Saw this on the BBC news website today. Wondered what some of you guys might think about it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12616543

So does alcohol.

Hard to say without reading the research paper; they might be onto something or not.

These press releases have nothing to do with the scientific publications. It is useless to comment on the former and I haven't managed to source the latter.

I agree. The media is notorious for exaggerating the negative effects of drugs, especially marijuana. It definitely warrants reading the primary source though.

Bullshit, where the original source, where's the proof, the evidence?

They're trying ever so hard, bless em.

ofcourse when are they not trying to put a scare in people.

Here's the full original study.

Continued cannabis use and risk of incidence and
persistence of psychotic symptoms: 10 year follow-up cohort study
http://www.bmj.com/conte...6-45e1-973d-1737c916561c



Here's the abstract for the study

Abstract

Objective
To determine whether use of cannabis in adolescence increases the risk for psychotic outcomes by affecting the incidence and persistence of subclinical expression of psychosis in the general population (that is, expression of psychosis below the level required for a clinical diagnosis).

Design
Analysis of data from a prospective population based cohort study in Germany (early developmental stages of psychopathology study).

Setting
Population based cohort study in Germany.

Participants
1923 individuals from the general population, aged 14-24 at baseline.

Main outcome measure
Incidence and persistence of subthreshold psychotic symptoms after use of cannabis in adolescence. Cannabis use and psychotic symptoms were assessed at three time points (baseline, T2 (3.5 years), T3 (8.4 years)) over a 10 year follow-up period with the Munich version of the composite international diagnostic interview (M-CIDI).

Results
In individuals who had no reported lifetime psychotic symptoms and no reported lifetime cannabis use at baseline, incident cannabis use over the period from baseline to T2 increased the risk of later incident psychotic symptoms over the period from T2 to T3 (adjusted odds ratio 1.9, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 3.1; P=0.021). Furthermore, continued use of cannabis increased the risk of persistent psychotic symptoms over the period from T2 to T3 (2.2, 1.2 to 4.2; P=0.016). The incidence rate of psychotic symptoms over the period from baseline to T2 was 31% (152) in exposed individuals versus 20% (284) in non-exposed individuals; over the period from T2 to T3 these rates were 14% (10 and 8% (49), respectively.

Conclusion
Cannabis use is a risk factor for the development of incident psychotic symptoms. Continued cannabis use might increase the risk for psychotic disorder by impacting on the persistence of symptoms.

As with so many studies, this one fails to recognize that correlation does not imply causation. This study shows that cannabis use and later psychotic symptoms are correlated. One explanation of this correlation is that cannabis use causes psychosis.

But there are other possible explanations:

» Pre-symptomatic psychosis may cause one to be more likely to self-medicate with cannabis.

» Some other unknown factor may be making both cannabis use and psychosis more likely to occur.


This reminds me of the recent study showing a correlation between frequent diet soda consumption and stroke. The media (and perhaps the study authors) imply causation – drinking diet soda causes an increased incidence of stroke. But isn’t it a reasonable possibility that someone who drinks lots of diet soda probably doesn’t have a very good diet? If you eat fast food every day and wash it down with a diet soda, why blame the diet soda for your stroke?

As I said, correlation does not imply causation.

Amen!

Most psychotic episodes experienced under psychedelics for me have usually followed smoking cannabis, not sure if this is true for others, but i thought it was interesting. I'm fine smoking it by itself, though it does make me a bit more paranoid and nervous when talking to others, but when under the influence of a heavy LSD trip or a heavy mushroom trip, cannabis has been known to be that little push over the edge for me.

I found that push with LSD/Cannabis, but not cannabis with any other substance.

I also find myself a little paranoid when I smoke cannabis with people I don't know to well.

This to me is all just set and settng stuff.

Exact same thing happens to me, when I take large doses of things now I never smoke cannabis before or during the peak maybe a little afterwards. I used to use it to kick things in, last time it happened I smoked some then it brought the mushrooms on then thought oh Ill try another to bring it on a bit more and then I had a really bad anxiety attack, took me to the exact same place id been before after smoking it during the peak, strange thing is I used to be able to smoke a ton of it on mushrooms and acid now its a big no no

I dont think this study is the final word on this intriguing question but I do believe that the developing brain is likely to be more susceptible to toxicity from a range of psychotropics, cannabis included.The point that needs deciphering is how much exposure contributes to this in conjunction with the pre-determined genetic loading each individual has to a propensity to developing psychosis.We also need to consider how the relative proportions of the different cannabinoids in the cannabis affects the outcome.

