Psychosis risk doubles for pot smokers, says study: What you smoking?

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(CBS) Don't tell Snoop Dogg, but a new study adds to mounting evidence that there is a link between smoking pot and psychosis, especially for young people.

According to a 10-year European study of adolescents and young adults, smoking pot doubled the risk of later having psychotic symptoms. Dutch researchers working in Germany did their best to weed out those who had psychotic symptoms before the study in an effort to remove kids who might be self-medicating with marijuana, said Reuters.

The findings echo previous research, including a 2010 Australian study which also found a doubled risk of psychotic symptoms for young people smoking six years or more.

Each year, more than 2 million Americans 12 or older smoke marijuana for the first time, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Still, some outside researchers are cautious to draw a direct link between smoking weed and mental problems.

"It's important to remember that psychosis is a very complex bio-psycho-social phenomenon," Peter Kinderman, clinical psychology professor from the University of Liverpool, told Reuters. "But this important paper certainly reminds us that there's a strong link to the use of cannabis."

The findings led by Jim van Os from Maastricht University were published in the British Medical Journal.

[skyehighverre]

I smoke pot because it stabilizes my blood sugar, one of the lesser known ailments it treats. I do not yet qualify for insulin. One of the main reasons pot works is it bypasses an already strained digestive system,like insulin shots do. Many people do not know this but schizophrenia can be caused by serious vitamin imbalances, particularly b-vitamins. Perhaps the correlation between schizophrenia and pot is not one of causation by pot, but perhaps if they have pot they could not afford the food enough that it was helping them digest. Or perhapsthey did not yet smoke enough to feel full relief. I have seen this myself, before I realized it cures my insulin issues, because I found that out by smoking more than I would normally, then documenting the relieving effects I discovered on my glucose meter. I believe that the white joint paper has a varying in effect depending on the user, and increased heartrate and a faster high but faster sobriety is sometimes an effect-but sometimes it is what even I need- but it might produce irritability in an already compromised system. I have read that joints are the method that most researchers use, while I have noticed pipes and bongs are more prevalent for people smoking not socially only, but medicinally.Plus schizophrenia and tourette's are conditions both related to dopamines in the brain. Pot is an excellent source of dopamines. Smoking is an excellent time-release because it releases with each breath, the most reactive bodily function besides blinking. Perhaps I am wrongabout schizophrenia, but studies indicate that, at the very least, pot reduces activity in the violence-permitting area of the brain. Not a bad case for testing further in psych wards. Most pot smokers smoke a half a gram or more a day. Perhaps this study reveals something I hadn't considered, but perhaps it was too restrictive or did not reflect what every statistics student learns when interpreting: correlation does not always prove causation.

[AlcoholisWorse]

Anybody who does not believe that marijuana causes psychosis should watch this police officer after eating pot brownies. Very dramatic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTzpXyXO-4

[DamianGreenthumb]

After smoking daily for 18 years, I have started to become "paranoid" or "agitated" more often while stoned. Being concious of this at the time of "stoning" I have come to the conclusion that particular strain of cannabis and increased thc level in those strains and less availibility if lower thc / higher cbd strains have lead to these symptoms. Potent "Indica" strains certainly have more of an uncomfortable effect on my psyche than light sativa strains. These sativas have been systematically hybridized with Indicas to produce a more marketable product.This was also found during alcohol prohibition where "bathtub gin" and adulteration of distilled spirits was commonplace.

Purely anecdotal experience, but the more I ask old timers about the change in WHAT they have been smoking the more I see a correlation. Used to be primarily Mexican Sativa Commercial "brickweed" and now its wholloping couch potato Indicas. I submit that the shift in thc and other chemicals found in strains bred for potentcy may agrivate those persons already predisposed to psycho-disorders. For these folks I sugest a high mountain Ruderalis Sativa.

[JeremyBing]

This should be relatively easy to prove. If cannabis use causes psychosis in young people then the rate of psychosis should increase as cannabis use increases and vice versa. If they can't show this correlation then how can they possible prove causation? Seems funny that they never bring this up doesn't it?

[foodandart]

Of course, linking to a site that has the full document behind a pay-wall means it will NOT be read by the bulk of people interested in what it REALLY says..

SO I take a few caveats to this study, gleaned from other sources and share them here.

"[The researchers] acknowledged some limitations, including the use of self-reported data, the lack of adjustment for a family history of psychosis, and possible bias from selected recall."

And THAT about sums the veracity of this anti-drug propaganda study, up.

[aboutimage]

I believe recent findings in neuroscience suggest that the human brain is still developing well into the 20's, so I think it might be possible to replace the word "cannabis" in this article with any other substance. In other words, barraging your brain with ANY substance on a daily basis for years while it is still developing will probably alter the course of development.

I'm fairly certain that pro-cannabis folks worry that articles such as these will be used as fodder for prohibitionist claims, but I think the argument needs to be divided into a couple camps: (1) unmitigated (recreational) use, and; (2) medicinal use. Based on research such as this, it may be a solid argument that unmitigated use of cannabis by young adults is dangerous. However, to take the argument further - to say "See? Cannabis should be banned completely!" - is a "Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc" logical fallacy.

We need to be publishing studies that show how cannabis is beneficial as well as how it is dangerous.

[northpark2]

Haha good grief! Wasn't impotence the lastest aliment? The only think pot smoking effects is the cash in your pocket. Let focus on the real dangers like alcohol abuse and pain pill addiction.

[rf35]

Abusing pain killers is politicallt correct. Smoking weed is not. But if you want to get to the real issue, just follow the money. There is no tax collected on marijuana.