Interesting development…In my opinion I am for de-criminalization, legalization and taxation on marihoochie.
I also am a subscriber to social Darwinism and its cleansing effect on the human gene pool.
[quote] How cannabis use causes schizophrenia
Last Updated: 2:00am GMT 30/01/2007
Studies have shown that heavy use of cannabis can be associated with a fourfold increased risk of developing schizophrenia.
Recent research by Yale University School of Medicine suggests the drug may induce psychosis by its action on receptors in the brain.
The use of cannabis is not thought to be a primary cause of schizophrenia, although there is strong evidence to suggest that the drug can trigger the onset of mental illness in some people with a prior disposition.
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In 2002 the Government announced plans to reduce the classification of cannabis from category B to C, after a recommendation from the Police Federation that it was far less harmful than other drugs.
The reclassification took place the following year, despite concern among psychiatrists about the future impact of the softening of the law.
Three million people are thought to smoke cannabis regularly, a quarter of them young adults under the age of 29. At the time of the reclassification Prof John Henry, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, warned: “We know that for those who take the drug there is a fourfold increase in schizophrenia and a fourfold increase in the chances of suffering major depressive illness.” Telegraph[/quote]
The thing about statistics like this is that they never tell you what the original likelihood is. If with no dope I’m 0.001% likely to go schizo, and with dope I’m 0.004% likely to, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Well, as the former holder of the keys to a nuthouse, I can tell you this phenomenon has been well-known since at least the late sixties to early seventies. It is also incredibly common, but then so too is smoking dope. In a standard 25 bed lock up ward, at least two or three of the younger folks in for the first time would be a queried drug-related psychosis. However, the other really difficult factor is whether the person was self medicating with dope to alleviate their dis-ease because they were already schizo. There are claims the spread of much stronger hydroponic gear has increased the incidence of drug-related psychosis, but then again, the extent of pot use has also widened.
The obvious answer is that if you have a family history of psychosis, you don’t do pot.
Define psychosis? Good grief, more Fred Smitherisms?
Dunno about hillbillies, but I am trying to work out the Darwin angle. For the life of me I don’t understand it, unless of cause the implication is that pot heads can smoke themselves into madness and do themselves in, thus clarifying the gene pool. But that seems way too vile even for a squealy little church lady.
Did a quick google (not sure how reliable this is, but I did see the same statistics on more then one site. These came from the book Surviving Schizophrenia, by E. Fuller Torrey):
If nobody in my family has it…1 percent
If my half-brother or half/sister has it…4 percent
If my full brother or sister has it…9 percent
If my mother or father has it…13 percent
If both my mother and father have it…36 percent
If my identical twin has it…28 percent
If my aunt or uncle has it…3 percent
If my grandfather or grandmother has it…4 percent
So, according to the study in the OP, if you’re a heavy pot smoker, you can x 4 those percentages. Looks like if both your mother and father have it, and you smoke a lot of grass, you’re fooked.
[quote]Prof John Henry, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, warned: “We know that for those who take the drug there is a …a fourfold increase in the chances of suffering major depressive illness.” Telegraph[/quote]
I will comment that the fourfold increase is probably a mere correlation and not a proven causal relationship. (It’s not reported clearly here, but that’s by far the more likely situation.) This is not particularly meaningful, at least not any more than the statement “depressed people tend to turn to alcohol and other drugs.”
As far as prevalence goes, there has been some meta-analytical work (combining the results of large numbers of studies) which concludes that the oft-cited 1% figure is too high; it’s more like 0.4-0.7%, depending on how you define prevalence (# of individuals with the disease at a point in time, versus at some point in their life, and so on). I prefer to use the lifetime morbid risk, which is the chance of any given person ever developing the illness; the meta-analysis found this to be 7 per 1,000 pop., or an 0.7% chance for the average Joe. Not one in a hundred, but slightly less, at about 7 per thousand.
I’ve read that the latest studies suggest that the link to mental illness through canabis smoking is much stronger for those who smoke alot when they’re young. i.e. when the brain is still developing.
But that’s presumably still correlational analysis; it could be that those who are predisposed to mental illness (whether due to genetic or environmental factors) are more likely to do drugs, rather than the drugs causing the illness.
[quoteThe use of cannabis is not thought to be a primary cause of schizophrenia, although there is strong evidence to suggest that the drug can trigger the onset of mental illness in some people with a prior disposition.[/quote]
AaCK! No wonder!
Those potheads with a prior disposition should at once turn to alcohol. There, one can endure the onset of mental illness in relative peace, free from the noxious & nefarious odium that is attached to all addicts of The Dope.
Yah, 1 in 100 does seem high. However, I did see similar statistics on several different sites, not that that means it’s right.