Cannabis use leads to psychosis
 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6201LW20100301

I guess this will add more fuel to the fire in the debate to legalize marijuana. I never heard of skunk before, but then I am not a smoker. :cool:

I guess it's a good thing I didn't pick up any bad habits until I was well into my 20s. :cool:

These studies come out every few years and they generally fail to account for the fact that people who suffer from psychosis will self-medicate, and weed is the first medication of choice. (Although my dead psychotic ex-nephew in law self-medicated with industrial-strength opiates...)

We also know that the percentage of people diagnosed with psychosis has not risen, even as weed gets more popular and stronger. If 40% of regulars developed serious mental illnesses, we would certainly notice that.

It's not empirical evidence, but my buddy who has smoked every day since the early 70s is still the most intelligent person I know.

Well it makes sense that any psychedelic drug with hallucinogenic effects will increase the risk of a condition that involves hallucinations.

Weed is a tricky drug. From all the studies and personal experience I've gathered it seems that it can potentially be beneficial if used in moderation but can be dangerous if abused. But, weed affects everyone differently so it is extremely difficult to generalize. Weed may lessen the effects of anxiety (when sober) on one person but may cause anxiety (when sober) on another. I find it ironic that weed, when abused, can cause almost all of the psychological conditions that it is suppose to help with. Depends on the person. Depends on the type of weed. Depends on the dosage.


Harder psychedelic drugs (LSD, shrooms, etc) can really fuck some people up though. Some of the permanent side effects from those are just as bad or worst than any other drug IMO. Once again, someone could take 2,000 LSD hits over a lifetime and be fine and someone else could get HPPD from one. If you have any history of schizophrenia, never use harder psychedelics and I would recommend staying away from weed as well.

It appears they tried to account for some alternate explanations, by doing sibling studies as well, but since siblings can develop psychoses independently of each other anyway, I don't see how that helps with the cause or effect (self-medication) question.

They'd compare rates. If you have a bunch of sibs and the ones that medicate get psychoses at a greater rate than those who don't, then the drugs had an effect.

That doesn't differentiate between "ones that medicate get psychoses" and "ones that get psychoses medicate" (or, "ones with X medicate and get psychoses", for that matter).

The people here aren't lab rats; you can't have a control group of people who are prevented from taking drugs even if they would have; and that's the control group that you would need to have in order to indicate causation as well as correllation.

Ever seen the design of a double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial? :eyebrow:

What's the placebo group here, they give some people fake pot?

No, I wasn't saying this was a d-b-p-c-t, just that such things do exist.

Right. I shouldn't have implied that you can only do such things with lab rats. The important difference is that this wasn't a clinical trial of cannabis, it was a study of people outside the control of the researcher, and as such I couldn't see a way for there to be a control group that could indicate causation.

They're just cannabis deniers.:cool:

Aren't these the most vibrant, beautiful butterflies you've ever seen? What? Whaddya mean there ain't no butterflies?



[The Dude] Far out man, far fucking out.[/The Dude]

A recent New Scientist article ( I'm not a New Scientist spambot honestly) said that weed basically has two components, one of which is an anti-psychotic. Selection to produce ever stronger strains and skunk, have reduced or elimnated this anti-spychotic component, so modern strains are more likley to produce spychotic effects in the susceptible, than the weed of yesteryear.
It was posited as an argument for legalization so that the amount of the seconf component could be regulated.

weasels! weasels! get them off me!

Didn't you mean to post this in the "Relationships" section?


:D

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...s-do-harm.html

The authors believe that acting psychotic is a precursor to having the mental illness of psychosis. This does not ring true to me. If you regularly drink alcohol, you will not wind up permanently acting drunk.

I am pretty sure we will come to find that not just CBD, but literally hundreds of other similar chemicals called cannabinoids are very much present in "street weed", because medicine has isolated THC and put it into a pill form and the effect of it is different than the effect of plain old weed.

Meanwhile if you look at the medical marijuana being produced, you will find that there are many different "strains", which people report as having drastically different results. Some are better as medicine than others -- some better for nausea, some better for pain, etc. and this can be explained by different levels of many different cannabinoids, some of which are more narcotic (for some people) than others.

http://cellar.org/2008/themoreyouknow.jpg

I don't know... if you are a regular alcoholic, I do think there is a certain amount of long-term damage to the brain, even if you later get sober. Memory loss, for example. What about acid flashbacks? The LSD is no longer in the system, but the brain is still having psychotic episodes years later. Probably not going to sustain that kind of damage off a few hits in college, of course, but I can certainly see how sustained, intense use of (a particular strain of) marijuana might also lead to permanent effects.

Acid flashbacks are the release of tiny amounts of LSD that has remained in your body. I believe LSD can remain in the body from 1 to 20 years. Although I do agree with your main argument Clodfobble.

To break down my logic:
1) I consider weed a weak psychedelic as opposed to LSD and others which I consider strong psychedelics. When I used to smoke particular strains of weed, especially after taking LSD, I noticed that some of the visual and psychedelic effects are similar but on a much weaker level. I have also once taken a weed brownie so strong that two friends and I basically had an acid trip for five hours. For about three of those five we completely forgot it was weed and thought we were on acid. Although, three other friends, taking the same brownies, did not have the acid trip effect.

2) I believe there is enough evidence to make a legitmate connection between strong psychedelics and schizophrenia. I personally know someone whose uncle is permanently in a mental hospital after accidentally absorbing a sheet of acid when attempting to sneak it across the US-Mexico border.

As I mentioned earlier, every legitimate article I've read on the topic has stated that if psychedelic drugs are related to psychosis or schizophrenia, the relation is increased probability. For example, if you have a 30% chance of becoming a schizophrenic, smoking weed or LSD will increase the probability of that happening.

UT's arguments are strong and may prove to be true but at least until more evidence is shown, I believe there is a connection.

So THAT explains the voices.....