RE: the dangers of smoking pot for some people. Just something to consider.

[applegrove]

Note: this comes from a discussion in another thread. The fact that teenagers are vulnerable to the drug should not be lost in any debate.


from The Royal College of Psychiatrists


........Snip

"Schizophrenia

Three major studies followed large numbers of people over several years, and showed that those people who use cannabis have a higher than average risk of developing schizophrenia. If you start smoking it before the age of 15, you are 4 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder by the time you are 26. They found no evidence of self-medication. It seemed that, the more cannabis someone used, the more likely they were to develop symptoms.

Why should teenagers be particularly vulnerable to the use of cannabis? No one knows for certain, but it may be something to do with brain development. The brain is still developing in the teenage years – up to the age of around 20, in fact. A massive process of ‘neural pruning’ is going on. This is rather like streamlining a tangled jumble of circuits so they can work more effectively. Any experience, or substance, that affects this process has the potential to produce long-term psychological effects.

Recent research in Europe, and in the UK, has suggested that people who have a family background of mental illness – so probably have a genetic vulnerability anyway - are more likely to develop schizophrenia if they use cannabis as well."

........snip

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/mentalhealthproblems/alcoholanddrugs/cannabisandmentalhealth.aspx

[kestrel91316]

1. Legalize it like alcohol and prohibit the sale to or use by anyone under 21.

Seems pretty basic to me.

[Vincardog]

3. Second that

[applegrove]

4. I would think that massive education of people who come from families that

have a vulnerability to mental health would be in order too. What we need government for. The same as has been done with the HPV virus and cervical cancer.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. interesting

thanks.

[juno jones]

5. Schizophrenia usually manifests late teen, early twenties

I would say this is more evidence of kids who feel 'different' and 'outside', probably due to their differed sensorium, smoking pot to self-medicate, feel good, or have something in common with others. I doubt pot actually causes schizophrenia. On the other hand people with family histories of mental illness should really keep an eye out on the drugs they take. But we should not keep pot illegal just because a minority of people who shouldn't be doing drugs in the first plave have a sensitivity. I self-medicate w/weed for depression. Better than chemical cocktails, thanks. Been there, am lucky my kids and myself are still here. Have been for over half my life now (27 years). Works just fine for me. Also, IMO, people shouldn't smoke pot until 18 or so, brain development and all...

[applegrove]

15. I think the quote said that they said people they were following were not

self medicating. I'll take that with a grain of salt. But why 18? Why not 21. And an education campaign for those kids who are vulnerable.

[bluestateguy]

6. I hope they controlled for other variables

I'm not saying the study is junk, only that other varibles, correlated with teen pot-smoking should be considered as well.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Bullshit meter went off.

"These symptoms of withdrawal produce about the same amount of discomfort as withdrawing from tobacco."

Uh, I had to stop reading the gummint propaganda at that point. As an ex-smoker of both substances I can assure you that tobacco withdrawal was FUCKING HELL while there simply is no such thing as marijuana withdrawal.

[ovidsen]

11. I second that

I smoked pot every day from 1970 to 1999, when I had the "brilliant revelation" that not only was the stuff making me a slug (I was never stoned at work, but who knows how much that nightly joint or two affected my ambition and creativity and career) but it was becoming just too darn expensive. Oh, for the days of the $20 ounce.

I suffered no withdrawl, physical or mental. Oh, if someone offers me a hit at a party (it happens occasionally), I'll take one and enjoy the high, but that puff doesn't make want to scour the streets for an ounce. Certainly not for $400 an ounce. But even if it were still $20, I have no urge to resume the habit.

Cigarettes? Whole 'nother story. I think nicotine is one of the most addictive substance there is. As Mark Twain allegedly once said, "Quiting smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I've done it a thousand times." That's me. I'm puffing on a Marlboro even as I type.

As for pot leading to schizophrenia (sp)? I doubt it very much, unless the smoker's family has a history of mental illness, or the smoker him/herself is dealing with certain psychiatric problems. I'd be more concerned about it's effects on the respiratory system. Inhaling smoke from a burning plant can't be good for you, no matter what the plant is.

I also agree with the poster who thinks marijuana laws should be repealed. Legalize it, regulate it (no sales to minors, etc.) and tax the hell out of it. As much as I have disdain for the government, especially at the federal level, I'd rather see pot revenue funding schools, transportation, the rehab of REAL drug addicts and other positive projects than going to drug kingpins who have no respect for human life. Some of the cartels who deal in pot (in Canada and Latin America as well as the US) lead organizations that are just as depraved as the ones like Al Capone and others operated in the 1920s during Prohibition. They are conemptible.

Just my two cents worth...

[lyonn]

18. I've always thought that a person that couldn't quit smoking cigs

had a weak character. I smoke and have tried seriously several times and failed. I take it personal. I am a weak person.

That may be why drugs was not my things, cigs bad enough, oh, and a beer or two, ha.

[applegrove]

21. Don't give up on quitting smoking. Try the Quitnet. Helped me quit..many times LOL!

[lyonn]

22. I am well approaching my 70s and after looking at the charts

explaining age and quitting and the benefits decided that there wasn't much help for me at my age. Not that the cigs don't slow me down, sorry lung capacity as best I can tell. But, I am Old!

My worry is eyesight. Macular degeneration (sp?) is in my family and if I lost my sight I couldn't vent on DU! Now that is serious....

[ebayfool]

23. .

I remember 5-finger $10.00 lids ... O8) dating myself yet again.

