How Cannabis can have positive effects on ADD

Dr. David Bearman explains Cannabis and ADD

The usual situation with a teenager is that they started using the cannabis recreationally and incidentally noticed that it helped them with their focus and concentration. I want to make one thing clear, if a teenager is using cannabis excessively, it may interfere with their education. It is not always something that is helpful.

But in the cases that I have seen where people have come in and I have attention deficit disorder I tried Ritalin either it didn’t work or I didn’t like the side effects. I noticed with marijuana or cannabis that I could focus, I could concentrate and my grades went up with this.

So, for most people, certainly with people with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) most of them, cannabis has been helpful. Now some people use the cannabis instead of Ritalin, Concerta or Adderall and other people use it in conjunction with it because one of the problems with the sympathomimetic drugs which is what Ritalin or Dexodrine or the other conventional medications for ADD, they have a side effect profile which is unacceptable to some people. As a stimulant it interferes with your appetite, it can interfere with sleep, cause jitteriness and cannabis has the opposite effect.