In my experience, it seems that its those who start out using cannabis heavily and at a younger age tend to develop an addiction which has definite psychological and some physical attributes-more so than those who may indulge as much but when a little older.Apparently, here in the UK, drug addiction services are encountering this alot more than ever before and I suspect this reflects a greater prevalance rather than simply more self-reporting of cannabis-associated problems......and the presence of weed which is much stronger than in decades gone by.

Immature outlooks... struggling to come to terms with plant usage... father complexes can cause psychosis, of course cannabis can. The study is irrelevant, we need more everythingologists in the world if we want to get anywhere

If introspection was taught in school, perhaps cannabis would not cause psychosis, know thyself & it's more difficult to be mentally thwarted by anything.

From my own personal experience I find that when I smoke a lot of marijuana and drink a lot of alcohol I start becoming delusional in my day to day life... Basically my emotional response to normal routine life is grossly exagerated.

When I remove the alcohol it's typically better, but when I go completely straight for a few weeks is when I honestly feel the best.

Personally I do believe that excessive marijuana could lead to symptoms of psycosis in some people. Do I think it's more harmful that alcohol..that's absurd.

I always kinda laugh at people that act like marijuana is a benign substance. It's a chemical that interacts with your brain like any other. You can very much get phsycally addicted to it. When I was smoking haze 3-4 times a day (for a couple of years) and quit cold turkey I had cold sweats and a bad mood for several days.

Now is it harmful when used on occasion and in moderation? I don't think so. Heck I think you could even use it once a day and probably have no real long term effects, but we have o remember that everyone is different. We all bring our own mental baggage into the equation.

just my 2 cents worth. BTW I love Marijuana, but I've learned that I love it more when I used it less frequently!

I know A LOT of people that smoke weed and have smoked weed for a loooooong time, and only one went into psychosis once. But that guy smoked 5 grams or more of weed a day.
If you abuse things you get into trouble. If you eat too much you get fat. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get that.
Even drinking too much water can cause water poisoning which can be lethal. Maybe they should ban water. Very dangerous substance. Kills a lot of people every year.

This reminds me of a documentary i saw on on the BBC in 2002 about cannabis and psychosis. A number of doctors were interviewed and they went through a number of psychosis symptoms that supposedly arise from smoking cannabis. Some doctors were saying that patients were hearing voices telling them to kill people. It was a complete scare tactic and a bad one at that. It was all speculation that cannabis was the cause anyways and they should have explained that instead of trying to induce fear in the younger generation of tokers.

Multiple studies have been done on this topic. Everything indicates that cannabis can function as a catalyst for psychosis in people with a predisposition for develloping such mental disorders, so that people get the psychosis at an earlier stage in life. It has never been proven that 'normal' people also have an increased chance of becoming psychotic.

I think that people with all kinds of mental disorders are also more likely to become addicted to substances that are known to have a potential for addiction (short acting, immediate effects, etc), like nicotine, cocaine or cannabis because they probably are likely to cling on to anything that gives a feeling of comfort: most mental disorders are paired with feelings of discomfort, even before they fully manifest.

If teenagers are smoking lot's of cannabis and become more and more withdrawn, it's probably wise for teachers, parents, etc, to realise that this could indicate problems on the road ahead, so they could act before it's too late.

So i think these studies are usefull in that sense.
This doesn't seem to be politically motivated at all, as some people here are speculating.

now im scared to try marijuana because im afraid of getting psychosis

Didn't you mean schizophrenia?
Anyone can have a psychosis given enough mental stress. (Which basically should make it obvious that cannabis
can be a catalyst although rarely).



Definitely useful. The problem is that people always tries to
justify everything they do no matter what and to some extent we all have to sometimes.
Some people just takes it to the extreme and always trust their own judgment which of course is biased so when
they see a theory with conflicting information to their own, conspiratorial fabrications have to be made
to make their personal model fit.
When cannabis is on topic there is always a lot of glorification and a lot of denial.
Propaganda (not the "fox news" propaganda, there's propaganda on the "other side" as well) plays a part to.

I dont mind people smoking cannabis and does it myself at times but
if there's a good side with cannabis there's definitely a bad one to... so deal with it!