Mental illness, schizophrenia will be skyrocketing soon.
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Is it only legal pot that is correlated (we have zero proof of causality) to schizophrenia.
http://schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm
Odd, don’t you think that the rate of schizophrenia (approx 1.1% of the population) is pretty much the same country to country year after year. Shouldn’t we have seen considerable spiking of the rate after the late 60s here in the US?
Recent research, posted on FRE, indicates that the linkage mechanism is: the genes that predispose one to schizophrenia also predispose one to pot use.
"We looked at the different regions of the brain. The back of the brain develops first, and the frontal parts of the brain develop during adolescence.
We found that the frontal cortex is much more affected by the drugs during adolescence. This is the area of the brain that controls executive functions, such as planning and impulse control. It is also the area most affected in schizophrenia."
New research may give backing to parents telling teens to "just say no." A study in mice from the University of Maryland School of Medicine reveals that regular use of marijuana during adolescence could damage brain function, potentially increasing the risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric problems.
The study, which was recently published in Neuropsychopharmacology, had scientists examining cortical oscillations - patterns of the brain's neuron activity - in mice. These oscillations become abnormal when schizophrenia or other psychiatric disorders are present.
Researchers exposed young mice to low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the active ingredient present in marijuana, for 20 days. Then the mice were returned to their family to continue developing.
When the mice became adults, the scientists discovered that their cortical oscillations were severely modified, and the mice showed signs of impaired cognitive functions.
Sylvina Mullins Raver from the University of Maryland says: "The striking finding is that, even though the mice were exposed to very low drug doses, and only for a brief period during adolescence, their brain abnormalities persisted into adulthood."