Psychotic tendencies: A man wearing cannabis-leaf-design shades attends the Freedom March in central Kiev, Ukraine in May. The marchers were demanding the legalisation of the use of marijuana.
Credit: AFP
PARIS: The widest-yet investigation into cannabis and mental health says individuals who use marijuana increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness by more than 40 per cent.
Reporting in the latest issue of British medical journal The Lancet, doctors call on health authorities to warn young people about the risk to their mind from a drug that many today dismiss as harmless and recreational.
Their conclusions are founded on a review of 35 published studies that explored the frequency of schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder and other psychotic illnesses among marijuana users.
All in the mind
The study found that those who had used the drug were 41 per cent likelier to experience an episode of this kind than people who never smoked. The risk increased relative to use, with the most frequent users twice as likely to have these symptoms compared with non-users.
The study also looked at the risk of depression, anxiety and other emotional states, but declared the evidence for any link to cannabis was unclear.
The authors said that, despite their best efforts, they couldn't rule out the possibility that their study was affected by "confounding factors" that typically dog research into cannabis.
The biggest of these problems is whether cannabis can in fact be blamed for causing mental ill health – or whether cannabis smokers with these problems were already unwell before they used the drug.
But the review says the weight of evidence has now come down clearly in favour of warning youngsters, the biggest users of cannabis, that the drug can lead to mental illness.
Psychotic illness
Doctors Theresa Moore of the University of Bristol in England, and Stanley Zammit of Cardiff University in Wales led the research.
"Despite the inevitable uncertainty, policymakers need to provide the public with advice about this widely-used drug," the researchers wrote. "We believe that there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life."
Their study stresses that the risk of schizophrenia and other chronic psychotic disorders, even in people who use cannabis regularly, is statistically low, with a less-than one-in-33 possibility in the course of a lifetime.
Even so, "cannabis use can be expected to have a substantial effect on psychotic disorders at a population level because exposure to this drug is so common," they said.
In the case of Britain, about 40 per cent of young adults and adolescents have used cannabis, according to figures cited in the study. By extrapolation, around 14 per cent of cases of psychotic episodes among young British adults would be avoided if cannabis were not consumed, the paper contends.
Long-term perspective
Seeking to get a long-term perspective, the pair's review excluded "transient" effects – that is, the immediate effect on the mind when the drug was being smoked – and looked only at cases that had been diagnosed as psychotic by an expert.
In addition, Moore and Zammit ruled out studies that covered people with addictions or previous mental problems, medicinal use of cannabis and prison populations.
The authors admitted, though, that it might be impossible to establish for sure whether cannabis causes psychosis on the basis of current methods.
The big problem for researchers is that cannabis is illegal, which means that the strength and dose of active ingredient varies, in contrast for instance to the well-known dose of nicotine in tobacco, which is legally regulated.
Testing cannabis on the mind would run into huge legal and ethical hurdles.
So researchers are mainly left with the option of comparing groups of cannabis users against groups of non-users – with the hope that "confounding factors" do not undermine the exercise.
IT'S CALLED LEARNING FROM EXPERIANCE
Here we go again, I really do feel sad that we seem to live in a society where by all we here is “A new study suggests” I come from a middle class background with two parents who grew up in the era of (Mod’ s and Rockers) and by all accounts spent most of the 60’s/70’s stoned out of there faces having a good time on this stuff, funny how we don’t have millions upon millions of crazy people running around these days seeing as millions and millions of people spent the entire 60’s and 70’s stoned.
LET’S LOOK TO THE PAST FOR ANSWERS, IT'S CALLED LEARNING FROM EXPERIANCE
You then here the argument “It wasn’t as strong in those days” no but then again they did spend every waking moment on the stuff, “enough with the cotton wool culture” I’m feeling suffocated by this Intolerable Government and the Inane Dolts that work for them in the media.
The biggest killer of Buman Beings is STRESS, All these people in the media and Government seem to want tyo do is cause stress, "Kill us"
PS. Both my parents are Barristers “doing quite well actually” and we still sometimes sit around and have a nice fat juicy spiff
LET’S LOOK TO THE PAST FOR ANSWERS, IT'S CALLED LEARNING BY EXPERIANCE
Another marijuana scare
The key point in this study is the statement: "The biggest of these problems is whether cannabis can in fact be blamed for causing mental ill health – or whether cannabis smokers with these problems were already unwell before they used the drug."
