Will Lawn

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.

Thanks Janet. I emailed a few times without a reply earlier in the year. I've since got a response saying your team will investigate it, alongside the council & highways team - thank you. I also look forward to discussing it at the constituent meeting on 26th September.

@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...

Quitting weed, in teenagers and young adults, is associated with dramatic drops in psychotic-like symptoms and depression.

All LMM analyses adjusted for relevant. genetic and environmental factors.

Publication expected later this year.

Top-line findings: (1) cannabis use frequency predicts CUD, psychotic-like symptoms, and depression, (2) teenagers have persistently higher CUD severity, (3) additively, using cannabis frequently and being a teenager leads to highest psychotic-like symptom severity.

Four-year trajectories of mental health symptoms in adolescents and adults who do and do not use cannabis Hosted on the Open Science Framework

See our 4-year longitudinal CannTeen findings in our pre-print here: osf.io/8hmy9/

Joint first authors: Ayse Doga Lamper and Layla Sadek.

These ongoing collaborations with secondary schools are highly rewarding as I am able to deliver important, scientific, health-related information directly to adolescents and subsequently recruit teenage participants into research studies about substance use.

The London Drugs Commission 2025 report and the WHO 2024 report both called for improved cannabis and drugs education for adolescents. Hopefully my credible, cannabis-specific assemblies can be a very small part of this.
www.london.gov.uk/programmes-s...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The new RA will deliver many more assemblies across the South East and make assembly materials openly and freely available online for all other UK schools to use.

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)

And if Sentia did produce GABA-induced anxiolytic effects, might it not be a relapse-promoting risk for those who are trying to completely abstain from alcohol?

Instead, they report EEG results from a small open label study. The levels of GABA altering chemicals, first pass metabolism, bioabsorption, and ED50s for real subjective effects don't check out. It's misleading branding and poor science.

Better than some articles but still too generous! Sentia is very expensive. Noone I know who has tried it thinks it has made them more relaxed (inc me). The creators of Sentia could easily do a blinded experiment on subjective effects, but don't.

Generation K: The disturbing rise of ketamine abuse among young people Increasing numbers of young people are using the drug, experts say. The health impacts can be catastrophic.

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

Project ADDER: Impact evaluation

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/...

It refers to the correlation between brain activity and strength of preference for buying the reward. A parametric neural correlate of 'I really want it and I will pay lots for it'.

Really interesting work, thank you. Do you mind sharing why you think we see these negative consequences of these whole school interventions? (I'm sure you cover this well in your papers, bit I'm a bit lazy sorry!!!)

Thanks to co-authors: Xuejun Hao, Paul Glimcher, Margaret Haney, Anna Konova, Ziva Cooper, Nicholas van Dam

More research needed now with a control group of people who drugs infrequently and without problems, to clearly explore the relationships between problematic use and value signals of drugs and non-drug rewards.

The paper also demonstrates the feasibility of neuroeconomic research with illicit drugs.

These results have relevance for neurobehavioural theories of #SUD which postulate that SUDs are caused by altered valuation of drugs and non-drug rewards. I'm cautious to conclude much about non-drug reward processing here, but value signals for drugs look fairly normal.

Cannabis value signals were detected in key reward and valuation brain regions. Much to our surprise, snack food value signals and the impact of powerful cues showed unexpected patterns of results.

n=20 participants. Crossover design. 4 sessions per participant, 2 factors: reward (cannabis/snack) and stimuli (neutral/active cues).