ยป The Cannabis-Psychosis Connexion
Some research suggests that cannabis use, particularly before age sixteen, can increase the likelihood of becoming schizophrenic by up to four times.
One of the reasons given for this is the increasing potency of marijuana. In the 1960s it was approximately 1-2% THC by weight, and is now approaching 30%.
Market forces and genetic modification of the crop have put children in danger. More, because its market is unregulated, cannabis is potentially easier for children to obtain than both tobacco and alcohol. Drug dealers don’t check ID.
The drug war has clearly failed: prohibition makes violent criminals rich and puts children at risk of developing debilitating, life-long mental health problems. Cannabis should be fully legalized, regulated, monitored, and taxed immediately as an issue of public safety.
Besides, making plants illegal is stupid.
Hypothetically, do you think an unregulated black market or an unregulated white market would push potency higher faster?
Jared
9 Feb 10 at 1:15 pm
A white market would drive it higher, faster I suspect. If it was legalized without a regulatory framework tomorrow then by the end of the week the tobacco companies would be mixing in battery acid to dissolve the blood-brain barrier and facilitate uptake (while causing cancer) — like they did with nicotine.
In the black market access to qualified botanists and chemists is at least somewhat restricted, if only because people are afraid of doing business with the Angels.
Jack
9 Feb 10 at 1:24 pm
Oops, Cookie points out that there might be a causation v. correlation problem with the linked doc/article. Maybe people with a higher-than-normal risk of schizophrenia smoke more weed?
Jack
9 Feb 10 at 2:47 pm
Yes, it could be an example of self-medicating. Another example: schizophrenics are much more likely to smoke tobacco than the overall population.
When studies say that “X seems to cause Y”, I generally assume that the researchers are smarter than I am, so I assume that they’ve found actual evidence of causation and know that correlation ≠ causation. But I don’t trust that any journalists, a few individual medical doctors, and a few individual schizophrenics would know this, so the actual research might only establish a correlation and these others (especially the journalists) may have assumed causation.
Don
9 Feb 10 at 3:15 pm
Schizophrenia generally doesn’t onset until late teens, so no one can be self-medicating for schizophrenia before then. A skim of Google Scholar suggests this might be the current consensus:
If you are (genetically) prone to psychosis, cannabis will cause a higher chance of onset. If you are not especially prone to psychosis, cannabis is correlated with psychosis but not necessarily causal.
Jared
10 Feb 10 at 2:07 pm