As posted on Indyposted
Long-term use of marijuana can lead to increased risk of developing hallucinations, delusions and psychosis, a new study shows.
Australian researchers asked nearly 3,100 young adults averaging about 20 years of age about marijuana use. Among the participants, 65 had been diagnosed with a “non-affective psychosis” such as schizophrenia, and 233 had at least one positive item for hallucination on a diagnostic interview conducted for the study. The researchers found there was an association between length of marijuana use and mental health.
“Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had six or more years since first use of cannabis [i.e., who commenced use when around 15 years or younger] were twice as likely to develop a non-affective psychosis and were four times as likely to have high scores on the Peters et al Delusions Inventory [a measure of delusion],” wrote Dr. John McGrath, of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Park Centre for Mental Health in Wacol, and colleagues. “There was a ‘dose-response’ relationship between the variables of interest: the longer the duration since the first cannabis use, the higher the risk of psychosis-related outcomes.”
I think there’s a few dangers here. Saying marijuana is directly the cause of the mental illness seems faulty. It could be a case of the kids self-medicating, because they realized there was an issue there before adults did. Also where is the mention of amounts in this article? Are you telling me that a kid who smoked a bowl at 14 and a kid who smoked ounces from 14 until yesterday have the same risk of damage to the brain? A kid who smoked a joint at 13 is likely to develop schizophrenia? In the world of mental health, where all things considered, the science is fluid at best, it seems to me using one solitary study as an indicator of Truth seems faulty at best.
Btw, just to be clear, I am not endorsing that teenagers should all start ripping bong hits and smoking big doobies.
Life Through Half-Closed Lids 
I agree, there is no reason to grab the pitchforks, but I think MJ is more mentally damaging then a lot of users give it credit. If nothing else, while in use. I gave it up a couple years ago, but I was hocking it all over and getting really potent doses. I watched an English Doc where a woman did the “30 days” experiment in Amsterdam, and when she ramped up the quality of weed her mood became radically different. She went from the happy, willy-nilly attitude normally associated with use and became depressed, shut off, and lethargic. I remember dealing with similar experiences, and if I were ever to dabble again, I would stick with the cheaper or at least lighter versions of the dish.
cool post!
Hey, thanks for reading Jimmy! That’s something I didn’t even think about, but I’m glad that you brought up: potency. How is it possible that this would have even been considered in this study? It’s not like they were administering to the kids a controlled amount of substance over X time period…there’s no idea of how many of these kids who developed non-affective psychosis were smoking pot laced with a little coke or whatever. How many other drugs were these kids on? Were they also drinking a lot too? I’m not denying that marijuana can definitely give people a negative affect (we’ve all seen the stoners who are listless with it, or even worse angry without it.). I’m just saying that there’s probably more going on than just marijuana with these kids.