Dr. Dost Öngür, chief of the Psychotic Disorders Division at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, recently presented a sweeping slide-talk on complex current issues in treating psychosis, but it was one simple line of his that most stayed with me:

“I tell my students: Smoke all the pot you want — after you’re 30.”

That very evening, I parroted it to my adolescent children, explaining that Öngür, as an expert on psychosis at a leading psychiatric hospital, was referring specifically to the risk of developing schizophrenia. (Subtext: “When you were little, infections scared me most. Now it’s mental illness.”)

Leading Psychosis Expert To His Students: To Avoid Risk, Hold Off On Pot Til 30