There just might be some truth to this story.
Posted on 07/27/2007 5:25:40 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
LONDON - Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.
The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.
Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana’s long-term risks. The research, paid for by the British Health Department, is being published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
There are people watching me.........everywhere.........even here..........even while I sleep..........
The NORML crowd will be along any moment now to pee on this theory.
For all you “Animal House” fans...Dave Jennings was right.
In other words, more Junk Science.
There just might be some truth to this story.
I wonder how much "Palmie" tax money was spent on this "study"?
hey - can I have a piece of that bagel? I’ve got the munchies.
While I agree if the science is good, then it should be paid attention to. But if it’s junk science, than it may not be worth it
What percentage of people that consume alcohol die from it?
What percentage of people that consume marijuana die from it?
What's the ratio of people that act out violently under the influence of alcohol?
What's the ratio of people that act out violently under the influence of marijuana?
Who should decide what a person puts or doesn't put into their body, the individual or the government?
Why wait for the NORML crowd to show? They pretty much debunked their own conclusions right out of the gate. Don't let that get in your way though. More money spent on a non study study, akin to 1 out of 5 Dentist say......Blackbird.
Yeah. Our FreeRepublic community would be a lot better if it weren't for all the people.
Nope, it would be less funny though.
Everyone’s body reacts differently to different drugs. That’s why the results of any drug trial are confusing. You have to wonder though, while countries known to have tried to subvert America’s youth promote marijuana legalization in this country, but do not allow marijuana use their own countries. If the best in brightest in our country are left dulled and somehow politically changed, how does that affect America and how does it benefit countries trying to destroy it?
its strange though, in high school i smoked a lot, and after.. then slowly years later when i smoked i needed a drink and it’s still like that which is why i stopped. the 1st time i smoked i had that wonderful body buzz, now when i smoke its paranoia for 5 minutes then it tapers off.
i’m into psychology a little bit and i think pot makes your brain fall onto it’s second hidden level, almost hitting your subconcious. i smoked up a friend once and he went blue and htought he was dying lol.
now if i ever do i make sure i have a few beers beside it then i’m chill. but it does change depending on the compexity of your brain and whats goin on. things were much simpler as children!
Wanna see them suddenly see the iight on Junk Science?
Studies: Smoking may be a cause of mental illness
An unsettling new explanation for the strange link between cigarette smoking and mental illness has quietly emerged from research done during the last few years.
Experts long have known that psychological disorders are unusually common among cigarette smokers.
One 2000 Harvard University study, for instance, concluded that almost half of all cigarette smokers in the United States have some form of mental illness.
The researchers found that many smokers have symptoms that fit neatly into the standard psychiatric definitions of major depression, anxiety disorder, phobias, alcohol or other drug dependence, and antisocial personality.
Other studies show that almost 90 percent of people with the most serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, smoke cigarettes. Individuals with mental illness also are among the heaviest smokers.
So what started first? The illness or the smoking?
Mental illness occurs first, according to the time-honored theory. People with mental illness start smoking, and smoke more, because nicotine relieves their symptoms and makes them feel better. In addition, they may be more psychologically vulnerable to nicotine addiction or the allure of tobacco advertising.
New studies, however, suggest that cigarette smoking is the cause - not the consequence - of some psychiatric disorders, including common conditions that involve depression and anxiety.
Tons of scientific evidence over the last 60 years have unmasked tobacco’s role in heart attacks, lung cancer, and other physical diseases. Cigarette smoking causes more than 430,000 deaths annually, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 1 in every 5 deaths.
Suspicion that tobacco may cause mental illness arose in the 1990s. It still gets little attention, compared to tobacco’s effects on physical health.
Some of the first hints emerged from a 1998 study on teenage smokers headed by Dr. Naomi Breslau, a psychiatrist at the Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit.
Her five-year study of 1,000 young adults found that smoking increased the risk for developing depression. People who smoked before the study began had twice the risk of developing major depression during the following five years as nonsmokers.
Larger studies have bolstered the link.
A University of Cincinnati study of 8,704 teenagers, for instance, found that mentally healthy teenagers who start smoking are four times more likely to develop depression than their nonsmoking peers.
Harvard University researchers studied cigarette smoking and mental health in 4,500 adolescents and adults. Mentally healthy teenagers who smoked at least one pack a day faced a 16-fold greater risk of developing panic attacks, a seven-fold risk of developing serious phobias, and five times the risk of anxiety attacks than peers who smoked less than one pack.
How could cigarette smoking cause mental illness?
Experts don’t know.
Some suspect that the nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke may damage or change the normal activity of brain cells.
Others think that nicotine and high levels of carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke work together to cause symptoms of psychological illness.
Nicotine’s stimulant action keeps smokers in a state of heightened alertness. With minds racing, hearts pounding, and blood pressure up, they are more likely to overreact to body sensations and situations in the environment.
Carbon monoxide may cause breathing disorders responsible for one sensation - a false sense of suffocation - that triggers many panic and anxiety attacks. One attack then engenders fear of others, and causes changes in behavior.
People should know about the findings, even though many questions remain unanswered.
It may make young people think twice about that first cigarette, for instance. And it could make confirmed smokers with diagnosed psychological problems wonder if quitting will ease their symptoms.
Everyone’s body reacts differently to different drugs. That’s why the results of any drug trial are confusing.
The results at the coroner's office are not confusing. Either the cause of death is known or not known. Under the influence of any drug it can be determined a level of violence above or below the base line of violence not under the influence of any drug.
If the best in brightest in our country are left dulled and somehow politically changed, how does that affect America and how does it benefit countries trying to destroy it?
Not sure. It seems to me that the best and the brightest would be too smart to be, as you put it, "left dulled". Being smart to begin with how could they be left dull without being made dull first?
But if a person can't or won't answer pertinent questions they're worthy of being ignored, IMO.
I used the term “best and brightest” somewhat sarcastically. Al Gore’s college roommate reported that Al smoked pot every day when he lived with him, as I recall. With his pre-college SAT V+M score of 1355, corresponding to an IQ of about 140, I would have expected better things of Al, like actually inventing the Internet instead of claiming to. Other than a total lack of motivation, what would have caused Al’s 140 IQ to result in flunking out of undergraduate courses? What caused that lack of motivation? I suspect that pot had something to do with it.
Another thing I failed to mention is that marijuana is not a single chemical entity like FDA approved drugs, which would have maybe two drug compounds maximum in a single pill. Instead there are hundreds or even thousands of compounds present in a plant like marijuana. Each one of these compounds could potentially have a deleterious effect.
Drug compounds can have many deleterious effects short of death, so I’m not sure what your point is about the coroner’s office.
Drug compounds can have many deleterious effects short of death, so I’m not sure what your point is about the coroner’s office.
Coroners list the known cause of death of each body. They have listed alcohol poisoning as the cause of death many times. They have never listed marijuana as a cause of death.
You know what I'm getting at. You responded to post 10 as though the below questions didn't exist there.
In how many deaths has alcohol been determined to be the cause of death?
In how many deaths has marijuana been determined to be the cause of death?
What percentage of people that consume alcohol die from it?
What percentage of people that consume marijuana die from it?
What's the ratio of people that act out violently under the influence of alcohol?
What's the ratio of people that act out violently under the influence of marijuana?
Who should decide what a person puts or doesn't put into their body, the individual or the government?
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