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Daily Marijuana Use And Highly Potent Weed Linked To Psychosis
Weed use is taking off as more states move to legalize it. And with all the buzz over medical marijuana, it's starting to gain an aura of healthfulness. But there are some serious health risks associated with frequent use. One of the more troubling ones is the risk of having a psychotic episode.
Several past studies have found that more frequent use of pot is associated with a higher risk of psychosis, that is, when someone loses touch with reality. Now a new study published Tuesday [open, DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30048-3] [DX] in the The Lancet Psychiatry shows that consuming pot on a daily basis and especially using high potency cannabis increases the odds of having a psychotic episode later.
[...] The study also shows that three European cities — London, Paris and Amsterdam — where high potency weed is most commonly available actually have higher rates of new cases of psychosis than the other cities in the study. [...] The researchers identified 901 people aged 18 to 64 who were diagnosed with their first episode of psychosis between May 2010 and April 2015, at a mental health facility anywhere in 11 cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, other cities across Europe, and one site in Brazil.
The researchers then asked these individuals and a control group of 1,200-plus other healthy people about their habits, including their use of weed. "We asked people if they used cannabis, when did they start using it and what kind of cannabis," explains study author Marta Di Forti, a psychiatrist and clinician scientist at King's College London. People reported the names of weed strains they used, like skunk in the U.K., or the Dutch Nederwiet, which allowed the researchers to identify the THC content in each product through data gathered by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction and national data from the different countries.
The study found that those who used pot daily were three times more likely to have a psychotic episode compared to someone who never used the drug.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 20 2019, @08:26PM (3 children)
What percentage of the time during your gathering of anecdotal evidence did the mere possession of pot constitute a crime which could result in all kinds of civil penalties, loss of employment/employability, etc. particularly for your paranoid test subjects?
People get a major rush from shoplifting, some even find it addictive - not for the stuff they get for free, but for the pure dopamine push. I think that a lot of people who drink do it for that "f-you, I can drink and I will drink, I'm not a kid who's forbidden to do this anymore" mental aspect as much as anything else.
Do I have any personal anecdotal evidence re: cannabis physiological reactions? To quote a line from Romancing the Stone: "sure, I went to college." And, my anecdotal evidence more or less matches your own, however, I also had a cocaine dealer on my dorm room floor, and around him I saw plenty of pre-drug-use-paranoia going around for all kinds of drugs and about to be drug users, actually much more than after the drugs had been smoked, snorted, etc. Hooking up with the dealer is another one of those "naughty highs" like shoplifting.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:13PM (2 children)
I guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit.
So I'm just going to back away slowly...
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 21 2019, @12:11PM (1 child)
Not so much comprehension as blind faith acceptance of other people's observations as truth. I accept that they are your truth, comprehend why they are your truth, but do not accept them as my own truth.
Back away slowly if you must, all those drugs probably made you paranoid, right?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday March 21 2019, @01:35PM
Nope. It's definitely your reading comprehension.
You said:
And I replied:
If you have some *actual evidence* that drug use by itself *never* causes paranoia, I'd love to hear it. Where was such a study published? Is the data set available?
You may think that I need to provide details of every scenario where this has happened and detail how no external forces contributed to such paranoia. But this isn't a peer-reviewed paper, and you're not on a journal publishing committee.
That's fine. I don't have the need to convince some random jackass on the internet (in case you were confused, that's you). Carry on. I imagine you're a blast at parties:
Random partygoer: "I was on my way over here and saw an injury accident. It was awful."
You: "Are you sure it wasn't just some sort of EMT drill?"
Random partygoer: "Oh yeah, the driver of one of the cars had their brains spattered all over the street. Must not have been wearing a seat belt."
You: "Those weren't brains, and no one was injured. It was just an EMT drill."
Random partygoer: "No. I saw it. Really."
You: "That's your truth, not mine. And I won't accept it. Why are you trying to spread misinformation?"
I'm not really concerned one way or another what you (or anyone else for that matter) think or believe about me or anyone else. Nor am I afraid when driving down back roads. In fact, the only thing I'm really afraid of (and the combination of gravity and the Electromagnetic force makes the risk quite real, so no paranoia there) is heights.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr