Posted on 07/16/2014 4:44:01 AM PDT by AustralianConservative
*The largest ever study of the effects of the main psychoactive component of cannabis suggests that it can cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals*
To discover whether cannabis really does cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals, we carried out the largest ever study of the effects of THC (∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the drug’s principal psychoactive ingredient). We recruited 121 volunteers, all of whom had taken cannabis at least once before, and all of whom reported having experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month (which is typical of half the population). None had been diagnosed with a mental illness. The volunteers were randomly chosen to receive an intravenous 1.5mg dose of either THC (the equivalent of a strong joint) or a placebo (saline). To track the effects of these substances, we used the most extensive form of assessment yet deployed to test paranoia, including a virtual-reality scenario, a real-life social situation, self-administered questionnaires, and expert interviewer assessments.
The results were clear: THC caused paranoid thoughts. Half of those given THC experienced paranoia, compared with 30% of the placebo group: that is, one in five had an increase in paranoia that was directly attributable to the THC. (Interestingly, the placebo produced extraordinary effects in certain individuals. They were convinced they were stoned, and acted accordingly. Because at the time we didn’t know who had been given the drug, we assumed they were high too.)
THC also produced other unsettling psychological effects, such as anxiety, worry, lowered mood, and negative thoughts about the self. Short-term memory was impaired. And the THC sparked a range of what psychologists call “anomalous experiences”: sounds seemed louder than usual and colours brighter; thoughts appeared to echo in the individuals’ minds; and time seemed to be distorted.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
So those guys at the NSA who want to snoop on everything are high on pot? It would explain a lot....
Duhhh!
As a FORMER smoker I could have told them this for a lot less money- it is 100% true but it is a side-effect of over-use. Like too much alcohol, there are consequences from prolonged over-exposure.
Everythingn in moderation. Occasional use does not do this.
It’s been 20 years since I did that but I remember it vividly- it was the main reason I quit, before I ‘woke up’ from the after-effects and realized what it was.
Ping
I found nothing pleasurable in weed in my youth. I would not call it paranoia-no one was coming to take me away. But there was no “Feelin’ Groovy” about it.
It caused me to withdraw into myself, if that makes sense.
I was at a neighbor’s house about 8 years ago and someone passed around a joint. What the hell, I thought. Maybe the quality has changed. Nope. Same thing. I spent the rest of the evening worrying about going home, even though I lived right across the street. A strange worry which made no sense. I could walk. I could talk. I knew where home was. No one was going to meet me at the door with a “What have you been doing?”
Anecdotal & no paranoia but I would not be to quick to discount it as a myth. I have heard others say the same thing.
With 0bama's goons running amok and the NSA tracking your every word, the potheads in Colorado and Washington must be going nuts.
This is EXACTLY what has me so worried about legalization!
Except I worked with a guy, a committed liberal, who confessed to heavy marijuana use in his younger years. I asked him why he stopped. He replied “I was getting too paranoid.” Strictly anecdotal, but there it is.
“It’s just an herb man, if God did not want us to use it he would not have put it in the earth.” (Sarc!)
Heheh, that’s better. I’ve seen too many say that without sarcasm.
Sounds like we need to make that placebo illegal too.
That is very interesting. The value of double blind studies is to eliminate bias by preventing everyone involved from knowing which is the study group and which is the control. I would have thought that in a study of a psychoactive drug, it would be immediately apparent which group had received the placebo.
This is yet more evidence that marijuana is not as harmless as its legalization advocates have claimed.
ROTFL! Seriously?! Real marijuana is harmful because fake marijuana makes some people think they're stoned?!?
So if you find you're a vulnerable individual, don't smoke it. Peanuts can cause serious and even fatal allergic reactions in vulnerable individuals - should we ban them?
You realize that you're going to have to fight off the inevitable 'benefits' that these people will be seeking when they're unable (unwilling) to work in about 15 years...
Not "inevitable" - and conservatives should be fighting those programs regardless.
The "inevitable benefits?" I've been smoking and self-medicating with marijuana for 40 years. So have many of my friends and acquaintances. None of us receive government benefits because we have and continue to smoke pot. The only "direct benefits" that I receive from the government are the whooping tax bills that the government gives to me a reward for being an entrepreneur and producer of jobs and benefits for my several businesses and many wonderful employees.
No. The result of this study was that significantly more people in the test group had paranoid thoughts than the people in the control group (whether they experienced the placebo effect or not).
This was a short term study. Long term studies are showing deleterious effects of marijuana use, even 2 years after the last use. Furthermore, marijuana has been shown to precipitate psychotic disorders in non-mature brains; this short term study supports this finding. The brain finishes developing at about 25 years.
I think we should outlaw MJ. Put people in prison for possession and spend billions a year trying to stop the trafficking and use. It has worked so well this far. Maybe we should double the effort and show how serious we are.
Robbing banks is illegal, yet people still rob banks. So maybe we should just give up and make bank robbery legal.
You can’t use as a serious argument that crime is not stopped by making it illegal. The price of making it legal (in the name of saving money on cops, trials, prisons, etc.) is to greatly increase the activity, and increasing the amount of money society must spend to deal with the consequences.
My sense is that as the brain-damaging effects of marijuana become more documented and widely-known, this experiment with making it legal will end. I am beginning to think that Reefer Madness was not as over-the-top sensationalist as I thought when I first saw it, that it may actually be based on real observations of marijuana users.
Thax four anticipating my argument.
I’m with you let’s put them all in jail.
I see the analogy between using MJ and robbing a bank. Let’s increase our taxes and give these potheads the war on drugs they fear the most.
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