Does Pot Use Cause Psychosis, Or Does Psychosis Cause Pot Use?

For those who decide to put a hammer to their own heads and make the argument it is harmless and their right to do so, I simply stopped caring.

And for those who just thought about putting a hammer to their own heads, but never tried, unless they actually learn something over the years, it doesn't matter either.

I suggest go read a book and decide to make a better life for yourself!

Pot maxes out your receptors for THC at 21-22% of the surface area of the neurons. (after long term use) (studied on rats with a 99.9% liquid THC solution) The biggest factors for psychosis are dopamine imbalances. (serotonin more for depression) If the dopamine levels are low and the person is smoking more indica, it will balance the levels. Sativa is more useful for depression.

The two main strains function comparably to anti-depressants and anti-psychotics. The main difference being the cost, and that both anti-psychotics and the indica in long term use will atrophy the dopamine producing cells. Atrophied dopamine producing cells mean alzheimers like symptoms, thus the forgetful pothead. Same as the long term anti-psychotic user. (although pot users dont tend to get Tardive dyskinesia )

Awesome pic, looks delicious!!!

I also partake to help my unstable mental states, I just wish it could be backed up in a lab!! Happy New Year!

Cannabis has recently been used to cure an 8th month-old of brain cancer. Old people used to call it the "old grey mule", using it to help their ailments. It helps those with depression.

I wouldn't recommend pot use for the undeveloped mind, but people of age should have the right to grow and use it as they please.

People already freely get pot, though it's illegal. Illegality only benefits drug cartels. It is a waste of police time and energy to incarcerate people who use it, and a waste of taxpayer's money. It has never killed anyone, unlike the legal drug alcohol. It is also medicinal in half of U.S. states. When Portugal legalized pot, use declined.

It is now listed as a Schedule 1 drug, the same as LSD and heroin. Heroin is extremely addictive. Pot is not. Nor it psychoactive like LSD.

It is time to legalize and decriminalize pot.

busysaru,

Here is an article in support of your comment.
www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

But while making it legal, it is still using a hammer to the head, the only difference now by making it legal the government has successfully influence reduction of its use.

Wow, it's like after a while people do learn with therapy, that hurting oneself is not healthy for a certain percent of folk, gosh be golly!

And when it was illegal, these same people receive no therapy or education of how it was hurting themselves, the self abuse continued.

"I suggest go read a book and decide to make a better life for yourself!"

Yeah, it's definitely people with psychosis use cannabis. Cannabis is a learning tool. You learn about yourself and your environment.

-

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours"

- Stephen Roberts

The study should clearly exclude anyone who has already exhibited psychotic symptoms before beginning pot use. Then examine the number with and without psychotic symptoms.

Please stop calling Cannabis by any other name. Marijuahna, Dope, Pot, Reefer, or any other slang you might know it by. After prohibition ended we did not call it booze it was alcohol. Now that this prohibition is over lets be scientific and call it cannabis. : )

God damn it, legalize it! People are using it whether or not it is legal.Best to legalize it,and collect taxes on the sale of it.Why leave the pushers with all the profits?

I don't even use pot, but goddamit, isn't about time things changed? Alcohol plainly has more direct consequences that are detrimental to the user and society, but if you are a moderate drinker, it is unlikely to cause you or those around you a problem. If you are a moderate cannabis user, your biggest problem is the threat of legal prosecution. We know that alcohol turns some into alcoholics, it fuels violence, abuse etc, it causes liver damage, and hampers development in the unborn, yet their is no outcry, because we all accept 'personal responsibility'. Many, many people believe their use of pot does not cause them, or those around them, any significant harm. They are willing to take the responsibility and live with the consequences regardless of any scientific statement just as the majority of adults consume alcohol knowing it is a dangerous substance. If everyone who wanted it was allowed to grow a couple of plants, then supply would no longer be a criminal trade, but a personal hobby, and the trade that currently funds organised crime would be eliminated. Because who would pay an extortionate cost for what they can grow themselves? And just as people are told the dangers of excessive drinking and taught responsible use, the same should be done with pot.

I'm smoking cannabis buds right now, as I live in Washington State.

Just give this a moment's thought, people. This is one of those problems like figuring out whether ancient aliens built the pyramids. The answer is right in front of you, if you only want to recognize the obvious.

We have had tens of millions of people in the US smoking pot for at least four decades that I can recall.

Do you really think that if marijuana had any significant causal effect that we would still be guessing about it at this late date in our history?

What you really have to worry about is the fact that marijuana turns people into bats. I am sure that many of you have seen it at parties. A few people disappear outside to take a few tokes and they come back with big fangs hanging down. A few more tokes and they turn into bats and fly around the room. It is a huge problem.

You know it has to be true. That was the testimony of the guy who served as US Official Expert on marijuana for 25 years. You can read about it at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

Don't give us this malarkey about marijuana causing psychosis when we have an entire generation faced with turning into bats.

@ Thetrueian; Why must people stop calling schwagg by any name but cannabis? Your point, relative to Prohibition is wrong. Beer was legal. Beer is alcohol.
When the automobile was invented, people chose to call it a car instead. Doesn't change the fact that it is an automobile-sort of. It is not autonomous yet. What do you order us to call it till then?
Take a look at the other herbs and weeds from all over the world. Pick one at random. Do any of the various names throughout history for any of those plants bother you, or are you trying to dig up something to gripe about regarding all the other plants on Earth too?

