Cannabis Use Not Linked with Psychosocial Harm

[Champ]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Various reports indicate that young people who use cannabis tend to experience psychological and social problems. However, there is no evidence that marijuana use is directly linked with such problems, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet.


"Currently, there is no strong evidence that use of cannabis of itself causes psychological or social problems," such as mental illness or school failure, lead study author Dr. John Macleod of the University of Birmingham in the UK told Reuters Health.


"There is a great deal of evidence that cannabis use is associated with these things, but this association could have several explanations," he said, citing factors such as adversity in early life, which may itself be associated with cannabis use and psychosocial problems.


Macleod and his team reviewed 48 long-term studies, 16 of which provided the highest quality information about the association between illicit drug use reported by people 25 years old or younger and later psychological or social problems. Most of the drug-specific results involved cannabis use.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=4&u=/nm/20040517/hl_nm/cannabis_psychosocial_dc

[Champ]

1. Researchers keep looking for strong reasons to keep it illegal

They're still looking.

[havocmom]

2. Have always preferred dealing with a loady to dealing with a drunk

And when you consider all the helpful things pot can do for certain medical conditions.... But BIG Pharm will not allow their profits on pills to treat things pot could help to be shortchanged by something more efficient.

We were just discussing this the other evening at supper. Decided pot is illegal cuz it is so easy to grow that big companies just can't figure out how to get the market cornered. Sorta like solar energy use in this country; won't happen on a seriously helpful scale till the folks who currently have all the $$ figure out how to meter the sun. They sure as hell won't allow any new people to come in and make money with a technology they can't control themselves.

[H2O Man]

3. While pot should be legal,

it is not possible to say that it is entirely "safe" for everyone. People need to look closely at their own personal and family history. Addiction tends to be addiction. Obviously people who smoke a lot of pot are less likely to start fights in bars, or slam into you on the highway. But examine what any substance "adds" and "subtracts" from your life.
One example is people with psychotic disorders do not usually do well with pot. (There are a few exceptions.)People with schizophrenia will usually end up "cycling" if they smoke pot. Psychiatric hospitalization is not pleasant, and hardly worth getting high. People with affective disorders (which are becoming increasingly common) do not do well with pot, in the vast majority of cases.
Also, society as well as individuals does/do not benefit from teens spending excessive amounts of time getting high and worrying about if they have a big baggie of weed.
None of these reasons justifies keeping pot illegal. But in order for society to move towards a rational approach to marijuana, those who advocate for it's decriminalization/legalization need to take a mature approach. This includes recognizing that pot has both the potential for good and bad.