Whoa, dude!
Comments: 7
Reefer madness continues. New Scientist has an article by Emma Young entitled Cannabis link to mental illness strengthened which I’m having a little trouble figuring out (no, I’m not under the influence).
Try this test. Read the story and then see if you can answer the question “Does smoking pot cause schizophrenia?”
The link between regular cannabis use and later depression and schizophrenia has been significantly strengthened by three new studies.
This construction (“the link” between something and another thing) is often journalistic shorthand used to suggest causative relationships. We can be forgiven for thinking that this is the case here. Especially when we continue reading:
Until now, say Rey and Tennant, there was “a dearth of reliable evidence” to support the idea that cannabis use could cause schizophrenia or depression.
which suggests that there is now more evidence of a causative link. Alarm bells started ringing for me when this somewhat gratuitous paragraph was thrown in:
The works also highlights potential risks associated with using cannabis as a medicine to ease the symptoms of muscular sclerosis, for example.
Smells like we have an agenda here. The third study is eventually introduced:
Finally, researchers led by Terrie Moffitt at King’s College London, UK, analysed comprehensive data on over 1000 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972 and 1973.
They found that people who used cannabis by age 15 were four times as likely to have a diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder (a milder version of schizophrenia) at age 26 than non-users.
OK. We’re seeing links between pot and schizophrenia, but is the former causing the latter, is the latter encouraging the former, or is pot merely exacerbating existing tendencies towards mental illness (something that’s been obvious for ages)? It’s looking like boring old numbers 2 and 3:
But when the number of psychotic symptoms at age 11 was controlled for, this increased risk dropped to become non-significant. This suggests that people already at greater risk of later developing mental health problems are also more likely to smoke cannabis.
The total number of high quality studies on cannabis use and mental health disorders remains small, stress Rey and Tennant. And it is still not clear whether cannabis can cause these conditions in people not predisposed by genetic factors, for example, to develop them.
So, in other words, nothing new to report here, folks, Move along! Despite this lack of anything new, and despite this humdinger:
“The overall weight of evidence is that occasional use of cannabis has few harmful effects overall,” Zammit’s team writes.
we still need to wrap things up “on message” (remember that agenda?):
“Nevertheless, our results indicate a potentially serious risk to the mental health of people who use cannabis. Such risks need to be considered in the current move to liberalise and possibly legalise the use of cannabis in the UK and other countries.”
I don’t doubt for a moment that pot can exacerbate mental illness in people prone to such afflictions. I’ve seen it in more than one friend, and it’s tragic. But trotting out studies and suggesting causative links between pot and mental illness for nothing more than the apparent furthering of an anti-pot (and anti-medical-pot at that) agenda seems beneath the integrity of a publication like New Scientist.
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Posted to General Rants • 2002.11.22 (Fri) • 16:26
Comments
Posted by jeremy 2002.11.22, 18:04
It’s nice to see a reasoned analysis of an article like this. I find myself controlled by personal bias whenever I read on this subject. My younger brother is a victim of this disease, which happened to take hold in the same timeframe as his experimenting with pot and lsd in his teens. Personally, I think that drug use could only act as a trigger if an individual has whatever causes the sickness in them to begin with, basically just pushing them over a line that may not have been crossed naturally. But as I said, it’s difficult to see objectively as my family has been struggling for the past decade to explain it to ourselves. So yes, thanks for addressing the issue as you did.
Posted by jh 2002.11.23, 00:37
Jeremy — I’m sorry to hear about your brother. Thanks for your comments, although upon re-reading what I wrote I don’t think it’s a terribly reasoned analysis by any stretch (the article isn’t really pushing an anti-medical marijuana agenda — but it does get mentioned too gratuitously).
Nor can I really blame Emma Young for what she wrote: the whole smacks of the kind of editorial stance that self-respecting writers loathe, at least the ones I know. Ms. Young may well be cursing her editor and drowning her sorrows in a tall bottle of strong drink as we speak.
Nonetheless, I’ll certainly stand by my opinion that articles like this don’t help anyone, and only muddy the waters.
Kids need to be exposed to sensible drug education policies, but the current ‘war on drugs’ mania makes this highly unlikely to happen (not to mention that it often increases the attraction of drugs in the first place). All the “Just Say No” rhetoric that gets bandied about and the ever-harsher penalties for harmless drugs like pot make it very difficult for kids who may begin experiencing problems to get help, or to even recognise that they may have a problem in the first place.
A draconian atmosphere is not conducive to illumination of any issue (and I don’t mean to suggest that the pendulum should swing the other way: a balanced middle ground would be ideal).
People in a position such as your parents need clear-headed discussion and a sense of hope, neither of which are easily available in the current mania towards all-out prohibition.
Posted by Scott 2002.11.23, 17:36
Working as a psychiatric nurse for two years there is definitely a link (a vague one) between marijuana and schizophrenia.
However there is no definiative guide or study as to whether smoking pot causes schizophrenia or not, or whether people who suffer schizophrenia take up smoking pot because of their illness.
You don’t have to be Einstein to do a literature search of any psychiatric database and type in “shizophrenia” and “marijuana”. And you won’t be surprised as to how many results you will get. Literally thousands. The subject has been researched to death.
Emma Young would of done the same thing, and come up with any combination of conclusions. ‘Three new studies’ means jack.
What alarms me is the attention paid to marijuana and not the illness itself. And what really pisses me off is when someone says, ‘oh they’re schizophrenic’. They are NOT schizophrenic, they suffer from shizophrenia.
End of rant!
Posted by marijuana alternatives 2003.09.21, 00:06
“Marijuana inflames the erotic impulses and leads to revolting sex crimes” Daily Mirror (1924)
Posted by Haze 2005.03.06, 08:15
Haha, lol at that Daily Mirror (1924) quote!
By the way, I have just set up a new cannabis discussion board at WeedForums.com - and I would love for you all to engage in this kind of intelligent debate over there.
And to the author, a very nice break down of that article. I wouldn’t even mind posting it on WeedForums.com if you are in agreement. We could do with someone like you as a moderator.
Posted by tyler 2005.05.31, 02:52
okay pot does not cause schizophrenia. people that have this mental illness used it before they were diagnosed got the illness because of the messed up life they were trying to get away from in the 1st place by smoking dope.
Posted by Danny 2005.11.10, 01:20
Ive been misdiagnosed as schizophrenic 4 years ago and the psychiatrists get it mixed up for biplolar my first Psychiatrist “Dr Saboysky” at Calvary In Canberra told me that everyone who smokes pot has schizophrenia and every person that comes in his office and says they do drugs he labels them, then breaks the law by lieing by saying you cant get a second opinion and without authority says for you to take medication or go to the mental ward, this doctor only knew me for 10 minutes and he deserves to die.
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