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.
Mental, yes it is...
I know many people whom have used and still use pot daily for nearly their whole lives. With being with them and watching what goes on when "high" on pot, the only mental strain is whether to eat nacho cheese chips or pop corn. The paranoia that is experienced is because the pot is SO looked down upon that it is fear of being discovered with it that's the mental issue.
Brain Damage
Marijuana is psychoactive because it stimulates certain brain receptors, but it does not produce toxins that kill them (like alcohol), and it does not wear them out as other drugs may. There is no evidence that marijuana use causes brain damage. Studies performed on actual human populations will confirm these results, even for chronic marijuana users (up to 18 joints per day) after many years of use.
In fact, following the publication of two 1977 JAMA studies, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially announced its support for the decriminalization of marijuana.
In reality, marijuana has the effect of slightly increasing alpha-wave activity in your brain. Alpha waves are generally associated with meditative and relaxed states, which are, in turn, often associated with human creativity. (see http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/20_mens_health.html)
That is just one of the many sites that counter the cheap shot to cannabis. I'm good friends with a user that has been "high" for 13 years straight but he quit about 2 weeks ago..cold turkey, mind you; has no withdraw symptoms or signs of GOIN CRAZY MAN WAHHHHH! The thing that makes the patients mental is the fact that they are used as lab rats rather then studied in their natural environment. (Bong in hand and some chill music playin)
I must say that you people almost sound convincing but lack experience. 40%? you must mean .000040% IF you think you're addicted, IF you think it's a gateway drug, IF you think it ruins relationships, IT'S all in your head; only you can determine if it is any of those. But in all reality, if you have any will power at all or any mental grasp then you will realize that only YOU can make it addicting.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical-marijuana/GA00014
http://www.webmd.com/news/20030829/medical-marijuana-slowly-gains-ground
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/medical-marijuana.shtml
Check those sites out too if you like.
Why aren't we working toward making cigarettes illegal or alcohol, the things proven to kill you and make you mental??
what a joke
If someone has a mental illness, they had it before they started smoking, most likely. Most people I know who use the plant have genetic personality problems. Some people smoke because it relieves their depression and makes them happy and more focused, where if they didn't, their mind would be focusing too much on different things that they can't think straight. Is that called ADD? Plus, if anyone remembers, humans adapt to their environment, if they're too stressed, what's wrong with a little relaxation at the end of a hard day's work?
Study ignoring some key factors
I believe this study is narrow and flawed.
The fact is that if you have experienced a history of violence and / sexual abuse as a child you are much more likely to develop a serious mental illness such as psychosis.
Combine this with another fact: those with mental health issues often find themselves coping with their symptoms by self-medicating: disordered eating, alcohol, drugs, self-harm/cutting, etc.
Here are some statistics to put this into perspective:
~ 74% of women in a substance abuse treatment program have experienced sexual abuse (Knubbs 2000).
~ 90% of women in drug treatment experienced severe domestic violence from a partner in their lifetime (Miller 1994).
~ 51% - 97% of people diagnosed with a serious mental illness (bipolar, schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, etc.) reported a lifetime history of physical and/or sexual sbuse compared to 14%-34% of the general population (Goodman et al. 1997).
Ingesting food, alcohol, drugs, and hurting ourselves all alter the bodies endorphine cycles and serve the purpose of numbing ourselves to other, perhaps scarier, things that might be going on in our conscious or unconscious mind. Substance abuse is one of the many common ways in which we try to take control over our pain or express the pain that we can't put into words.
I think the study would be much more complete if they looked at marijuana use in relation to a history of violence or inquired into whether people were using it to cope with mental illness.
It is worth mentioning that because some drugs are highly addictive, giving into a moment of peer pressure by taking a drug like crystal meth can have lifelong consequences. However, the fact is that the majority of people using drugs are using them to cope.
I live on the West Coast of Canada where my brother has used pot for years to cope with MS. Even though some legislation has changed he still fears getting caught. I think this study is a convenient way for those afraid of medical marijuana to hide the real issues.
In my province, marijuana is our number one (still illegal) export. If marijuana was legalized, organized crime would be out of millions of dollars as would the pharmaceutical industry. If there was a safe source of pot on the market, kids wouldn't be buying pot laced with addictive substances.
