King’s hired volunteers to smoke bongs for three years

Volunteers at King's College Hospital have been smoking bongs for the past three years to aid research into the prevention of psychotics induced by cannabis.

Researchers at King's College London have been looking into what the best balance of and CBD, which had no stimulating effect, and THC, which gets users high, is in cannabis.

Both substances are found naturally in cannabis but 'skunk', a stronger version of the drug, contain very little CBD and far more THC than cannabis.

Speaking to Southwark News, KCL professor, Amir Englund said: "About forty per cent of cannabis users experience psychotic effects, strange thoughts, suspicious or even hallucinations, and something we call conceptual disorganisation."

"When given big doses of CBD, people do not experience paranoia, less memory impairment and less likely to experience psychotic effects, so we want to find out, the there a CBD /THC ratio that's less harmful?"

Using a volcano bong, KCL volunteers were given CBD and THC cannabis. Inhaling different amounts of the drug, volunteers were asked to eat chocolate and listen to music to test is their appreciation of it changed throughout the day. KCL also tested their social interaction experience after taking cannabis by taking volunteers to the shop.

The three year testing has unfortunately been completed, so KCL are not looking for any volunteers, but KCL is now working with King's College Hospital, the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust to analyse the results.