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Study says 1 joint increases chance of mental illness by 40% (merged)

My personal opinion is that the risk of mental diseases from smoking weed is real, and I think the common side effect of paranoia that most of us long-term smokers, (hell most people) have experienced is part of that.

I do, however, also think that as most reports on drugs are, the danger here is exaggerated.

It does not precise which category of smokers are most in danger (long term smokers) and, instead, hints that even one spliff could significantly increase your chance of getting a mental disease!

All it takes is a little common sense to realize that is misinformation.
 
the study also said:

The researchers said they couldn't prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk of psychosis, a category of several disorders with schizophrenia being the most commonly known.

There could be something else about marijuana users, "like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses," Zammit said.

so what they're saying is that if by SOME chance you are one of the few who start doing maddddddddd drugs, your chance of bringing out latent psychosis is increased. i'd believe that part, but smoking alone will never turn someone crazy unless they ABUSE it to the point where they are smoking 5-10 gramd a day of the top quality shit. at that point your head is so confused you have no clue whats going on at any time of the day.
 
I developed permanent schizophrenia after smoking around 7 grams of dank in a night, but still question the validity of this study.

Maybe I developed it sooner than I otherwise did, since anything traumatic or mind-bending WILL offset schizophrenia, but then again, I might have developed it anyway, or it could have been offset by a divorce, breaking up with a girlfriend, losing a job, or just growing up.

The only thing that pisses me off is that nothing works to stop the voices other than alcohol. If alcohol which has been around for centuries can stop the voices, surely they can make a fucking drug that stops the voices.

And what they don't mention is that I tripped a few times after becoming schizo, and it actually helped with some of my delusions.
 
the use of any drug can bring out hidden psychosis in people, even marijuana - thats why people who have a history of mental illness in their family shouldn't touch the shit..

but honestly, i've -never- met someone, seen someone or talked to someone who went nuts because they smoked.

you make stupid decisions, you will pay ie the people who buy acid and they know 2 hits is enough, but they'll take 10. my boss is like that.. he buys a case of beer... cant just have 3 or 4.. has to have 10 or 15.. its OCD.
 
Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything. ~Gregg Easterbrook


98% of all statistics are made up. ~Author Unknown


Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. ~Aaron Levenstein


Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket. According to the percentage people, you should be perfectly comfortable. ~Bobby Bragan, 1963


Statistics can be made to prove anything - even the truth. ~Author Unknown


Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off. ~Paul Brodeur, Outrageous Misconduct


Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable. ~Author Unknown


Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math. ~Author Unknown


He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support rather than for illumination. ~Andrew Lang


One more fagot of these adamantine bandages is the new science of Statistics. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Statistics are like women; mirrors of purest virtue and truth, or like whores to use as one pleases. ~Theodor Billroth


Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say. ~William W. Watt


Then there is the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches. ~W.I.E. Gates


There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up. ~Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy


I always find that statistics are hard to swallow and impossible to digest. The only one I can ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep in church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable. ~Mrs. Robert A. Taft


Satan delights equally in statistics and in quoting scripture.... ~H.G. Wells, The Undying Fire


The average human has one breast and one testicle. ~Des McHale


While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will be up to, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. ~Arthur Conan Doyle


A statistical analysis, properly conducted, is a delicate dissection of uncertainties, a surgery of suppositions. ~M.J. Moroney


Statistics may be defined as "a body of methods for making wise decisions in the face of uncertainty." ~W.A. Wallis


After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, "Lies - damned lies - and statistics," still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of. ~Leonard Courtney, speech, August 1895, New York, "To My Fellow-Disciples at Saratoga Springs," printed in The National Review (London, 1895) (Thank you, Mark)


Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." ~Mark Twain, autobiography, 1904 (but, as yet no actual record of this under Disraeli's authorship)


The theory of probabilities is at bottom nothing but common sense reduced to calculus. ~Laplace, Théorie analytique des probabilités, 1820


I abhor averages. I like the individual case. A man may have six meals one day and none the next, making an average of three meals per day, but that is not a good way to live. ~Louis D. Brandeis


The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic. ~Joe Stalin, comment to Churchill at Potsdam, 1945


I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone - the chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity. ~George Gallup
 
sc4t said:
total bullshit. :)
Click to expand...


much like your post. smoking cannabis is a risk factor for mental problems, much like smoking tobacco is a risk factor for lung cancer. of course it's impossible to prove a causal link between cannabis and mental illness through a quasi-experimental design, if you did a study on 2400 tobacco smokers and found that they had a 40% greater chance of developing lung cancer, it wouldn't prove that smoking causes cancer. but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. study after study has continually found a strong association between marijuana and psychiatric illness, even after correcting for confounding factors such as other drug use, prior disposition to mental illness, self medication, etc.

why is it so difficult to believe that the abuse of a drug which executes a number of affects on the mind could eventually cause mental problems? cannabis has psychedelic properties. if you smoke it all the time, you are constantly living in a somewhat psychedelic haze. how anyone could dismiss the possibility of this causing problems is beyond me.
 
