Posted on 03/04/2005 10:44:14 AM PST by MisterRepublican
WASHINGTON - The admission rate for those who seek treatment for marijuana use nearly tripled between 1992 and 2002, according to the latest data compiled by the federal government.
The numbers released Friday reflect a growing use of marijuana in the 1990s and an increase in the potency of marijuana, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"This report makes clear what people in the public health community have known for years, which is marijuana is a much more dangerous drug than many Americans realize," Riley said. "This report is a wake up call for parents that marijuana is not a soft drug. It's a much bigger part of the addiction problem than is generally understood."
The study on treatment rates was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which estimated that 41 states experienced an increase in the number of people who sought treatment for marijuana use during the decade studied.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortwayne.com ...
Can't...type....must......find.......pot.
Nobody check themself in for pot "addiction". Nearly all of the patients are there as a result of a court order or their parents forcing them. The ONDCP are asses.
Many people I know insist weed isn't addictive. Perhaps not in the way cocaine or cigarettes are. However, why can't potheads quit smoking it, if its not addictive?
This Is Your Brain on Drugs: The Marijuana-Psychosis Connection Revisited
Some studies have suggested cannabis use as a risk factor for psychosis, but these studies failed to control for predisposition to psychosis and other confounders. In a German population-based study, researchers used personal interviews at baseline and 4 years later to examine the effects of marijuana use in 2437 young subjects (age range, 14-24). Prevalence of lifetime cannabis use (at least 5 times) was 13% at baseline and 15% at follow-up. Lifetime incidence of one psychotic symptom (based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview) at follow-up was 17% and incidence of at least two symptoms was 7%. Researchers adjusted results for self-reported psychoticism and paranoia scores at baseline ("psychotic predisposition"), demographics, head-trauma history, and use of other drugs and alcohol.
In a logistic-regression analysis, cannabis use significantly increased risk for any psychotic symptom, with a clear dose-response effect. Psychotic predisposition significantly increased this risk, which was greater in subjects with at least two psychosis symptoms than in those with one symptom. The population-attributable risk (proportion of cases that could be avoided by eliminating the risk factor) was 6% overall and 14% for participants with psychotic predisposition.
Comment: Cannabis use clearly increased the risk for any psychotic symptom; having more symptoms, psychotic predisposition, or more frequent cannabis use strengthened this association. These findings are consistent with cannabis effects on increasing dopamine release in the frontal lobe, with the increase in cannabinoid receptors in schizophrenic brains, and with increased levels of endogenous cannabinoids in the spinal fluid of schizophrenic individuals. Given the minimal level of psychotic symptoms examined in this study, its findings may pertain more to schizophrenic-spectrum and atypical-psychotic conditions than to more narrowly defined schizophrenia.
— Peter Roy-Byrne, MD
I will concur that it isn't addictive in the physical sense like nicotine or coke.
But I know a lot of people that can't seem to quit smoking it...and I don't mean an occasional joint, I mean the people that get up in the morning for the specific purpose of getting high.
About 10 percent of the people that use or try weed will get addicted, and it can be severe; just like about 10 percent of the people that use or try alcohol.
And the determinant as to whether they become an addict to either is genetics.
More propaghanda from a federal agency trying desperately to hang on to their funding and prevent states from decriminalizing. I'll ask again... if the federal gov't's actions are Constitutional why did it take an amendment to make alcohol illegal but not marijuana?
I've know several people who smoke pot and have had one hell of a time stopping. Perhaps it isn't physically "addictive" but almost any behavior can be psychologically "addictive".
I know many, many people who have smoked pot at different times in their lives and then put it down altogether.
I know others -- mostly professionals -- who smoke it only occasionally, for recreation.
There are people who can get addicted to all kinds of things, including caffeine.
But pot itself is NOT generally addictive.
the big business known as drug prohibition continues to grow. we need more cops, more judges, and more jails to protect us from the marijuana addicts!
Hide your twinkies!
Those people definitely have problems. Take away the pot and they'd find some other substance or activity to obsess on. I don't believe in penalizing everyone for the sake of the few who are having problems.
That is the million dollar question -- one that is not asked anywhere near as often as it should be.
Actually, the label "addictive" refers to certain bodily reactions and mental thresholds. Pot is addictive in the sense that people want to do it again and again; so is weightlifting to many, for that matter.
People with addictive personalities are prone to get addicted to many things: porn, sex, and yes, pot. Absent those substances which make the body/mind feel it "needs" them, addiction is often just indulgence mislabeled.
Is pot addictive? To some, for certain. Is it anywhere near the category of physical/mental addiction of alcohol, caffeine, or tobacco? Not even close.
They can if they want to. Some don't want to.
Since when can't potheads stop smoking? I have known more than one person who smoked pot heavily for a long time, then quit by merely deciding to do so, without any of the withdrawal symptoms or psychological crises that, for example, a cigarette smoker goes through. Just because someone may not want to stop smoking pot doesn't mean they can't. Cigarettes, on the other hand, are a f-ing nightmare to quit.
And the determinant as to whether they become an addict to either is genetics.
It depends on how you define "addiction". There are very few physical withdrawal symptoms. There can be some psychological symptoms (ie. craving).
It only requires "treatment" in the same sense that overeating requires treatment. It's something you want to do, but the body doesn't habitate to it.
Confusing "can't" with "unwilling," I believe. To be a addictive substance, the withdrawal from the chemical must produce withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal from marihuana doesn't.
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