My son has had these problems and he was a big pot smoker. So was his mother, ex-hippie that I am, and I haven't had any psychosis. His grandmother, however, did and never smoked a joint in her life.
My unalterable belief – and my son's and his doctors' – is that he smoked for self-medication.
Another marijuana scare
Thank you, must admit I was on one' yesterday, your point and experiences are very poignant to me, I’m sorry for your son’s problems, but as you say many people turn to cannabis for this exact reason, I myself did the same thing as an ADHD teen and after several job sackings, I found the odd joint calmed me down and my social life and working life settled into a stable fulcrum, it’s just when to know were to slow down and keep things in moderation.
True, ture, it's always very
True, ture, it's always very diffcult to measure the influence of hidden variables/factors and jump to premature conclusions. Like in this case.
My favourite example is the study that showed connection between number of storks per sq. km and birth ratio. One might say that it's the storks that bring children ; ) My explanation would be that you have higher number of storks in rural areas where also you can find bigger multigenerational families with large number of children etc...but who would care about that when you've got some stats at hand and easy to obtain results. Other example is the study that shows that the higher number of fireman the higher arson rate etc.
Hydro and loss of purpose
Be careful not to put all users in the same group as your hippy parents. I'm glad to hear they are doing well and that you get together to enjoy a huge party joint from time to time. Perhaps I'd be on the nay side too if that were my experience. It's not.
I've watched helplessly as my son has destroyed his brain over the past seven years. He started on hydro at 14 and has smoked it for hours each week since then. He says bush just doesn't give him the same hit.
I've seen this poison create depression, seizures, memory loss, destruction of his confidence, and difficulty communicating. He hasn't had a girlfriend for three years because he "doesn't have anything to say to a woman" - not surprising when he spends all his free time stoned.
Recently, my two best girlfriends both lost a child - one to an epileptic seizure (18 year old son) and one to cancer (22 year old daughter). Neither drug related. Weirdly they were 'coincidentally' buried beside each other and it's hard to get the picture of their graves out of my mind.
The loss of two bright young people who had so much to give just makes it more difficult to watch the slow death of my own child who has nothing to give anyone.
^^^ This comment above is pathetic. And so is the author.
What kind of person honestly believes that marijuana kills people? It's a medical fact that you CANNOT overdose on marijuana. The level of smoke it would take would kill your lungs and force you to stop smoking long before the chemical level would ever be attained.
Even if you were to EAT marijuana, it would take over 7 KILOGRAMS to kill you. Obviously, your stomach would EXPLODE before this would ever happen.
Bus(c)h doesn't give the same hit, as I'm assuming the author meant alcohol, is another pathetic example of lack of logic. Alcohol causes liver cirrhosis, which actually DOES chemically kill people, thousands upon thousands each year.
Marijuana has yet to kill ONE person on a chemical level.
This woman blaming marijuana on her son not doing anything in life anymore is more indicative of her son's low self-opinion on HIMSELF, meaning he ALREADY felt this way long before marijuana was in the picture, and this woman NEVER saw it before. She ONLY STARTED to care when her son was on marijuana. Basically, she only cares when there's a drug involved. Otherwise, she wouldn't have even noticed her son's problems, GUARANTEED.
Top it off with the fact that she puts in how two of her friends' children have died recently, trying to tug on everyone's heartstrings when it has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS, is lame and idiotic.
Directly: Can you honestly say that you think your son will die from smoking marijuana, like your two friends' children did, when they didn't even smoke the shit? You would honestly want him on alcohol, something that DOES kill its users, versus something that HAS NEVER KILLED ONE PERSON?
You have a lot to learn, lady. Read up on the actual facts, not government-supported studies and anti-drug zealots who make their careers over keeping drugs illegal (BILLIONS OF DOLLARS for them).
Cannabis Psychosis is Very Real Indeed.
Having seen a psychotic episode triggered by a friend's first experience of dope smoking, plus taking into account my own depression after being a moderate user I am certain that dope is really bad for the mind. My friend Justin was a very polite middle class boy who wanted to be an opera singer. Then one night he sat down with George, and Justin had his first joint. At 3am that evening he was arrested while threatening to murder George, whom he had chased up the road with a carving knife. Justin was convinced that George was the Devil incarnate.
