UK: Cannabis Psychotic Nearly Killed Me

Times UK ^ | Jan. 5, 2006

[JTN]

Some people here though seem to be in denial about the link to psychotic illness. The scale of the problem is debatable but that it is a real problem is not.

According to the Institute of Medicine.

A major question remains as to whether marijuana can produce lasting mood disorders or psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. Georgotas and Zeidenberg52 reported that smoking 10—22 marijuana cigarettes per day was associated with a gradual waning of the positive mood and social facilitating effects of marijuana and an increase in irritability, social isolation, and paranoid thinking. Inasmuch as smoking one cigarette is enough to make a person feel "high" for about 1—3 hours,68,95,118 the subjects in that study were taking very high doses of marijuana. Reports have described the development of apathy, lowered motivation, and impaired educational performance in heavy marijuana users who do not appear to be behaviorally impaired in other ways.121,122 There are clinical reports of marijuana-induced psychosis-like states (schizophrenia-like, depression, and/or mania) lasting for a week or more.112 Hollister suggests that, because of the varied nature of the psychotic states induced by marijuana, there is no specific "marijuana psychosis." Rather, the marijuana experience might trigger latent psychopathology of many types.66 More recently, Hall and colleagues60 concluded that "there is reasonable evidence that heavy cannabis use, and perhaps acute use in sensitive individuals, can produce an acute psychosis in which confusion, amnesia, delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, agitation and hypomanic symptoms predominate." Regardless of which of those interpretations is correct, the two reports agree that there is little evidence that marijuana alone produces a psychosis that persists after the period of intoxication.

[JTN]

I invite you to read up on the methodology of this "study." What they found was NOT that many pot smoker became psychotic, but that many pot smokers reported symptoms similar to those of schizophrenics.

Nice catch, Wolfie. It's amazing the junk science that gets used to promote the prohibitionist side.

[Know your rights]

There is increasing evidence that regular cannabis use precedes and causes higher rates of psychotic illness.

Foolish claims like this cast doubt on the source. There is evidence for a correlation between cannabis use and psychotic illness ... but no indication of which causes the other or whether both are caused by a third factor ... and there is no evidence of even a correlation between rates of cannabis use and rates of psychotic illness in the general population, as one would predict if your causal claim was true.

[Know your rights]

I can't help but worry about all the kids who might be influenced by an apparent governmental and societal stamp of approval.

What other non-rights-violating activities should we ban for adults lest kids think they're OK? Drinking? Smoking? Reading Marxist literature?

Would the relief from suffering of those caught in the drug war offset the suffering of new victims under legalization?

Apples and oranges ... it's flat-out wrong to impose harms on some to dissuade others from harming themselves.

[april15Bendovr]

Now that the Conservatives have power in Canada maybe all the Hydro gardens producing BC bud at up to 28% THC levels will stop. A large % of marijuana grown in the US is grown from BC bud seeds.

[Know your rights]

"smoking 10—22 marijuana cigarettes per day was associated with a gradual waning of the positive mood and social facilitating effects of marijuana and an increase in irritability, social isolation, and paranoid thinking."

10—22 marijuana cigarettes per day?!? In terms of blastedness that's gotta be equivalent to a few quarts of vodka a day (only the latter will kill you).

[Know your rights]

Now that the Conservatives have power in Canada maybe all the Hydro gardens producing BC bud at up to 28% THC levels will stop.

Or maybe they're real conservatives who know how to mind their own business.

[april15Bendovr]

Its hard to imagine that any real conservative would pacify a symbol of the 60's drug culture.

Its hard to imaging that a conservative would advocate for a drug that causes laziness, apathy and lethargic thinking.

[Know your rights]

Its hard to imagine that any real conservative would pacify a symbol of the 60's drug culture.

You mean a real conservative would ban tie-dyed T-shirts?

Its hard to imaging that a conservative would advocate for a drug that causes laziness, apathy and lethargic thinking.

Advocating legality is not the same as advocating use; conservatives of the day opposed Prohibition (while "progressives" supported it).

[april15Bendovr]

There are three groups that advocate for marijuana legalization.

Medical users

Drug dealers

and Addicts

Only one is legitimate and should get the drug in pill form

[tacticalogic]

Advocating legality is not the same as advocating use; conservatives of the day opposed Prohibition (while "progressives" supported it).

When it's about a political "symbol" it's partisan, not philosophical.

[Know your rights]

There are three groups that advocate for marijuana legalization.

Wrong ... you forgot liberty-lovers.

Only one is legitimate and should get the drug in pill form

Pills are hard for patients with nausea to keep down, and as a slow-onset delivery mechanism make it hard to titrate i.e. adjust dosage to be just enough for current symptoms.

[april15Bendovr]

So am I to understand that there are conservative sympathetic liberty-loving intellectuals that wish to liberate those that wish to be lethargic, hedonistic, lazy and smoke a drug that makes them smell like a cows ass?

[JTN]

So am I to understand that there are conservative sympathetic liberty-loving intellectuals that wish to liberate those that wish to be lethargic, hedonistic, lazy and smoke a drug that makes them smell like a cows ass?

You can't smoke Benadryl

[JTN]

There are three groups that advocate for marijuana legalization. Medical users Drug dealers and Addicts

You left off one or two.

Organizations that have endorsed medical access to marijuana include: the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Family Physicians; American Bar Association; American Public Health Association; American Society of Addiction Medicine; AIDS Action Council; British Medical Association; California Academy of Family Physicians; California Legislative Council for Older Americans; California Medical Association; California Nurses Association; California Pharmacists Association; California Society of Addiction Medicine; California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church; Colorado Nurses Association; Consumer Reports Magazine; Kaiser Permanente; Lymphoma Foundation of America; Multiple Sclerosis California Action Network; National Association of Attorneys General; National Association of People with AIDS; National Nurses Society on Addictions; New Mexico Nurses Association; New York State Nurses Association; New England Journal of Medicine; and Virginia Nurses Association.

[Know your rights]

So am I to understand that there are conservative sympathetic liberty-loving intellectuals that wish to liberate those that wish to be lethargic, hedonistic, lazy and smoke a drug that makes them smell like a cows ass?

Liberty is for every adult, even those who use it poorly.

[april15Bendovr]

They would fall under medical use and marinol would fit their advocacy rather than smoking the plant which we all know causes further complications to any illness.

[Know your rights]

marinol would fit their advocacy

Wrong; pills are hard for patients with nausea to keep down, and as a slow-onset delivery mechanism make it hard to titrate i.e. adjust dosage to be just enough for current symptoms.

[JTN]

They would fall under medical use and marinol would fit their advocacy rather than smoking the plant which we all know causes further complications to any illness.

Vaporizers can be used. These vaporize the THC without combusting any of the toxic materials.

But even without using vaporizers, according to the IOM:

The short-term immuno-suppressive effects are not well established; if they exist at all, they are probably not great enough to preclude a legitimate medical use. The acute side effects of marijuana use are within the risks tolerated for many medications.

...

Marijuana is not a completely benign substance. It is a powerful drug with a variety of effects. However, except for the harm associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications. Thus, the safety issues associated with marijuana do not preclude some medical uses.

[april15Bendovr]

The people that most want to legalize pot are the sleaze hopeful to find loopholes via through those who seek it medically. All attempts have failed for them to become legally baked.

I could only imagine that our nations IQ and attention span might improve restoring more of a competitive population if some would just put the Bong and Pot pipe down long enough to experience reality.