Take the word of medical researchers. Pot does increase the risk of mental illness, it does cause problems, especially for youth.
People like you perpetuate the urban myth that pot is harmless. Young people want to believe that pot is harmless. It isn't.
You are wrong.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19560900
Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005.
Department of Medicines Management, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. m.frisher@keele.ac.uk
Abstract
A recent systematic review concluded that cannabis use increases risk of psychotic outcomes independently of confounding and transient intoxication effects. Furthermore, a model of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia indicated that the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia would increase from 1990 onwards.
The model is based on three factors: a) increased relative risk of psychotic outcomes for frequent cannabis users compared to those who have never used cannabis between 1.8 and 3.1, b) a substantial rise in UK cannabis use from the mid-1970s and c) elevated risk of 20 years from first use of cannabis. This paper investigates whether this has occurred in the UK by examining trends in the annual prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia and psychoses, as measured by diagnosed cases from 1996 to 2005.
Retrospective analysis of the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) was conducted for 183 practices in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The study cohort comprised almost 600,000 patients each year, representing approximately 2.3% of the UK population aged 16 to 44. Between 1996 and 2005 the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining.
Explanations other than a genuine stability or decline were considered, but appeared less plausible. In conclusion, this study did not find any evidence of increasing schizophrenia or psychoses in the general population from 1996 to 2005.
I didn’t say it was harmless. Guns kill people but I wouldn’t prohibit them. Booze kills people but I wouldn’t prohibit it. Government isn’t a nanny and every time you guys find a “good reason” to use it as such I lose some more freedom. I quit taking the word of researchers, remeber AGW? I can cite just as much research that these people had mental issues before pot, I can cite research that pot smokers are lesss likely to have a car wreck, but I’d rather cite the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the ideas of freedom, to destroy yourself if so desired. Not to mention personal observation of facts on the ground. So once again if the guy selling pot didn’t sell other truly dangerous (not long term but each use) drugs most kids would never get to the bad stuff. To compare pot and speed is to compare a bb gun to a howitzer. My kids (4 of them 2 teens that are good students and pot free and 2 too young to know anything about it) know its bad for you. It used to be we taught our children, the war on drugs has just been an excuse for the state to. So I say its people like you that perpetuate the myth that a war on pot is worth fighting. People like you perpetuate the myth that pot heads need welfare dollars to live. People like you perpetuate the myth that if you sweep it under a rug, throw billions of dollars at it, sacrifice your rights and call it a war it will be ok. How about we privatize the war on pot and you people that think its a good idea and can be won pay for it. We, sorry you, seem to have forgotten you can’t fix stupid and you can’t dictate human nature.