"It's a distinct possibility"
Posted on 05/18/2023 1:04:47 PM PDT by absalom01
The more marijuana is consumed, the more evidence mounts up that it ruins lives.
As more states legalize marijuana, and as popular culture increasingly treats the narcotic as though it were harmless, it becomes increasingly apparent that using it involves serious risks.
Lawmakers should stop decriminalizing recreational marijuana use, and allow it only as prescribed, via strict protocols, by licensed medical doctors. Even then, its use should be a last resort.
The latest worrisome study, released earlier this month, was conducted by researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark. Its most compelling finding is that “as many as 30% of cases of schizophrenia among men aged 21-30 might have been prevented by averting cannabis use disorder."
Schizophrenia, defined by the National Institutes of Mental Health, is “a mental disorder characterized by disruptions in thought processes, perceptions, emotional responsiveness, and social interactions ... Schizophrenia is typically persistent and can be both severe and disabling.”
It can be triggered by heavy pot use when it might otherwise not develop at all.
“The entanglement of substance use disorders and mental illnesses is a major public health issue, requiring urgent action and support for people who need it,” said NIDA Director and study coauthor Nora Volkow.
The existence of a link between marijuana use and schizophrenia has been known for decades, but the new study not only reaffirms the connection but also shows the problem’s growing severity, especially among young men. It blames the “increasing prevalence” of the problem on the “higher potency of cannabis” typically used today compared to typical street marijuana half a century ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
And don't even start talking about San Francisco or New York.
Which makes all of the crazies in those places maybe a little more understandable.
Wouldn’t you love to know how many mass shooters use marijuana?
Isn’t it illegal to say anything bad about marijuana? The weed wahhabists are going to show up for you?
Whenever marijuana is discussed on Free Republic, there is a strong libertarian voice, which tells us we should not talk about whether there are problems with marijuana use, whether it’s a gateway drug, whether it’s stronger now than in decades past, or any other issues.
So some of those people may well show up here.
There’s also a strong contingent of people with 10th amendment concerns, regarding how federal law treats marijuana.
Bringing light to the harm caused by marijuana is not appreciated by some posters here.
For some reason, they seem to come out of the woodwork whenever it’s mentioned. Maybe the strength of this article will keep them quiet.
Also, if they were libertarian, they would have no problem with people using free speech to criticize marijuana, instead of being like Muslims about Allah.
"It's a distinct possibility"
There’s also a strong contingent of people with 10th amendment concerns, regarding how federal law treats marijuana.
To be fair, that's the strongest argument that gets tossed around. But the same should apply to a whole host of things (which see Montana's attempt to exempt locally manufactured firearms from federal control, which didn't get far.) Seems to me that if one really wanted to take issue with flagrant commerce clause overreach, and 10th amendment violations, one would pick something a little less frivolous, not to say harmful, than weed.
I question the validity of some of these studies. Mental illness usually manifests itself between the ages of 18-25 or so, the same time period when most are likely to experiment with pot. Correlation doesn’t always equal causation. While smoking weed by someone who is vulnerable to mental illness might help precipitate full blown schizophrenia, it’s also just as likely that such a person would eventually develop this disorder without smoking pot.
“They have no problem with marijuana users getting lesser punishment for crimes, such as damaging property or harming people. They have no problem with marijuana users getting a free pass.”
When were marijuana users ever given lesser punishment or a free pass? I must have missed those days. I’m also not familiar with any marijuana users causing property damage or harming people. On the other hand I know plenty of alcohol abusers who caused enormous property damage and who have seriously harmed people. Why is alcohol given a pass and marijuana isn’t?
| In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled The alarming link between schizophrenia and marijuana, jimwatx wrote: |
I question the validity of some of these studies. Mental illness usually manifests itself between the ages of 18-25 or so, the same time period when most are likely to experiment with pot. Correlation doesn’t always equal causation. While smoking weed by someone who is vulnerable to mental illness might help precipitate full blown schizophrenia, it’s also just as likely that such a person would eventually develop this disorder without smoking pot. |
Elements like age, socio-economic status and other demographics are factored into this kind of research.
Wouldn’t you love to know how many mass shooters use marijuana?
No doubt almost all. But the objection will read something like this: "OK, so maybe all mass shooters are potheads, but not all potheads are mass shooters."
In the January when marijuana was legalized in CA, there was a car crash with four fatalities in January. The story was all over the news. But then when the test results came back and the driver was on pot alone, all of the sudden it disappeared from the media, and you couldn't even find the back articles.
By the way, here in CA, if you are in a club somewhere, if you smoked a cigarette, the bouncers will descend on you in five seconds. If you have a joint, you will be completely unharrassed. It was that way BEFORE legalization.
If you are smoking a cigarette anywhere, the police will stop you. But if you smoke pot, you can do it anywhere, you can blow it in someone's face, and the police don't care a bit. You can blow the smoke in a child's face. The police act like4 marijuana is some kind of immunity shield.
Seeing how 49% of all adults have tried marijuana, I would guess about 49%.
https://cfah.org/marijuana-statistics/
If you don’t understand the point, ask yourself, how many mass shooters went to church?
Marijuana is the single most studied drug in America. Over 3,000 various federal studies over the years. And all they can come up with is “gateway drug” and “psychologically addictive.”
Both sound good arguments that are more rhetorical than scientific.
Anything you do which brings you pleasure you want to do more of, and most heroin users ate a cheeseburger before too. These pseudo-scientific psychobabble arguments are appealing to a certain audience which wishes really hard things were a certain way and are basically looking for a cause to rally around.
But there isn’t.
Tylenol kills more people than marijuana. Cigarettes and alcohol kill more people and are addictive for real (physical dependence).
You can’t make a medicinal use argument for cigarettes, but you can for marijuana.
Stop the madness! Give up on this. It’s an argument where you merely alienate a huge part of the population and achieve NOTHING except continue on your Don Quixote crusade.
What climate change is to a liberal, marijuana is to some conservatives.
Outlawing marijuana is trying to outlaw a plant which grows naturally (I’ve actually stumbled on it growing out in the wild, and no, it wasn’t some secret crop). It has been used for thousands of years by some cultures (by some estimates 5,000 years). It has proven medicinal uses. It is near impossible to OD, not really addictive. It’s illicit use causes folks to get mellow and sleep, get hungry and poop.
This is the epitome of an ethnocentric debate, because even the Pope drinks his wine, and it’s culturally acceptable to drink booze in Euro cultures, why that’s acceptable but marijuana isn’t.
Wait.............what??????
I don’t consider marijuana entirely harmless, it has been shown to stunt the development of the brain’s white matter. But I question them asserting that its use leads to a higher risk of mental illness. Hell I use weed to treat my mental illness (bipolar disorder) because the conventional meds did zero for me. I’ve smoked weed since I was 14 and on an almost daily basis up to now as I approach 67. I’m always under the influence of it including while posting on this forum, do I strike people as being some kind of confused and delirious pothead? Marijuana just relaxes me and helps keep me from getting overly agitated. Without weed I’d be even more of a jerk than I am now lol.
One of the effects of pot is that it turns a lot of users into evangelists. They see it as salvation. I can’t think of another drug that does the same except LSD. Drunks and junkies often feel that their drug is necessary for them. But they generally realize that it isn’t good for them or others. Not so too many potheads and acidheads.
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