Here we are, 19 years on. Justin is still on lithium to control his obsessions, and lives on State handouts. He has never had a joint since that first one. George lives with the possibility that if Justin stops taking his medication, he'll turn up one night on his doorstep with a big knife.
It sounds unreal doesn't it? But it's completely true. In a small number of cases, a SINGLE exposure to the drug is enough to trigger psychosis. Until Justin, I didn't really understand what psychosis was. It is the completely intransigent and utter fixed belief that something ridiculous is completely true.
Justin and George: Two lives ruined. I saw it firsthand. But as usual, sad stoners will find a way to dismiss this story. "It CAN'T do that to you." Well I'm telling you: it may not do it to YOU, but it does it to some. And do you think that that slightly loserish feeling that you have about life - that demotivation, depression and apathy you feel so often might have something to do with all that THC in your bloodstream? Just a thought. Like Justin's idee fixe. Yes, just a thought.
Major problems with the above post
#1. Your friend's first experience with a psychotic episode tends to say that your friend is a PSYCHOPATH, long before he ever smoked pot. The main indication of this is how he's on meds & state handouts.
As a person who has helped A TON of people through the mental health system, I can say with confidence that you DO NOT have psychoses that last lifelong (like Justin) unless you were ALREADY a psycho. Blaming his mental health on ONE JOINT 19 years ago is like blaming him losing one football game in middle school causing his psychosis over his entire life.
99.9% of marijuana smokers DO NOT HAVE A PSYCHOTIC EPISODE ON THEIR FIRST JOINT. PERIOD. Your friend was already screwed up. Once again though, you NEVER looked for the indicating factors heavily laden in his life before pot, but as soon as pot was in the picture, you blamed it, instead of looking to the past and seeing just how crazy he was before the pot, and I mean how well he was hiding it.
You said it yourself that a small number of people have a psychotic episode. Well my friend, you just indicated less than .1% of marijuana users in general, yet your story is meant for everyone, thus indicating that you do believe that EVERYONE can have a psychotic episode from pot.
You don't see that your friend was just a fucking psychopath from the get-go, and you never were man enough to notice it and do something about it BEFORE the drugs. You only want to use it to enable your biased views.
As far as demotivation, depression or apathy goes, that is saying something more about the people that you've been around that smoke pot, but certainly not all pot users. I know plenty of pot users that work 12-hour days and bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Pot is only demotivational to a completely unmotivated person. If pot's making you depressed, that's your OWN DEPRESSION, because hardly ANYONE that smokes pot regularly feels depressed. Pot has been proven in medical communities to ALLEVIATE DEPRESSION! It's so obvious that you don't know the first good goddamn thing about this topic.
Lastly, you say "I didn't really understand what psychosis was. It is the completely intransigent and utter fixed belief that something ridiculous is completely true."
Believing in a failed war on drugs matches this. It seems YOU are psychotic as well.
What a bunch of c#@p.
The hydroponic marijuana
The hydroponic marijuana mostly available today is far more potent than during the hippie era. My son is usually off his face on pot most days and is sinking into paranoia and mental health problems that are smashing my family to smithereens. It can be a VERY dangerous drug to those prone to genetic mental health problems. The worst part is that unless you have private health insurance, there is NO HELP available. Peace man? Not for this family.
what you attempt to keep down will one day bite you in the ass
i am a woman who has experienced acute marijuana psychosis in it's most terrifying form. while it hurts and confuses those around one, the person undergoing the most trauma is the one inside the actual psychosis.it is rare to find people who know how to communicate about the realness of the actual experience and don't turn cannabis-induced psychosis into a sole blaming-of-the-drug rationalisation. we tend to look at people outside of ourselves that are psychotic and do our very best to control our never having to become them. rather than seeing such people as a potential reality of our own that we need to be comfortable with. craziness has real relevance. there are definately powerful elements of growth that exist in an experience of `otherworldliness'. to negate the realness of the worlds people occupy when in a psychotic state only further isolates the experiencer and continues to develop a type of psychoanalytic language that is lacking in its scope. i am not afraid of marijuana. i am not afraid of craziness. all potentiality for losing one's way always has and always will lie within ones own hands. i am pro full freedom of choice, pro stigma removal and pro communication around the realness of psychosis.bring on legalisation.