Also Tapered: I wonder if the study took into account how many people use Marijuana.
Of course. Anonymous questionnaires given to over 100,000 people were the basis of the findings. Multiple questionnaires over multiple years.
As I pointed out, unlike other drugs that commonly result in psychosis (stimulants and some pseudohallucinogens), psychotic symptoms didn't stop of cannabis use was discontinued. A large meta-analysis was that cannabis use was shown to increase a teenagers likelihood of developing schizophrenia by about 50%.
As you may know, schizophrenia tends to develop in people aged 18-24 and it's this age group that cannabis seems to impact the most. We began seeing a trend in the early 90s but it was over a decade before their was sufficiently strong evidence for it to be accepted as a (statistical) fact.
My friend Michael Linnell (who worked at Lifeline Publications since in opened in 1971) wrote/drew the above booklet:
As you can see, it's in no way telling people it's morally wrong to use cannabis, it touches on how the risks are dose/frequency related and since, at the time synthetic cannabinoids weren't fully understood, they are only touched upon.
I think we now have better evidence showing that the synthetic drugs are potentially even more hazardous:
Schizophrenia has a multidomain symptom cluster, including positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) commonly perpetuate the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. We present a case of predominant negative symptoms ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Synthetic cannabinoids, popularly called Spice, are common drugs of abuse in the United States. They are utilized as a substitute for marijuana, primarily for their psychoactive properties. Consumption has been rapidly increasing due to recreational ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
I should add that I have seen thousands of GC-MS results on batches of these synthetics and as I've mentioned elsewhere, dangerous impurities (dimers, trimers, polymers) were more often present than not. They all have much higher MWs so they won't vaporize ahead of the flame-front so they will be pyrolized. Since they contain basic nitrogen atoms, N-nitroso and even N-nitroso compounds are formed. These are highly carcinogenic.
I've been asking Michael to develop questionnaires that ask about cancers and other negative health outcomes.
I can only speak of the UK but it's notable that the cannabis market and the 'spice' market are completely different. Whereas the smallest cannabis 'deal' I've ever come across is for £10 - maybe enough for 2 decent joints, Spice is sold in tiny £5 wraps like heroin or cocaine. The majority of Spice users appear to be homeless or living in temporary housing. It's not being uses to enhance other activity, it's used to essentially wreck people so much that they escape from their reality.
A really unexpected thing I noticed was that a surprising number of people who use crack stated that they preferred Spice. I do not understand that at all as the effects of the two drugs seems so entirely different. But I think it's because Spice is cheaper and acts for longer - when one is solely seeking escape. I would be interested to know if this is common in other parts of the UK or if it's actually the case everywhere. It just seems so odd, but these people made the statement freely, I didn't ask them.
Oh - and it would appear that 'addiction' to THC and synthetic CB1 ligands is an accepted fact, their is some basis for thinking that physical dependence may occur in some users. That last link noted that people who chose to smoke forms of cannabis with high levels of CBD were less likely to develop psychotic symptoms (as the video demonstrates) and of course, the synthetics contain no CBD. CBD has no affinity for the CB1 but rather acts as a negative allosteric modulator of the CB1 site.
Cannabidiol has been reported to act as an antagonist at cannabinoid CB1 receptors. We hypothesized that cannabidiol would inhibit cannabinoid agonist activity through negative allosteric modulation of CB1 receptors. Internalization of CB1 ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Schizophrenia is a more common illness than most people imagine. The Dark Side gives an insight to how severe it's outcomes can be. It really shocks me that people who have stopped taking prescribed neuroleptics sometimes appear to judge how much their body has recovered by reporting on how potent the subjective effect of cannabis and/or hallucinogen use are.
Pointing out that someone who has previously suffered from long-term psychosis really shouldn't be using such drugs doesn't go down too well. BL is supposed to be a HR site and yet when presented with evidence, I haven't seen a single person re-evaluate their drug use. I don't know who mods TDS but I cannot help thinking that a sticky with the above links would be of value.
