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

RavenousBlonde

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There are great risks in smoking cannabis, a new report has revealed
A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns.

The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.

Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.

The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C, the least serious category.

The Prime Minister is said to have a 'personal instinct' that the change should be reversed, with more arrests and stiffer penalties for users.

Cannabis has been implicated in a string of vicious killings, including the recent stabbing of fashion designer Lucy Braham.

The authors of the latest study, the most comprehensive of its kind and commissioned by the Department of Health, said: 'Policymakers need to provide the public with advice about this widely-used drug.

'We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life.'

The analysis does not look at the age at which schizophrenia is likely to develop. However, previous studies have shown that smoking the drug as a teenager raises the risk of developing schizophrenia in one's twenties or thirties.

The researchers, from four British universities, analysed the results of 35 studies into cannabis use from around the world. This suggested that trying cannabis only once was enough to raise the risk of schizophrenia by 41 per cent.

At greatest risk, however, were heavy users, with those who took cannabis over 100 times having more than double the risk of those who never touched the drug.

With up to 40 per cent of teenagers and young adults in the UK believed to have tried cannabis, the researchers estimate that the drug could be behind 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

'Although individual lifetime risk of chronic psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, even in people who use cannabis regularly, is likely to be low - less than three per cent - cannabis use can be expected to have a substantial effect on psychotic disorders at a population level because exposure to this drug is so common.'

Cardiff University researcher Dr Stanley Zammit added: 'Even if cannabis does cause an increased risk of developing psychosis, most people who use cannabis will not develop such an illness.

'Nevertheless, we would still advise people to avoid or limit their use of this drug, especially if they start to develop any mental health symptoms, or if they have relatives with psychotic illnesses.'

In an accompanying editorial in the Lancet, Dutch psychiatrists said the focus on heroin, cocaine and other Class A drugs meant the dangers of cannabis had been overlooked.

'In the public debate, cannabis has been considered a more or less harmless drug compared with alcohol, central stimulants and opioids.

'However, the potential long-term hazardous effects of cannabis with regard to psychosis seem to have been overlooked, and there is a need to warn the public of these dangers, as well as to establish a treatment to help young frequent cannabis users.'

Previous studies have shown a clear link between cannabis use in the teenage years and mental illness in later life.

Research completed by leading psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray in 2005 showed that those who smoked the drug regularly at 18 were 1.6 times more likely to suffer serious psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia, by their mid-20s.

For those who were regular users at 15, the stakes were even higher, with their risk of mental illness by the age of 26 being 4.5 times greater than normal.

It is thought that, used during teenage years, the drug can cause permanent damage to the developing brain.

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, warned yesterday that the risks were likely to be heightened by the increasing use of powerful skunk cannabis.

'My own experience suggest to me that the risk with skunk is higher. Therefore their estimate that 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia in the UK are due to cannabis is now probably an understatement.'

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: 'This analysis should act as a serious warning of the dangers of regular or heavy cannabis use, doubling the risk of developing schizophrenia - a condition in which a person may hear voices and experience strange thoughts and paranoid delusions.

'The debate about classification should not founder on statistics but take into account the potential damage to hundreds of people who without cannabis would not develop mental illness.

'While the majority can take the drug with no mind-altering effects, it is estimated that 10 per cent are at risk.

'You only need to see one person whose mind has been altered and life irreparably damaged, or talk to their family, to realise that the headlines are not scaremongering but reflect a daily, and preventable, tragedy.'

However, others questioned the link, pointing out there has been little change in rates of schizophrenia in recent years despite the rise in cannabis use and the increasing strength of the drug. _____________________________________________________________

Three heavy drug users and their horrific killings:

Prolific cannabis user and killer: William Jaggs
William Jaggs, a 23-year-old Oxford University student and prolific cannabis user, stabbed fashion designer Lucy Braham 66 times at her home near Harrow, the public school in North-West London.

The paranoid schizophrenic was found covered in blood beside Lucy's body, having plunged the knife into his own chest last September.

The former Harrow pupil, whose father is a teacher at the school, started using drugs when he was 14, moving on from cannabis to cocaine.

He was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital this month for an unlimited period after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Richard Cazaly

Drug-crazed killer: Richard Cazaly

Drug-crazed drifter Richard Cazaly is believed to have stabbed pregnant Abigail Witchalls in Surrey, in April 2005.

Cazaly, 23, who killed himself five days after the stabbing, had a history of heavy drug use dating back at least four years.

His girlfriend, Vanessa MacKenzie, told police both she and Cazaly were regular cannabis users, smoking 'a couple of joints a day'.

Surrey police said Cazaly became psychotic and violent as a result of long-term abuse of drugs and the alcohol he had consumed on the day of the random stabbing.

Miraculously, Mrs Witchalls and her unborn baby survived the attack. Her young son - who she was pushing in a pram when she was set upon by Cazaly - was unhurt.

Thomas Palmer

Mind warped by smoking skunk: Thomas Palmer

Son of a nurse at Broadmoor Thomas Palmer butchered two of his friends during a woodland walk after his mind was warped by smoking skunk - a particularly potent form of cannabis.