How May 40's To Get to 40%????

Jamshyd said:
How do you quantify "a joint"?
Click to expand...

Roll it.
Big, Capt'n J.

Very progressive study,
I'm sure...

The fear of terror is probably givin' more peep's
mental instability...

Or atm,
floatin' away in your house(boat)...

sad-smiley-056.gif


PEACE
UnS
:\ :)
 
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. ~Aaron Levenstein


Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket. According to the percentage people, you should be perfectly comfortable. ~Bobby Bragan, 1963
Click to expand...


lol
=D
 
Scientific Study Proves Carrying Bic Lighters Causes Lung Cancer.

This new groundbreaking study, performed by the prestigious Fast Eddie Institute of Highly Scientific Studies and Sterno Guzzling Parlor, clearly demonstrates the causal link. People carrying Bic Lighters were shown to have a 14.64548646644664 times greater chance of developing lung cancer than "non-carriers."

Fast Eddie hypothesized, before he was overcome by methanol induced projectile vomiting, that this is because residual butane penetrates the skin of the leg, carrying polypeptidic toxoplasmoids that directly target the lungs by a process known as osmopathetic chronoaffinity.

He will think up some more stuff like this just as soon as the Sterno wears off.
 
So burn out.....how do you explain that despite the number of cannabis users having risen significantly since the 60's the number of cases of schizophrenia have remained steady?

Shouldn't there have been a sharp increase? And if your talking about other forms of mental illness where is the attempt to separate possible causes? Why are the government focusing on one possible contributory factor & attempting to increase the levels of punishment that can be handed down for possession, where are the attempts to criminalize other possible factors?

I don't suppose it's possible that this research is just seen by them as a convenient weapon to use in their crusade?

Dont get too riled up, im not saying that there are 'no' health risks. I'm wondering why they don't seem too interested in other factors relating to mental illness, certainly not to the point of criminalizing those factors.
 
The Legalise Cannabis Alliance sent me this article a couple of hours ago.

EURODRUG - INFORMATION LIST OF THE EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND
EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES
Dear friends,

This message appeared today on a drug reformer's list in the US
concerning the report released by the Lancet connecting cannabis use to
mental illnesses:

Colleagues,

Despite the screaming headlines, this is much ado about nothing. This
was meta-analysis ‹ in other words, a review of existing science that¹s
been out there for years. The primary reason this is getting play now is
because the Gordon administration wants to override the former Blair gov
and reschedule cannabis from Class C to B (so that police can arrest,
rather than cite, users). The ACMD (Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs) in the UK reviewed this same data just two years ago and found
any association b/n pot and mental illness to be ³weak.² See:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/20/ncann20.xml&

sSheet=/news/2006/01/20/ixhome.html

In addition, even the authors admit that not parallel rise in
marijuana-associated mental illness has yet to occur in cultures that
have had dramatic rises in pot use. Since many mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia generally present themselves at young ages (20s), this
reality would seem to discredit any strong causal relationship. Here is
my canned reply: ³Claims that cannabis use is a causal factor in mental
illness are far from scientifically established. At best, an observable
association between cannabis use and mental illness has been established
in a minority of users; however, much of this association may stem from
the use of other drugs or from individuals with psychotic symptoms
self-medicating with marijuana.

(See: Ferdinand et al. 2005. Cannabis use predicts future psychotic
symptoms, and vice versa. Addiction 100: 612-618; Ashton et al. 2005.
Cannabinoids in bipolar affective disorder: a review and discussion of
their therapeutic potential. Journal of Psychopharmacology 19: 293-300;
Jockers-Schrubl et al. 2007. Cannabis induces different cognitive
changes in schizophrenic patients and in healthy controls. Progress in
Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. E-pub ahead of print)

More importantly, such potential health risks associated with cannabis
use -- when scientifically documented -- should not be seen as
legitimate reasons for criminal prohibition. Rather, such effects
support the call for legally regulating marijuana so that officials can
better educate users to its potential risks, and so that better
safeguards may be enacted restricting its use among potentially
vulnerable populations, especially young people. This review, even if
taken at face value, no more warrants the continued criminalization of
pot than does the desire that pregnant women refrain from alcohol
warrant the blanket prohibition of booze.² Regards,

-- Paul Armentano Senior Policy Analyst NORML | NORML Foundation
[email protected] 925-930-7327 (land) 703-606-7539 (cell)

Best wishes,

Joep
--



EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES

Lange Lozanastraat 14 – 2018 Antwerpen - Belgium

Tel. + 32 (0)3 293 0886 – Mob. + 32 (0)495 122644

E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> / www.encod.org
<http://www.encod.org>
Click to expand...
 
