Marijuana.com

ryukenden

There are some evidence that Marijuana can induce psychosis and increase the chance of developing Schizophrenia by 3-5 times compared with general population.

Do you believe it?

 

Darque Pervert

Not at all.

Buzzby

The so-called "evidence" refers to a group of young men who started using very heavily at a very young age. What kind of population self-selects to become serious drug abusers in their early teenage years? Kids with psychological and psychiatric problems! They also tended to drink and use a lot of other drugs.

So - yes, there is a higher incidence of psychosis among young men who started smoking heavily in their early teens. Was their psychosis caused by their marijuana use? No. Both came from an earlier cause: preexisting mental instability.

People with healthy minds and balanced lives don't become drug abusers.

__________________

imported_squirrel_master

couldn't have said it better myself.

drexel25

Since you asked if marijuana "can" induce psychosis, the answer is yes. It has been linked in studies and has been documented, but not often. It's definitely a rarity, but yes, it "can" happen.

 

Buzzby

Strangely enough, the term "cannabis-induced psychosis" is seen only in publications from Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia. It's their own version of Reefer Madness™. It doesn't make you kill people. It doesn't make you a rapist. It only drives you crazy...

There are certainly plenty of psychotic people who have and continue to use cannabis. I read somewhere that 65% of diagnosed schizophrenics do so. Extending that correlation to state that cannabis somehow caused their psychosis is drawing conclusions ahead of the evidence.

I have yet to hear about a stable, well-adjusted person who became a cannabis user and suddenly became psychotic.

"Linked" is not the same as "induced". Ice cream can be "linked" to Bermuda shorts, i.e they correlate. That isn't to say that wearing Bermuda shorts "induces" someone to eat ice cream. They're simply two things that occur together under similar outside conditions. If you can provide a link to a study that proves that cannabis "induces" psychosis, I'd appreciate if you'd post it here.

Old Lady Toker

I have yet to hear about the existence of a stable, well-adjusted person

indosmoker420

Not everybody that smokes marijuana gets schizophrenia. The psychosis was most likely evident before the marijuana smoke in those that were tested. I dont think that we should just focus on the "men", Im sure there were "women" in those studies as well.

fh12345

lol i always thought that to get schizoprenia or anything from smokin weed you'd have to smoke a shit load of weed everyday for many years.

Hashishi

Sorry to chime in so late, but I just wanted to add that these links to psychosis, as Buzzby has said, exist in a particular demographic. This can be extended to say that drug abuse, holistically speaking, exists within a particular demographic (as do rates of mental illness).

The black market is dominated by a particular demographic, and by removing the product from the black market the demographic is better protected from itself.

Ergo, the research linking cannabis to psychosis reflects only a basic need to segregate abuse from individual substances - especially if its claims that marijuana induces psychosis are to be believed.

...I think I got that right?