Posted on 09/10/2008 4:47:50 PM PDT by RightWingConspirator
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It is, however, related to the amount of cannabis used.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I remember seeing that movie. Man you made me feel old.
“It is my contention... and the contention of any number of substance abuse professionals... that people with psychological issues self-medicate with these substances.”
That’s a very interesting hypothesis, and quite possibly true; and exactly what I told my son when he asked me if pot was really dangerous. I told him that no one really knows if pot causes madness, or madness causes pot use. So even aside from the importance of obeying the law, it is best to play it safe and avoid this quite possibly hazardous substance.
I also remember the lie detector question I was asked many years ago while interviewing for a famous Wall Street bank: “Have you used any illegal drug other than marijuana?”. I inferred that the bank owners were themselves recreational smokers. It’s an utter disgrace that government continues to put people in jail for doing what Clinton, Bush, Palin, and Wall Street bigwigs have also done.
Wow...you just made me remember a BOC concert at the [former] Cap Center in DC.
I was up in the “nosebleed section” surrounded by what appeared to be most of the USMC.
BOC finished their show “Roadhouse Blues” and naturally, it became a huge, raucous “sing along”.
Either suddenly become the musical mascot for the USMC *or* the unbelievable amount of pot fumes caused me to have an actual panic attack shortly after the song was over.
It was *horrible*.
I was totally freaked out the whole way home.
[about a 2 hour drive]
I have avoided being anywhere near people using the stuff, since then.
Duck and Cover!
p.s....At one Jethro Tull concert at Merriwether Post Pavilion, Ian shut the whole show down until the potheads in the front row either left or quit smoking their pot.
There was about a 15 minute Tull-lull....:))
Even paranoids have enemies, and when the narcs want to put you in jail for possession, then you really do have enemies - it ain’t paranoia!
This study still doesn’t rule out whether these people were already messed up and used lots of drugs to treat their problems. People with mental health problems gravitate toward alcohol and drugs. Their lives tend to be miserable and they self medicate, or “party” in an attempt to feel better. Are there more instances of serious mental illness in states where use of marijuana is highest? No, not according to our government numbers.
It's an utter disgrace that you would characterize it that way. In almost every case, someone would have to be caught multiple times, refuse treatment, and disobey a judge before getting jail time.
“In almost every case, someone would have to be caught multiple times, refuse treatment, and disobey a judge before getting jail time.”
Baloney. That’s just a comfortable rationalization of obvious injustice to allow you to sleep better.
Time and time again I’ve read about drug addicts saying they were thankful to go through the judicial process because it gave them the means and the motivation to get clean.
I don't know. I have too but no psychosis. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
You can come out from under your desk now.
Does this study really tell us that using pot will make you psychotic? No test subjects using marijuana but without a psychotic episode were studied.
If the message is that mentally ill people tend to self-medicate more than those not mentally ill, can I get a big 'well, duh!' from the studio audience?
Bottom line for me? Those against marijuana usage tend to gravitate towards the studies that demonstrate its harm, while those who are users tend to gravitate towards the studies that show the opposite.
Having come of age in the very early '70s (born in '58), it would just seem that I would know a LOT more people with psychoses, given the prevelance of marijuana usage back in the day (and continuing on to this day).
I swear to God, I sometimes think some of you people are 90 years old. Get out of the house and go to a party.
It is physically impossible to be addicted to pot. The ignorance on this subject is mind-blowing.
I'd like to see more in depth studies dealing specifically with psychosis where they look at the percentage in each state experiencing psychosis in relation to the percentage who smoke marijuana. That's about the only way I can think of to test the validity of these studies. We can't really take 2000 people and give a 1000 marijuana and keep testing the other thousand to make sure they aren't using it, but that would give us a much better picture than these studies where they look at a few people with psychosis and determine which ones were smoking marijuana and draw conclusions from that. They say smoking marijuana brings psychosis on earlier, but it could very well be that people most predisposed to psychotic episodes are also most likely to gravitate toward drug use in an effort to counter the misery mental illness is bringing them. Those conducting this study concluded that up to 10% of mental illness in their area is caused by marijuana use. They're basing this on a shaky foundation of data. I'd like to see them break their area down into segments and look at the percentages of people experiencing psychosis in relation to the percentage in each geographic area that smoke marijuana. Then they'd have a much better idea of how much psychosis marijuana use is actually causing, if any.
All of the Dopertarians will be here with pseudoscience to disprove this.
They used to say that about cigarettes too. I don't think marijuana is anywhere near as addictive as tobacco, but clearly there are people who have a great deal of difficulty quitting marijuana, who will use it habitually when they know using it is causing them problems. Maybe it's just like Internet addiction or gambling addiction. I don't know. I tend to think though that even psychological addictions are actually physical. What goes on in your brain is not magic. It's all electrical, or chemical neurobiological function, something physical. I think there is probably less difference in what we term “physical addiction” and what we call “psychological addiction” than we think.
Thank you for the well thought out response. It’s rare on these threads this day and age.
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