Posted by linkadge on May 3, 2007, at 18:04:03
In reply to Re: More evidence of the dangers of cannabis....., posted by Vale on May 3, 2007, at 16:36:01
>Scientists rely on statistics, and this is what >the statistics are indicating. It's irrelevant >if individuals affected by pychosis find the >subsequent use of cannabis somehow therapeutic.
But thats the thing. I don't think this is what the statistics are indicating. There are a *lot* of studies on the topic. Many (I don't know what portion) show absolutely no association between marajuanna use and onset time of psychiatric illness.
>Just as there now appears to be a higher >incidence of schz. in cannabis users,
This doesn't mean anything. There is a higher incidence of shizophrenics within the tobacco smoking population, although tobacco does not cause shizohprenia.
>it has
>also been known since R.D. Laing, wrote "The >Divided Self" ( way back in the late sixties) >that there is substantially less incidence of >schz. in herion/opiate users.This again doesn't conclude anything. I would think that shizohprenics are drawn to marajuanna for the same reason they are drawn to tobacco, and that is an improvement of negative symptoms via increased release of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. Scizohprenics are also drawn to caffiene for the same reason. That is the one thing that caffine, nicotine, and marajuanna hve in common. Opaites do not have any significant effect in this regard. Some researchers even want to call schizophrenia a dopamine deficiancy disorder, since it is beleived that the relative absense of dopamine in the frontal cortex, is what is failing to provide restraint of overactive limbic circury.
>Personally I rate cannabis as an extremely >dangerous drug for those with a propensity to >suffer from any disorder or even personality >trait of the paranoid- delusional type. Even if >it didn't precipitate full blown poor prognosis >schz. the tragedy of an otherwise healthy >individual being subjected to the anguish of a >protracted pychosis with all the subsequentThe proportion of people who smoke marajuanna *without* such negative consequences is very high. Comparitively, there is a risk of inducing psychosis with ritalin, althougth there is no movement set in motion to avoid ritalin on these grounds.
>risks of the currently prescribed anti->pyschotics, just seems too big a price to pay.
Well, for me, the use of sleeping pills, antidepressants, and antianxiety agents was a too high price to pay. Low dose marajuanna did the same, with much less collateral damamge on my schoolwork, cognition, and social interaction.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:755050
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070410/msgs/755580.html