Marijuana / Schizophrenia myth:

Anonymous #1:

Marijuana smoke contains three times the amount of tar found in tobacco smoke and 50% more carcinogens.

I'm all about pure green, I smoked it with green tea the second time, tobacco isn't necessary.
*I apologise! I read that wrong! But still- it doesn't concern me, a few experiences ain't going to hurt.

#2:

my best friend got schizophrenia due to consistent marijuana use. also, he was not a 'druggo or pot head'

The key word in that is CONSISTENT, it sort of means he was a druggo or a pothead.

Hence Bullshit...

#2.5

FAG.

Yep, I also use the bong as a dildo for ass fucking my partner.

# 3:

Judd, what that chick said isn't 'bullshit'

Yes it is. 

you aren't as educated as you think you are on this. 

Suck me off I'm not. 

Marijuana (and any drug for that matter, excluding lsd maybe?) 

I read ESPECIALLY LSD on schizophrenia.com I think it was.

has a direct impact on the chemical balance of the brain. 

A temporary one.

Especially when abused, or not used correctly. 

I'm not encouraging that.

So don't go claiming 'bullshit', it's called stimulant or chemical psychosis.    

And it's only temporary.

After the countless years of calling yourself poison free or whatever (not an edge slur or anything) it's just really hypocritical that you preach all this, and talk shit about people drinking and smoking and then backflip.  

Yes I can backflip on the ground, tramp and up walls- just like I can backflip on my beliefs, beliefs should change as you learn more... right? I learnt I had been brainwashed.

that's what's wrong with society, people are fucking spineless, when it becomes the 'cool thing to do', they all do it.  

Everyone with a tumblr is spineless? I think you're forgetting I will never drink alcohol and that's been pretty cool since year 7.

I'm not anti drugs, 

Then get amoungst some and shutup.

but seriously, there is nothing worse than an uneducated, preaching hypocrite.  

Like yourself.

Like I've always said- my beliefs contradict at times and always will (no one is being guided by what is right), they also change when my analysis sways of what is wrong and right.

#4

Use of marijuana/hash/cannabis has been linked with significantly increased probability of developing schizophrenia. 

The key word LINKED... not proven, you could link eating lollypops with schizophrenia if you tried. 

This link has been documented in over 30 different scientific studies over the past 20 years. In one example, a study interviewed 50,000 members of the Swedish Army about their drug consumption and followed up with them later in life. Those who were heavy consumers of cannabis at age 18 were over 600% more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia over the next 15 years than those did not take it. Experts estimate that between 8% and 13% of all schizophrenia cases are linked to marijuna / cannabis use during teen years.  

You directly took this quote from schizophrenia.com 

They're opening line sort of ruins any argument underneath it.

Now prepare yourself for the huge amount of information that proves that all that is bullshit.

It has long been debated whether or not marijuana causes schizophrenia.  Is this a myth?  You may say "I'm not taking the chance, either way."  Well, I have one thing to ask you then, do you throw salt over your shoulder after spilling it on the table just to make sure you won't have bad luck for the rest of the day as well?  Do you avoid walking under a ladder because you don't want to take that chance just incase, as well?  It is time to break down the supersticious idealogy and get to the truth of the matter.

This is a total media scare story.  Different sources of this myth have different numbers.  Some say you are 4.5 times more likely to become schizophrenic if you smoke pot.  This “study” from the UK claims “Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%”.  Pretty scary isn’t it?  Fortunately these studies are total bullshit.

For example if I performed a raindance and it rained later in the day I have satisfied association and temporal antecedence but not isolation.  Therefore I cannot scientifically prove that my raindance worked.  If raindances were a controversial topic the media would  then publish the “study” and the headline would read “Recent Study Suggests that Raindance Leads to precipitation”.  Sounds ridiculous right?  Well that is exactly what has been happening with the hundreds of “studies” on cannabis and schizophrenia.

Isolation has not been proven in the marijuana-schizophrenia link.  In fact evidence to the contrary is indisputable.  Marijuana use has grown significantly in the last 30 years.  If schizophrenia was caused by marijuana use then there should be an observable rise in schizophrenia rates as well.  No such link has been established.  This study from Australia demonstrates these findings*.  Before marijuana became popular less than 1% of the population was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and now that marijuana use in widespread the rate of schizophrenia diagnosis is still less than 1%.

