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Buzzby

Cannabis Mental Health Study Doesn't Match Reality
NORML | Scoop.nz | 03/24/2005

A Dutch study of New Zealand teens has claimed to find an increased risk of developing schizophrenia among those who used cannabis.

However the result was based on just three people.

NORML spokesperson Chris Fowlie said he was "astonished that such a sweeping generalisation can be made from such a small sample."

The study of 759 people born in Dunedin in 1972-3, reported in New Scientist magazine, claimed to have found a 10 percent higher chance of suffering the symptoms of schizophrenia among those who had smoked cannabis three or more times by the age of fifteen, compared to those who had not.

However only 29 of the sample of 759 had used cannabis three times or more by the age of fifteen, and just three went on to suffer schizophrenic symptoms.

"It is simply wrong to claim any sort of result from such a small number of people. This is the same percentage approximately as the margin of error.

"These researchers are living on fantasy island. In the real world, we can see that cannabis use rates are increasing throughout western society, and yet rates of mental illness are falling.

"Using cannabis is normal, with 74% of 21-year-olds in a Christchurch study admitting to using cannabis, and yet we can see they're not all going insane.

"The result these boffins have claimed does not match up to reality."

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Cassius

Wow. Why wasn't this noticed earlier, when the study came out? Do they not tell you in the study what the sample size was, or did most people just overlook it?

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{ Cassius, Your Humble Narrator }
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frolic

The media uses the title of these studies without checking out the validity. This type of research is often done by large organizations (i.e., Pfizer, Lilly, Bayer, etc.) through subsidiaries to promote the fears associated with marijuana decriminalization and legalization. Many of the "News" items like these you hear are produced by these organizations and given to the lazy media to present as real news.

reggie_the_dog

""Using cannabis is normal, with 74% of 21-year-olds in a Christchurch study admitting to using cannabis, and yet we can see they're not all going insane."

74 percent.....Cannabis use is taking over alcohol use.......
Here in France men beween 16 and 26 have similar use rates of alcohol and cannabis (around 20 percent drink 4 days a week or less and around 20 percnet get high 4 days a week. )

The youth now know that cannabis is better for them than alcohol or tobacco.

How much longer will the governments be able to keep all of us criminals??????

CheebaMonkey

This study is over two years old. It was published in November of 2002:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/conte...cetype=1,2,3,4

BMJ is a peer reviewed journal, so I think that's pretty embarassing that they missed that. Someone even left a response that the study isn't convincing (although for different reasons):

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