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NEWS: [Herald Sun] 1/08/2005 - 'Health wards go to pot'

hoptis

hoptis

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Health wards go to pot
Liam Houlihan, youth reporter
01 Aug 2005

VICTORIA'S mental health clinics have become little more than "cannabis wards", experts have said.

Hundreds of patients are being turned away as psychiatric units are swamped by hordes of young people in the throes of cannabis-induced psychosis.

Drug-addled mental patients as young as 13 often suffer delusions and paranoia, were sometimes ultra-violent and required more attention than less chronic patients, mental health workers said.

As a result people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders are not being treated at clinics.

The cannabis wards revelation comes as evidence mounts that cannabis, far from being a soft drug, is a real factor in many cases of mental illness.

Melbourne drug and health workers told the Herald Sun of:

A MENTAL ward that did not know how to treat a psychotic man who had no drug history because all their procedures were for drug-related patients.

DRUG-INDUCED patients sneaking drugs into wards and trying to take them while there.

A GIRL who had been using drugs since she was 13 who managed to quit heroin but could not beat her cannabis addiction.

A TEENAGER who went psychotic smoking bongs in front of television destroyed the walls of his room with his hands and body when "the television told him to".

Paul Denborough, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with the Alfred hospital, said worried and jumbled thoughts made the patients delusional.

He said more than half his chronic patients would have used drugs.

He said their most common delusions were paranoia that the government was stealing their ideas, beliefs they had superpowers or religious fantasies.

Experts estimate most of the state's 958 public psychiatric beds are devoted to patients with drug-induced psychosis.

Barbara Hocking, executive director of mental illness charity SANE Australia, said: "What's happening is mental health care has been inundated and crisis patients are the only ones still actually getting care."

Veteran youth worker Les Twentyman said marijuana had taken such a toll that when people offered paying jobs to his young charges, he had to turn them down.

"I've got to say they can't work because they're so drug-dependent and psychotic," he said.

"This pot is not the same stuff that was around in the '60s. It's eight times stronger and it sends them mad."

Mental health experts say Victoria's cannabis wards are proof of the strong links between marijuana and mental illness.

They have demanded health authorities fix the current "scandalous" system of separate treatment centres for drug users and the mentally ill.

Ms Hocking said separate drug and mental illness services had to be merged to cope with the cannabis-induced psychosis epidemic.

THOSE seeking help should call the SANE helpline on 1800 688 382 or email [email protected]
Click to expand...

From Herald Sun
 
" A TEENAGER who went psychotic smoking bongs in front of television destroyed the walls of his room with his hands and body when "the television told him to"

Ahahah fucking stoner,., but yeah its kinda freaky people cant get off the weed, and why is victoria the place for it??

-MoF0-
 
They never mention that a lot of these people smoked every day for a very long time. I bet if you drank every day youd go mad as well.
 
^^^^^^^^ Yeah, and that'd be if you don't die from the alcohol withdrawl.


I guess this could be called more sterling crap from the shit shovelers known as the Herald Sun (fer fucks sake its murdoch, expect different?).

So, I guess now I know why I'm feeling paranoid about the erasure of my civil liberties, and the way in which democracy is slowly becoming facism, its just the fucking pot. Oh wait, I'm not smoking at the moment...

Guess its time to check in to that shrink.

-plaz-
 
Rather scarily, I have a "friend" who is a psych nurse...who unfortunately suffers from SEVERE mental health issues as a result of pot smoking.

Whilst she's on medication there's no problem, but then as a result (and against her own training) she stops taking the medication, and starts smoking (also because of a few friends who should know better then to encourage her).

Off medication she's heard voices telling her to kill her friend, she's set fire to her ex-boyfriends front door (having just thrown a vase that barely missed his head...the stories are frightening and endless.

To be honest, I don't know what's more scarey - the problems and incidents are a result of her own problems, or the fact that she works with people with the same (or worse) problems than her own. I know in conversations I've had with her, the wards are indeed littered with long-term pot smokers with all sorts of serious issues.
 
i think this is time to legalise the growing of bush weed and ban hydro, firstly good bush tastes a lot nicer and doesnt get u as head fuked... bush is so much better :D
 
Don';t kid yourself with the Bush vs Hydro argument. I actually think hydro (around here anyway) is LESS likely to cause psychosis in those pront to it. Most hydro is grown to make solid, sticky Indica buds (smaller per weight, and doesnt need as much room as sativa), while most Bush outdoor growers seem to like Sativa. Sativa vs Indica over a 5-10 year period. I think a mindfuck/psychedelic high will fuck your head up more than feeling way too comfortable on a couch then going to sleep an hour later.

But this is just guesses, i have no studies to prove this.
 
Genetic predisposition accounts for a lot i think. Put in laymans terms, some people are fucked in the head and smoking pot sets them off. I dont know about anyone else but my experience with weed hasnt led me to do anything that exteme. A voice in your head is not someone else, its your own sub fucking conscious. Some people cannot handle or understand what is going on when they are high. Same as any drug, legal or not, if you can't handle it then dont take the shit. But again i suppose it's not as easy for some as it was for me.

fuck in heaven
 
I smoked weed flat out for a few years and never had any trouble with it. It was only when I started smoking hydro that it started to mess with me. After only about a month of smoking hydro I had to stop. I have no idea whether it was just timing or what but I know that I don't smoke weed anymore and if I do it is only ever small amounts of bush bud. I sure don't want to be one of those many people in a psych ward which I fear is what would happen to me if I kept smoking weed. Its amazing how much stronger some hydro is.
 
strongest pot i've ever had was bush. its all in the strain. how its grown does come into play, but the strain is the deceiding factor...
 
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