Even though I'm not a pot smoker I agree they they should legalize it esp considering over all it's less harmful then alcohol and most prescription anti psychotic drugs.

Now the real irony THC seems to be one of the most effective compounds for treating and preventing the plaques associated with Alzheimer's known, often out performing other drugs by a factor of two.

i think we need to realize that we cant just put something in a good/bad category. There is a positive and negative to almost everything in this world. So while some may say pot is bad for these reasons, others can say pot is good for these, etc. People should find out if it's beneficial to them by their doctor, because for me, it works. But that doesn't mean it will work for you. p.s. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

What is most important is getting the Twinkie factory going!

Legalizing pot is the least of priorities for 2013, sheesh.

We NEED OUR TWINKIES, DANG IT!

Robot, if you have any proof of damage akin to hitting yourself with a hammer, then show it. Otherwise... 200 years of pot use have shown no damage in the U.S. or anywhere else. If it caused damage, then it wouldn't be medicinal in 21 states.

There is no evidence illegality has reduced pot use. On the contrary, illegality gives it an aura of sexiness and rebellion. Legality would stop that, most likely causing a reduction in use.

In fact, Washington and Jefferson grew hemp, and the first American flags were made of hemp. The U.S. was for a long time a major hemp producer for hemp rope. It's stronger than cotton and lasts longer. It can be made into paper and is more sustainable than wood. It can even be used to make car bodies.

It helps chemotherapy patients overcome nausea so they can eat.

I don't care for it, but I think everyone should have the free choice to use and grow it. It should be aerosolized at the Pentagon so they would mellow out and philosophize about peace.

busysaru,
I do approve when Medical Doctors prescribe medicine to patients and it is dispense via pharmacist and the prescription followed by the patient.

If in some precise medical way, a doctor dispense pot and it is dispense by a pharmacist and the prescription is following and it makes a sick person to become better, that is wonderful!

Otherwise, stop yanking people chain!

Clearly some of you underestimate the power of your brain and its resilience. Yes smoking cannabis sure has its side affects however show me that this is taking a hammer to your head. I work in a profession that forbids the use of any drug except alcohol and tobacco. There are some here that smoke cannabis and have there whole lives. Some of these people are really good at there job and I aspire to be as good as them one day. I don't believe smoking cannabis was the reason for there success or held them back in anyway, I'm simply saying show me how this is taking a hammer to your head. I do believe in my experience with Cannabis that it really dose me no favors however I wish you could understand where I am coming from. These people i am talking about are extremely intelligent and successful and yet they smoke cannabis very regularly. I have had study sessions and written exams with these people and sadly I still don't get the marks they are able to achieve. For me the burn out period and the munchies seem to deviate me from my mission to accomplish anything, yet for these people I am talking about its quite the opposite. Show me why that is. That's science and not speculation.

As has been said many times before:

Pot most commonly causes insanity in people who have never taken it.

The evidence for that is found throughout our government, and the correlation is conclusive.

I have never practicing medicine in a state with legal medical marihuana. I have reviewed records and testified in disability cases from such states. It seems that about every other applicant for psychiatric disability in those states has a criminal record and a medical marihuana card. These individuals do not need anything to further muddy their thinking and decrease motivation. Requiring a prescription does not insure rational use, because the data does not exist to determine what is rational use. Giving doctors prescribing rights for what is really a recreational drug simply prostitutes the practice of medicine, just as the right to prescribe alcohol did during prohibition.Make it legal and sell it in liquor stores, and if some people think it helps them, fine. Keep doctors out of it except as advisers.

"practicing medicine" should read "practiced medicine"

Why don't they do a study like this on the worlds most dangerous, and heavily abused, drug? Alcohol, the true gateway drug.
Ignorance is sin.
Knowledge is salvation.

phil8656,
Yet as Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge they were cast out of Eden, and at the end of the bible it is also written, there is no value in human knowledge. Still, I am with you phil8656 knowledge and learning appears better life and all our educational systems support this too. It seems humanity has always been at odds with the GODS. However, it noted not all GODS are the same. I just hope when I die, in my heart I have chosen the correct God to pray too. ;)

Sigh..... the journey of life is complex and it's understanding too.

busysaru:

Why bring up hemp? Hemp contains less than a hundredth of the THC of cannabis and is only a distant relative of it. The legality and safety of hemp was never the issue. Please try to stay on topic.

TIMGG: In my circles HEMP is referring to the stem of the plant, whereas Cannabis is the specific mention of the flower. Generally the best hemp strains are the lowest THC strains.

To get back on topic...

I think the study is interesting but may be potentially confounded by what types of psychotic symptoms they were looking for. THC has biphasic affects, where it is generally anxiolytic and relaxing in low doses and anxiogenic in high doses (often leading to paranoia). My hypothesis (as I'm sure is the case for most psychiatri researchers) is that it is both. Cannabis contributes to the development of specific psychiatric disorders (but may be therapeutic for depression and anxiety disorders), AND psychotic individuals tend to use cannabis to alleviate secondary symptoms associated with psychosis.