The Report of the Senate Special Commitee on Illegal Drugs from Canada in 2002 concluded the following,

No mental pathology directly related to the overuse of cannabis has been reported, which distinguishes this substance from psychostimulants such as MDNA, cocaine or alcohol, heavy and repeated use of which can give rise to characteristic psychotic syndromes. Similarly, cannabis does not seem to precipitate the onset of pre-existing mental dysfunctions (schizophrenia, bipolar depression, etc.).

There are studies that show that cannabis can actually be used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia (http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7908, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17826035).

Three-quarters of persons with schizophrenia develop the disease between 16 and 25 years of age.  The studies that suggest that marijuana causes schizophrenia claim that pot use during adolescence will cause schizophrenia around the age 26.  That is the age that it will occur anyway.  What does marijuana use have to do with it?  Nothing.  Persons who are predisposed to schizophrenia are awkward teenagers and much more likely to use cannabis and other drugs than their peers.  It actually looks like schizophrenia causes some marijuana use!

Despite lack of evidence the media promotes these studies as true.  Headlines like this, “UK researchers to claim as that pot is causing 14% of schizophrenia cases in the UK” are scary.  These media scare stories are unfounded and designed to create widespread fear around marijuana use, also known as propaganda.  The UK is currently in the middle of a psychological war on cannabis.  Check out some of these recent claims taken from a pot-schizophrenia news story,

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, warned yesterday that the risks were likely to be heightened by the increasing use of powerful skunk cannabis.

and

Cannabis has been implicated in a string of vicious killings, including the recent stabbing of fashion designer Lucy Braham.

These claims are absurd this is pure propaganda.  Unfortunately the majority of people know very little about cannabis and accept these claims as true.

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and author of Marihuana Reconsidered -

 "Marijuana laws and their enforcement have become increasingly severe, buttressed by 'new' MYTHS dressed in scientific costume such as the present notion, developed largely in England and Australia, that marijuana causes schizophrenia"

Colin Blakemore, PhD, ScD, Chair of the Department of Physiology at the University of Oxford, wrote in a Dec. 27, 2002 email to ProCon.org:

"It is conceivable that excessive use of cannabis sometimes contributes to acute schizophrenic episodes. But it is difficult to believe that cannabis is a strong risk factor for this disorder, because there is no evidence that the incidence of schizophrenia has risen dramatically over the past 50 years, in parallel with the huge increase in cannabis use.

Young schizophrenic patients are often heavy cigarette smokers too, but no-one would suggest that tobacco causes schizophrenia."

Hollie V. Thomas, DPhil, Director of the MSc Program in Psychiatry at Cardiff University, wrote in an article titled "Psychiatric Symptoms in Cannabis Users," published Aug. 1993 in the British Journal of Psychiatry:

"Cannabis use can lead to a range of short-lived symptoms such as de-personalisation, de-realisation, a feeling of loss of control, fear of dying, irrational panic and paranoid ideas...

The evidence that cannabis has a causative role in chronic psychotic or affective disorders is not convincing, although the drug may modify the course of an already established illness."

Paul Armentano, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), stated in an Aug. 2, 2007 press release titled "NORML Responds to New Rash of Pot and Mental Health Claims":

"Despite the enormous popularity of cannabis in the 1960s and 1970s in numerous Western cultures, rates of psychotic disorders haven't increased since then in any of these societies. Individuals suffering from mental illness such as schizophrenia tend to use all intoxicants - particularly alcohol and tobacco - at greater rates than the general population. Not surprisingly, many of these individuals also use cannabis."

Here's some more anti-propaganda for you:

http://theaustralianheroindiaries.blogspot.com/2009/07/cannabis-schizophrenia-and-psychosis.html

http://loopylettuce.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/marijuana-myth-pot-increases-the-risk-of-schizophrenia/

* http://drjiggens.com/does_cannabis_use_cause_schizophrenia.html

^ australian based, good read.

Here is an in-depth study of the above results: (PDF)

 http://www.ukcia.org/research/TestingHypotheses.pdf

Here was the conclusion:

Q: Does cannabis use cause schizophrenia?

A: No. Over the past four decades most countries in the Western world have experienced rapidly increasing cannabis use. None of these countries has experienced any accompanying “Madness” plague. Countries like Australia and Jamaica which have the highest levels of cannabis use have levels of schizophrenia similar to the rest of the world.

Where does that leave the “Reefer Madness” theory??