There are problems with legalizing of course but I doubt everyone suddenly developing Marijuana Maddness is one of them.
its kinda true
im a marijuana smoker and when i started i felt confident that nothing would happen, now after two years i know thats not true. bud can be fun and harmless when moderated, but during vacations i smoke every day, in contrast to when im in school (only weekends). but when i return to school, i find the first three weeks difficult to concentrate, to talk to my friends, and to leave the habit. although its not physically addiccting, youll still be addicted to the effect in unmoderated use. some mental problems i have had are memory loss and amotiviational syndrome, especially felt when doing assignments. i think psychosis may occur only used with other drugs and if one has a family inheritence of a psychological disease. i only use cannabis, and i have no record of psychosis, but it still seems to have some effect.
its true
by brother is a cannabis smoker and he ruines his
and our lifes with it
"Bong in hand and some chill music playin" was it when he started
now he needs loud music, because he doesnt want to hear
the voices in his head
and he is always "asking" for money!
this is all he does
every day
and
sometimes he is very aggressive
he cannot live a normal life
he is sooooo addicted
and noone is helping, because he doesnt want help
he thinks he is normal
he is 24, and has no life
HighJacked
I think it is the only thing that has kept me sane after all these years (20 smoking regularly). The only ill effect is the paranoia and consequences of being caught as far as I can tell. I mean if you are going to be a lunatic sure cannabis may not help the situation and may even aggravate it, but it is "highly" unlikely in my mind that it was the cause.
Legislation
What I find fascinating is that governments continue to permit citizens to legally smoke a substance which has been proved to kill and burden healthcare systems, but continue to outlaw a substance for which there is no conclusive proof of detrimental health impact.
How does one explain this ?
Bemused, London
Cannabis reveals you to yourself
Cannabis reveals you to yourself! If you don't like what you see then dont use cannabis and starting a downward spiral of destroying yourself. I smoked cannabis from the age of 15 my friends where doing it everyone was doing it. I had no issues with cannabis. But i didn't stick to that i dibbled and dabbled in all of it. My child hood was disturbed to say the least but if you did a study i think you will find their are many of us so i tend to never mention it, you cant change what others have done to you. I believe the damage lies in the society around the user, i smoked fine with no problems till i started trying harder drugs at 17 which ended in a 2 month binge awake on amphetamines smoking cannabis taking Ecstasy, acid, ketamine my mind lost control i hated who i was and i snapped into a drug induced psychosis that saw my mind damaged for over 3 years i abstained from all drugs after that and after 3 years i couldn't remember the last time i actually had a (flash back) feeling of discomfort that matched the feelings of terror at the time of psychosis. When i was 24 i injured my back at work, after 2-3 years of specialist treatments, scans, physio therapy, government prescribed opiates like (tramadol and oxycodone which absolutely ruined my mind over a short 6 month period), i was told deal with it you just have to live with the pain forever. So you cant take opiates forever they are dangerous so i suffered instead for a further 1.5 years.
6 years after stopping all illicit drug use I undertook treatment to rid myself of dreaded Hep Contracted during my drug use. Interferon and Ribovarin well needless to say the side affects destroyed me i had no where to turn except to my past i started using cannabis again very weary at first but with great success it helped me through the major discomfort of the hep C treatment and i found my back pain significantly reduce. After treatment obtained full time work again as an IT Technician and i continued to use cannabis for 2 - 3 more months then decided that i had better stop.
The only reason was it is too expensive and we (me and my wife) still believed a lot of propaganda so i stopped for 6-8 months and started having a bit of a bad time with life really my back hurt all the time i couldn't exercise because of it i had to quit my job i got fat so i decided to smoke again and it brought me back from the brink of reality's destruction upon my life right back up.
So i started to question what i had be told about the dangers of cannabis and found multitudes of evidence to support all the beneficial health affects that i received, to this date i have been smoking again daily with the greatest success i can actually do physical labor again my weight has come down my overall health has improved and i no longer worry about psychosis because my experience leads me to believe that for me my psychosis was based upon how mean and nasty a person i was back then and i knew it. Now i treat people how they treat me i have strong christian moral ethics and a deep respect for law and society. The current state of affairs would now punish me for providing for my family. What will happen to them if i am sent to prison for cannabis possession. If it where legalized it could be researched much more accurate, with the funds from sales under regulation and control. I feel that as long as i like what i see inside then i should not suffer another psychosis.
regards
Michael Davies
Australia
for thousands of years........
for thousands of years , the human species has been using cannabis productively in one form or another, that is a widely known fact .
is this not the age of information and "green living" AND being "eco-friendly" ,
we are allowing the "manufacturing" industries , with their hands in almost every pertinent politicians pocket , to dictate to us that
they can make a better product than nature.
since when is a heavily modified synthetic drug better than an all natural one?
how is it "eco friendy and green" to make nylon rope as compared to natural fibers like hemp ( which was used for thousands of years as a source of fiber for seaworthy rope).
the hypocrasy has to end sometime , those that are "for" or " against" using cannabis ( in what ever form ) should at the very least do enough research to base there opinions on this subject , rather than just follow along like blind sheep .
*HINT*
when doing unbiased research you must consider the validity of the source information ,
for example :
sites with titles like "potkills" or "the american synthetics institute" most likely will have biased info .
same goes for titles like "freemarijuana.org" , etc etc .
*******************use your head people*******************