Marijuana and Schizophrenia – A Clear and Unmistakable Link… ignored in America

There is a significant and growing scientific body of medical evidence that marijuana use contributes significantly to schizophrenia – a particularly debilitating mental health condition that strikes during the most productive years of one’s life.

Medical marijuana anyone?

Maybe you’d prefer your mental health, instead.

It’s a shame that mental health professionals and other researchers in the United States almost wholly ignore the vast, longitudinal (long-term) and increasing body of evidence that conclusively demonstrates that marijuana DIRECTLY contributes to schizophrenia.

Of course, the elemental breakdown between reality and perception most characteristic of schizophrenia does seem to be present in this latest (and I believe ill-fated) and contradictory decision by the Mexican government to legalize small quantities of all illicit narcotics, including cocaine, heroin and LSD.

While this recent decision allows “small amounts” for “personal use,” apparently it doesn’t allow manufacture, sale or distribution of large amounts. However, “small amounts” always come from “large amounts.”

Complicating matters, the Mexican government has a long-time, well-known and rightfully-deserved reputation for corruption at all levels.

Mexico has continually been a “Third World” nation in the Western hemisphere. For years, in hopes for a better life abroad, their people have risked their lives, fleeing native homes in droves, and entered the United States illegally.

Now, Mexican governmental officials made the first blow on a stake into their own heart. Apparently, they don’t understand that while “Everything is permissible”- not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” – but not everything is constructive.” This move will neither help their international relations, nor benefit their own people.

And while marijuana’s deleterious effects on the brain are damaging, even more damaging and rapid is crystal meth’s effect, which produces Alzheimer’s-like symptoms almost immediately. http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392428

• Cannabis and schizophrenia. A longitudinal study. – Lancet, 1987 – 15 yr, 45,570 subject study of Swedish soldiers demonstrated significant risk for schizophrenia when compared to non-users and controlled for other factors, increased the risk of suicide 400%

• A 35-year longitudinal study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that schizophrenia rates doubled among marijuana users in South London. 2003 Jan 1 ; 182():45-9

• Professor Jim van Os, Lead Researcher University of Maastricht, Netherlands followed 2437 people aged 14 – 24 four years. Findings published in the British Medical Journal revealed that controlled for other events, 51% of cannabis users experienced schizophrenic symptoms versus 26% of non-users.

• Robin Murray, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, found that cannabis smoking accounts for about 8% of serious cases of psychosis.

• New Zealand researchers found that those whom had smoked marijuana 3x by age 15 were 300x more likely to develop schizophrenia, and that cannabis consumption was a factor in 80% of schizophrenia cases

Cannabis-induced psychosis and subsequent schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: follow-up study of 535 incident cases. Br J Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;187:510-5

The environment and schizophrenia: the role of cannabis use. Schizophr Bull. 2005 Jul;31(3):608-12. Epub 2005 Jun 23.

Predictors of schizophrenia–a review.
 Br Med Bull. 2005 Jun 9;73:1-15. Print 2005.

Cannabis as a risk factor for psychosis: systematic review.
 J Psychopharmacol. 2005 Mar;19(2):187-94.

Cannabis use prior to first onset psychosis predicts spared neurocognition at 10-year follow-up. Schizophr Res. 2005 Jun 1;75(1):135-7.

[Acute and chronic cognitive disorders caused by cannabis use] Rev Prat. 2005 Jan 15;55(1):23-6; discussion 27-9. French.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol effects in schizophrenia: implications for cognition, psychosis, and addiction. Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Mar 15;57(6):594-608.

Cannabis use and psychotic disorders: an update. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2004 Dec;23(4):433-43. Review.