I am saying that there are no health risks to Cannabis.

None.

Zero.

Zilch.

Everyone should smoke it, you, your mom, your grand dad, your little sister, your cat, your dog, the mailman, and The President of the United States.
 
MrNice said:
So burn out.....how do you explain that despite the number of cannabis users having risen significantly since the 60's the number of cases of schizophrenia have remained steady?
Click to expand...

could be any number of reasons, for instance, some other factor could be contributing to a declining rate of schizophrenia or it could be the fact that since cannabis causing full blown schizophrenia is relatively rare, there isn't any statistically significant difference.
Shouldn't there have been a sharp increase? And if your talking about other forms of mental illness where is the attempt to separate possible causes? Why are the government focusing on one possible contributory factor & attempting to increase the levels of punishment that can be handed down for possession, where are the attempts to criminalize other possible factors?
Click to expand...

how do you know that other contributing factors aren't already criminalized? for example, if growing up in an abusive household contributes to mental illness (which it probably does) are you saying that child abuse is legal?

I don't suppose it's possible that this research is just seen by them as a convenient weapon to use in their crusade?
Click to expand...

i have no comment on how the uk government sees this research, i don't even live there. i'm simply asking why so many people here believe the idea that cannabis could lead to mental illness is so far fetched.

Dont get too riled up, im not saying that there are 'no' health risks. I'm wondering why they don't seem too interested in other factors relating to mental illness, certainly not to the point of criminalizing those factors.
Click to expand...

again, i have to ask you on what do you base your claim that the government is not interested in other factors that contribute to mental illness and hasn't tried to criminalize them when possible?
 
SugarPill said:
Is it just me or does this read like a bad propaganda poster from the 50's...
It seems highly unlikely that cannabis is doing anything more than just bringing to the surface mental disorders which already existed. Out of all the people in the world who have tried cannabis, of course there are going to be some that have developed schizophrenia, its just bound to happen. I'd really like to see the actual findings of this study if someone can post some sources.

"Beware: The Skunk peddlers are shrewd!"
Click to expand...


" A vicious racket w/ it's arms around your children! Smoke from Hell!
Devil's Harvest" exactly what i was thinkin! Come on, this is ridiculous.8)
 
lurkerguy said:
I am saying that there are no health risks to Cannabis.

None.

Zero.

Zilch.

Everyone should smoke it, you, your mom, your grand dad, your little sister, your cat, your dog, the mailman, and The President of the United States.
Click to expand...

My cat prefers smoking catnip. She goes fucking crazy.
 
It seems to me like a the anti-legalization groups jump on every single opportunity to make marijuana look bad. And the 3 or 4 serious long term side effects from cannabis get reported over and over and exploited by government officials.
Pretty much the same way the pro-legalization groups pounce on every study/article that reveals the benefits of cannabis.
I first heard this article on the news and although one can't deny the possibility that marijuana has the potential to bring out a preexisting mental illness, however this topic has been beaten to death.
I'd like to see the schizophrenia study done in regards to alcohol or tobacco.
In regards to the other 'mental illnesses'
Considering how quick doctors are to diagnose a patient with certain 'mental illnesses'. Short term depression, anxiety, or mood swings are now considered mental illness. 20 years ago depression, anxiety, and mood swings were part of life. cuz guess what?? life isn't perfect all the time.
 
dankstersauce said:
It seems to me like a the anti-legalization groups jump on every single opportunity to make marijuana look bad. And the 3 or 4 serious long term side effects from cannabis get reported over and over and exploited by government officials.
Pretty much the same way the pro-legalization groups pounce on every study/article that reveals the benefits of cannabis.
I first heard this article on the news and although one can't deny the possibility that marijuana has the potential to bring out a preexisting mental illness, however this topic has been beaten to death.
I'd like to see the schizophrenia study done in regards to alcohol or tobacco.
In regards to the other 'mental illnesses'
Considering how quick doctors are to diagnose a patient with certain 'mental illnesses'. Short term depression, anxiety, or mood swings are now considered mental illness. 20 years ago depression, anxiety, and mood swings were part of life. cuz guess what?? life isn't perfect all the time.
Click to expand...


i believe tobacco is actually found to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=225772005

alcohol abuse on the other hand seems to increase the risk of psychotic episodes:

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3113.htm
 
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