‘I’d run down the road thinking I was God’: a day at the cannabis psychosis clinic

A few miles from the clinic, at University Hospital Lewisham, consultant Diego Quattrone, who runs the psychiatric intensive care unit, says that at least 80% of new admissions report cannabis use. He feels the dangers of the drug are overlooked, adding that use is “among the strongest factors associated with violence before and during admission”. Meanwhile, “daily use of high-potency cannabis” is associated with “a distinct subtype of violence driven by psychotic symptoms, such as paranoid delusions and hallucinations”.

• “My paranoia was so bad I couldn’t get on a bus or a train, could barely get out of bed and leave my house at my worst … "