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psychosis
Study says progression to daily marijuana use in adolescence predicts onset of psychosis
ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2009) — Progression to daily marijuana use in adolescence may hasten the onset of symptoms leading up to psychosis, an Emory University study finds. The study was published in the November issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. The researchers analyzed data from 109 hospitalized patients who were experiencing their first psychotic [...]
Health Risks of Marijuana Still Not Nailed Down… really?
A new article on MedPage today claims that we still don’t fully understand the health risks of cannabis use: Overall, “the public health burden of cannabis use is probably modest compared with that of alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs,” Australian researchers reported in the Oct. 17 issue of The Lancet. Wayne Hall, PhD, of [...]
UK media finally covering the study showing no link between marijuana and schizophrenia
OK, so it’s a whole two months since we brought this study to your attention on the Stash, but whenever the British press prints something good about cannabis, it’s news to us. (The Sentinel) A STUDY by North Staffordshire academics has rejected a link between smoking cannabis and an increase in mental illness. The research [...]
Cannabis has not shown “any evidence of increasing schizophrenia” in the UK
One of my common one-liners in response to the claim across the pond that smoking the dreaded “skunk” will lead to psychosis and schizophrenia is to sarcastically say, “Yes, that’s why there was such a spike in schizophrenia around 1979 in the US… oh, no, wait, there wasn’t; schizophrenia remains a relatively stable phenomenon that [...]
Study: Cannabis use does not increase dopamine release
I have an acquaintence here in Portland who claims knowledge of “addictionology”. When I have mentioned that marijuana use causes dependence in a few, not addiction, he’s quick to correct me by saying that marijuana use causes the release of dopamine in the brain, just like any other addictive drug, and that is how we [...]
More Good News for California Legalization
Seriously, if this is the very best the anti-legalization folks can come up with, I should start packing my bags for my move to the Golden State. It should come as no surprise the author was a senior drug policy adviser in the Clinton and Bush administrations. I inserted a couple of notes in following [...]
Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset
Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It [...]
What we know about marijuana
Since it has been shown that Canada has the world’s highest rate of cannabis use, the reefer madness has expanded to epidemic proportions. First we had Barbara Kay and her illogical anti-cannabis ravings in the National Post, now we get Margret Kopala writing in The Ottawa Citizen: What we know about marijuana Leading the recent [...]
Cannabis increases risk of psychosis in teens
Cannabis increases risk of psychosis in teens – Telegraph Teenage cannabis users are more likely to suffer psychotic symptoms and have a greater risk of developing schizophrenia in later life, research has found. Among more than 6,000 youngsters interviewed for the largest study of its kind, users of the drug had a higher average number [...]
Barbara Kay on the new marijuana: Not your mother’s reefer
Looks like the UK reefer madness has now spread to Canada – this is an editorial from Canada’s National Post: Barbara Kay on the new marijuana: Not your mother’s reefer – Full Comment The words “intoxicate the brain” bring to mind the Post’s 2007 editorial on marijuana, enunciated in response to evidence that Canada’s marijuana [...]