The media have once again trumpeted the headlines of a link between marijuana use and schizophrenia and other psychoses. As we’ve reported numerous times, the rates for schizophrenia and psychoses seem to stay constant at about 1% of the population, regardless of how many people consume cannabis and how much they consume.
This latest meta-analysis, however, claims cannabis use is causing those 1% who would become schizophrenic to fall victim to their mental illness sooner and to suffer the effects of psychosis to a greater extent:
We found that the use of cannabis and other illicit substances was associated with an earlier age at onset of psychotic disorders. In contrast, alcohol use alone did not appear to be significantly associated with a younger age at onset of psychosis.
The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis represent strong scientific evidence for an association between substance use, particularly the use of cannabis, and an earlier age at onset of psychotic illnesses.
The results of this study provide strong evidence that reducing cannabis use could delay or even prevent some cases of psychosis. Reducing the use of cannabis could be one of the few ways of altering the outcome of the illness because earlier onset of schizophrenia is associated with a worse prognosis and because other factors associated with age at onset, such as family history and sex, cannot be changed.
Building on several decades of research, this finding is an important breakthrough in our understanding of the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis. It raises the question of whether those substance users would still have gone on to develop psychosis a few years later. However, even if the onset of psychosis were inevitable, an extra 2 or 3 years of psychosis-free functioning could allow many patients to achieve the important developmental milestones of late adolescence and early adulthood that could lower the long-term disability arising from psychotic disorders. The results of this study confirm the need for a renewed public health warning about the potential for cannabis use to bring on psychotic illness.
The lead researcher says it bluntly – “marijuana is a cause of schizophrenia” – and makes a strong denunciation of the idea that schizophrenics are self-medicating with cannabis:
(WebMD) “It is increasingly clear that marijuana is a cause of schizophrenia, and that the schizophrenia caused by cannabis starts earlier than schizophrenia with other causes,” study researcher Matthew Large of Prince of Wales Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, says in an email. “Young people are at particular risk.”
“There is not so much evidence for the widely held view those patients self-medicate with marijuana,” he says. “Marijuana smoking almost always comes before psychosis and few patients with psychosis start smoking [marijuana] for the first time.”
More than 80% of the patients in the study had schizophrenia, but there were some other forms of psychosis identified among marijuana users. “The picture looked similar irrespective of the type of psychosis,” Large says.
We’ll talk to Dr. Mitch Earleywine about this on our Cannabis Science segment on the Wed. Feb. 9 NORML SHOW LIVE, but I can tell you this study confirms something NORML has always believed – children and people with a propensity to mental illness should not be smoking marijuana.
However, this study is by no means an argument for continued marijuana prohibition. Cigarettes and alcohol are harmful to children as well as adults, but we understand that education has reduced the harm from those substances and prohibition of the latter was a dismal failure that created violence and corruption. The system we have now guarantees that kids find it easy to get marijuana and that when they do they’re interacting with a criminal market.
I’m still skeptical. If these are folks that were going to get schizophrenia anyway and we know that the rates of schizophrenia stay fairly constant, then this study’s hypothesis should mean that we’d see the median age of onset of schizophrenia declining in the populations with greater cannabis use among youth. I don’t know how to test that theory… again, we’ll ask Dr. Mitch.
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[...] development of a child's brain from age 14 to age 17, here get a little more educated naive child. http://stash.norml.org/latest-mariju…ldnt-smoke-pot Brain Development Timeline PeacePot likes this. Last edited by MrLex; Today at 02:58 [...]
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
“Reducing the use of cannabis could be one of the few ways of altering the outcome of the illness…” Looks like a good, strong, sound basis to argue for regulation, then.
“…even if the onset of psychosis were inevitable, an extra 2 or 3 years of psychosis-free functioning could allow many patients to achieve the important developmental milestones of late adolescence and early adulthood…” It might also give them time to get married and have (a) kid(s) before they’ve actually established whether or not doing so is the best thing for them to do (at that time). Would it be better for a schizophrenic to decide whether or not s/he should have kids before discovering how ill s/he is, or after having found out that crucial little bit of the jigsaw about themselves, after having had a chance to do some work on it; or are there still some old-fashioned type thinkers around who believe a child will make it all better?
Personally, bearing this in mind, I’d say it would be best to start getting kids stoned in school from the age of puberty to see how they react. That way the ones who show a predisposition to mental illness may be given timely help. Yet another application – and a truly wonderful one – of medicinal cannabis. I’ll bet an awful lot of people, not even including the overall benefit to society, could get an awful lot out of a system like that.
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
[...] Every Wednesday on NORML SHOW LIVE, Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the latest research in cannabis and to take live calls and chat questions from listeners on marijuana culture, history, medicine, and science. He is a member of the NORML Advisory Board and his research has been published in over fifty scientific journals on drugs and addiction. He is the author of Understanding Marijuana, Pot Politics, and Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, and a professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. We asked Dr. Mitch his opinions of the latest meta-analysis on cannabis and schizophrenia. [...]
Totaly agree with you Russ. I didnt mean to get all personal just sometimnes with the stigma of bi-polar i am a little sensitive. I am greatful for what you and norml does and just talked my wife into letting me donate for the first time. I see a professional and he is the first doctor who has understood how the mj helps me. Just wish I didnt have to fight for the medication that works best for me but I am grateful for all the stashers who let me voice my opion daily.Thans Russ
If you’re using cannabis to treat mental illness with your doctor’s blessing, great. Sorry if I painted with too broad a brush. What I’m trying to say is that cannabis use can exacerbate mental illness rather than treat it in some people with some illnesses. That doesn’t sound like the case for you and that’s great. But I can’t recommend that someone feeling like mental illness is taking hold should just smoke weed and it will all be better. Mental illness is serious and it should be reviewed by a trained professional first.
Seriously guy? NORML supports responsible cannabis use for ALL ADULTS. If there is a study that seems to confirm that mental illness may be exacerbated by cannabis use then it would seem that in that particular context cannabis use MAY indeed be irresponsible. That is not to say that cannabis cannot be an effective treatment for YOU and YOUR disorder specifically. It just means that the research hasn’t collected any data to support your personal experience. Unfortunately this is the way of the world in cannabis research right now: either you cant get the funding or you can only get published if your results fall in line with certain political pressures.
Please don’t feel as if you have been abandoned by NORML, just remember the often difficult position NORML must assume in order to properly maintain its doctrine of responsible use.
Ben, I have bi-polar disorder,I use cannabis for medication. I have not had to use any other pharmies since I came to the realization that sleep and daily activites are also important for me to stay at a happy balance. It is also important to know as a person w/a mental illness one can not drink or use any recreational type drug like people w/o mental issues.
I wondered why I’m nutts.
I did’nt use to have rants when I smoked until I learned the truth about hemp. I think reading the truth about cannabis will make you nutts quicker than smoking it. 
Depends on what type of mental illness you mean, Dad3. Depression and anxiety disorders are helped by cannabis. Things such as schizophrenia are likely not be helped by the use of cannabis.
norml believes people with mental illness shouldn’t use cannabis? I hope this isnt true…..if it is true then im on the wrong team as I have a mental illness and use cannabis to medicate.This hurts Russ, You all will just be another group who doesn’t accept us…I thought that norml wanted cannabis for all…Not for us mental patients though? wtf?
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