Then aged 18, he virtually beheaded 16-year-old Steven Bayliss and repeatedly stabbed Nuttawut Nadauld, 14, near their homes in Wokingham, Berkshire in September 2005.

Palmer had started using the drug at 14. He told doctors he had not been smoking on the day of the killings but admitted to using skunk regularly in the weeks before the brutal attack.

In March this year, he was given a minimum 20 years in prison for the double murder.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...tml?in_article_id=471106&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%
By FIONA MACRAE and EMILY ANDREWS - More by this author » Last updated at 23:57pm on 26th July 2007
 
Last edited by a moderator:
i have known too many smokers to count, and maybe 4-5 true schizophrenics.

certainly it has effects on the mind, id say that people with schizophrenia should NOT smoke, but thats a different story.

if you get schizophrenia while smoking pot, you were going to have it any ways, just sooner possibly.

seems misleading. .
 
wow....just wow

England's "science" is worse than America's. I don't even think they are saying this kind of bull shit over here.
 
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!"
 
That is pretty bad.

How exactly are these 'studies' conducted?

I foresee countless variables and much conclusion jumping going on in these government sanctioned "research".

Obviously mind altering drugs can have some effect on the outcome of a developing(ie:teenage) brain.
Yet Paxil and Ritalin are freely prescibed to any poor kid run through these "Psychological Institutions".

Without real substance, these news stories just come off like blatant propaganda with an obvious anti-cannabis agenda.........
 
History repeats itself

The terminology and rhetoric in this article is almost identical to American anti-pot propaganda during the 1930's and 1940's. "Reefer Madness" anyone? I guess it never completely goes away. On one hand pot gets a bad rap in stories like this, while on the other hand, it is slowly gaining approval for medical applications. Unfortunately, stories that negatively portray marijuana get most of the attention.
On a somewhat related note, the following link describes how, despite allegations of marijuana leading to mental illness, the DEA has acknowledged that marijuana chould be considered for the treatment of certain illnesses. However, the NIDA wants to be the only source of medical marijuana and is fighting for control of the med-pot contracts (Frood, 2007). How shocking to see that a government agency wants to monopolize the drug trade in America; essentially taking over the job of domestic pot dealer.
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1381&fmt=page

Reference:
Frood, A. (2007, June 29). Scientists stir the pot for the right to grow marijuana. Nature medicine. Retrieved July 27, 2007, from http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1381&fmt=page
 
As a rule of thumb, if a drug research is government funded, it is only to be read for humour, if not at all.

ps. anyone with any exposure to research methodology can immediately notice that the research (or its reportage) is highly flawed. How do you quantify "a joint"?
 
I was thinking the same thing when I read the title. What constitutes as a joint.
 
Will somebody please inform the Brits that some Yanks made Reefer Madness over 70 years ago?

Oops. That got posted already. I must be high.
 
Disturbing study indeed. Now by the results though, but by how the results are being expressed (this article for example).

I recall having schizophrenia have for a couple years in my early twenties. After I quit my medication and started to smoke cannabis. my schizophrenia dissipated. It's too bad cases similar to mine can't be exploited like the ones in the article.
 
^^You should maybe try to get ahold of one of those researchers, I think they might be interested in hearing that.

This seems like they are saying cannabis use causes schizophrenia later in life, but I think it's more likely that people who are prone to schizophrenia are also likely to use/abuse recreational drugs, cannabis being the most widely used. Maladaptive tendencies go hand-in-hand, and some people seem to have simply gotten the shit end of the stick, gene-wise.
 
Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

And a complete coincidence this report comes out at the same time as the Prime Minister calls for a rethink on UK drug laws.
 
I like how they classify heavy users as those who have used cannabis more than 100 times. I'm feeling heavy.
 
The thing that often hinders these studies from be truly factual is that schizophrenia is often a temporary symptom with marijuana for a limited number of individuals. Its like any side-effect of a pharmaceutical and the risk of such side-effects is very low in the general population. Simply countering the THC content with other cannabinoids through new breeding techniques or genetic manipulation would easily allow botanists the ability to produce a crop that is very much so capable of lowering the side-effects without affecting potency for treatment of neuropathy, or simply a user's ability to get high.

I wish there was a study that brought out more realistic research in regards to current trends and understands the implications of single use, multi-use, and abuse, without implanting political bullshit where they select some facts to be highlighted and others to be hidden. It won't be for some time that our generation is at the forefront of these studies, muchless ones that aren't funded by the federal government and backed by the DEA (if they are still around 10 to 20 years down the line, chances are they won't be with growing unpopularity of the 'War on Drugs').
 
Even if the study is accurate, a 40% raise in the current likelihood of developing schizophrenia is really a miniscule increase, considering the current likelihood of developing the illness is ~1%. This 40% increase is realy just a rise from 1% to 1.4%...
 
They are so full of shit it's infuriating. People's welfare does not figure with most politicians, their interest lies in getting votes, staying in power, and riding that gravy train for all it's worth.

How do they separate other potential factors from the use of cannabis? I've never seen one of these studies that has even attempted to do that. I know many many users, and not a single one has developed schizophrenia up to this point.

They dont even make an effort to seem plausible, it's just scaremongering sensationalist trash. Sadly there are those who will swallow it hook line & sinker.
 
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