When it got too expensive to bake with, 'some people' gave it up. Now that nicotine is in the same category of expense - giving IT up is proving to be friggin' HARD! But which is legally okay & which is deemed illegal?

The MOST addictive smoke is available any where, any time!

[Forkboy]

14. I think the OP is blowing more smoke that the potheads.

I know people who could kick heroin but still can't stop smoking cigarettes.The statement you point to is a complete joke.

Sadly,I'm not high enough to get it. :D

[applegrove]

20. No it is just what I heard and read. The article was # 5 on my google search.

I've heard that there were studies done in Egypt (who knew) that were ignored by the medical establishment in the west. And now are being paid attention to. I've seen it in newspapers. I've talked to people who are in the mental health business and are loath to see one person very ill when it wasn't necessary or inevitable. When I quit drinking ... I wondered if I should pick up pot once it was decriminalized in Canada..just to have a poison for the weekend. Then the studies came out and I agree I did an about face. At least where young people are concerned. I hope the debate includes all that we know.

[JetCityLiberal]

29. Completely agree

This is OP is bs...:puke:

[Rageneau]

8. RE; The health advantages of smoking pot -- also something to consider

In contrast to the studies that HINT that pot might be medically harmful are numerous studies that PROVE -- pretty conclusively -- that marijuana is efficacious treating all kinds of ailments -- up to and including lung cancer.

Only last week, Harvard announced it had completed experiments that show lab animals with lung cancer which ingested THC showed a 50% reduction in tumor growth and a much slower rate of metastisis than animals with no THC in their bloodstreams.

That is phenomenal news!! These results are unprecedented -- unheard of!

In a sane world, medical science would be clamoring for more testing and free-world governments would be bending over backward to support and promote such research.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a sane world -- or a free one. We live in one in which government-funded anti-pot crusaders go to ridiculous lengths to twist any 'evidence' they can come up wih to make pot appear dangerous, while at the same time censoring all the 'evidence' that shows that cannabis just might be the most beneficial plant alive for medical purposes.

If you smoke pot at 15, maybe you'll become schizophrenic.
If you smoke pot at 55, with lung cancer, maybe you'll live another whole year or two.

So we should keep pot illegal, right?

[applegrove]

16. Pot is a drug. I'm not saying there isn't a bright side to it..including the

pleasure and relaxation it gives to some people. But let us not ignore the dangers to some people and start the debate using all the information.

[skids]

9. Get a better source.

The page you cite from is chock full of already debunked claims, so that does not help me take it seriously.

However, if you would like to know more about the physiological effect of marijuana on the adolescent mind, a good paper I found a decade or two ago on it was:

``Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Rhesus Monkey II Effects on
Progressive Ratio and Conditioned Position Responding '' by Merle G.
Paule, Richard R. Allen, John R. Bailey, Andrew C. Scallet, Syed F.
Ali, Roger M. Brown, William Slikker Jr. in ``The Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.'' Vol. 260 pp. 210-222.
ed. pub.

...this paper and other research also points us to the solution: stop using for a half a year. Then the pruning process completes.

Something we could probably manage better in a society where use is normalized and the social pressure for teens to abstain from using it is not completely ignored by youth culture as just another among a sea of lies.

[msongs]

10. data shows that most schizophrenics also BREATE air nt

[Alexander]

12. Your own article says they "probably have a genetic vulnerability anyway"...

"Recent research in Europe, and in the UK, has suggested that people who have a family background of mental illness – so probably have a genetic vulnerability anyway - are more likely to develop schizophrenia if they use cannabis as well."

No shit? People likely to go schizo will be likely to go schizo if they smoke pot?

:eyes:

[applegrove]

17. Twin studies have shown that even if there is a precondition for a certain illness,

it doesn't necessarily manifest itself. I would say a teenager's mind is better used for sports or clubs or even dungeon's and dragons than drugs (including alcohol and cigarettes). Let us not forget the prunning. And discuss this issue taking it all into account.

[LoZoccolo]

25. Even with a genetic vulnerability, there is some environmental component.

[Alexander]

26. Great. Doesn't change the fact that 99% of pot smokers are normal & healthy.

And it doesn't change the fact that banning marijuana is a really stupid thing to do.

[youngdem]

13. Stories like this invariably have cause and effect inverted.

Pot doesn't cause these illnesses. Pot often is an attempt at self-medication by individuals who are often suffering from a variety of common and not so common mental illnesses.

It is just easier in our Christian oriented, sin is bad society to blame conduct and an 'evil' substance for the problem rather than focusing on the reality that depressed, anxious, insecure and psychotic people seek relief from anything that will work. And if our social services system does a poor job of identifying, treating, and pricing itself accessibly, we will continue to have a drug epidemic.

[mitchtv]

19. Sorry, not buying here

I think some of the crazier folks are brave enough to break the rules and smoke. I've been around smoking pot with folk for most of my 62 years= sorry I ran out, is my only regret.

[JerseygirlCT]

24. You know it never seemed a big problem to the adults I knew

back in college.

But now I'm hearing about a good number of younger kids who are really struggling with addiction problems and other psychological problems because of pot.

[Nucular Terrorist]

27. Prohibit the sale to or use by anyone under 18.

If you have the responsibilities of an adult at 18, then why can't you have the freedoms?

You can join the military, own a shotgun and a rifle, start a career in pornography, and get married and start a family all while under 21.

[AtomicKitten]

28. there's always ingestion ...... n/t