting for genetic predisposition, trauma, SES & gender. But, teenagers are not more vulnerable to impacts of cannabis on depression & anxiety

Sharing a new animation from the science channel @kurzgesagt-bot.bsky.social about the potential risks of heavy, long-term #cannabis use. I helped with scientific content and fact-checking. They have a huge reach on Youtube - good to get a balanced message out www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRa...