Synthetic cannabis law change decreased psychiatric presentations

Scimex: New Zealand researchers, analysing psychiatric service data in Dunedin, have found that synthetic cannabis-related emergency presentations dropped by almost half after a law change in 2013. The legal update dramatically reduced the number of retailers selling synthetic cannabis products - from thousands to just 50 outlets - and placed greater restrictions on their sale. The authors estimate that, New Zealand-wide, this reduction in emergency care saved the country more than $3 million over three months.

Use of synthetic cannabinoids is associated with a range of mental health harms. The 2013 Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) was intended to limit retail availability of synthetic cannabinoids which had acceptable safety profiles. We evaluated numbers and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with mental health harms associated with use of synthetic cannabinoids for 3 months before and after implementation of the PSA on 18/7/2013.
In the 3 months post-PSA, there was a 42% reduction in EPS contacts and 52% reduction in patient presentations, compared with the 3 months pre-PSA. Patient demographics (predominantly young males with prior contact with mental health services), presenting symptoms (mood and psychotic symptoms and suicidality), and management and disposition were identical in both periods.
CONCLUSIONS: The decrease in mental health harms, as measured by frequency of EPS contacts, appeared to be due to reduced retail availability of synthetic cannabinoids rather that reduced toxicity of available products.