Admittedly I started the pot discussion as pure speculation. How does a guy make it to 48 and hold down various jobs all while being a paranoid schiz? Is that probable? I suggested a hypothesis that his paranoid delusions of radio wave bombardment were likely the result of pot use. This hypothesis was provocative and unappealing to several posters. But when the toxicology report and/or details of his pot use trickle out in month or three, you guys shouldn’t be surprised.
“How does a guy make it to 48 and hold down various jobs all while being a paranoid schiz? Is that probable?”
‘Probable’ doesn’t matter, it’s ‘possible’ that counts. And it is possible.
The prodromal stage can last for several years, a long period of gradual deterioration where he is able to function well enough to hold a job and live what passes for a normal life.
The symptoms wouldn’t be pronounced enough for those who know him at work to think that he is anything other than eccentric or a loner. These are ‘negative symptoms’ such as depression, anxiety, social isolation.
If he continues to deteriorate he gets first-rank symptoms, ‘positive symptoms’ of the disease- such as delusional thoughts like his brain being bombarded by ultrasonic waves. He apparently was at this stage for at least a year.
None of this requires anything other than the normal organic progression of schizophrenia, despite your eagerness to connect it with marijuana use when you have no evidence that he ever smoked as much as one joint in his life.