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Originally Posted by Locke9-05
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It took me a while to read your "sources" (i.e. news articles) and I apologize for not providing more sources but let us examine yours.
Interesting news articles of which I had read a couple before. Of course they tend to support the beliefs of the “Establishment” and they do not present the actual studies which can be analyzed but they do provide some interesting thoughts that can be explored.
For example, from the first article:
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Mikkel Arendt, Ph.D., a fellow at the Center for Basic Psychiatric Research at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, and coworkers used the Danish Psychiatric Central Register to identify patients treated for a first marijuana-induced psychotic episode between 1994 and 1999. There were 535 such patients. The researchers then followed those patients for at least three years to determine how many of them experienced subsequent psychotic episodes and how many could be diagnosed with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder.
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A quick review of the statement leads immediately to the question of how many of the 535 patients admitted for marijuana-induced psychotic episodes were psychotic before they smoke marijuana? Had they had previous psychotic episodes that were not diagnosed? Were the subsequent psychotic episodes in anyway marijuana related? We do know that schizophrenia has been linked to dopamine imbalances and, of course any altering of dopamine levels in someone that is already psychotic could lead to schizophrenia type symptoms.
As with the other links the questions always arise as to whether the subjects already have a mental disorder such as a psychosis or did it originate with the use of marijuana. If we look at the estimated usage of marijuana in the US is estimated at about 50 million people one would anticipate hundreds of thousands of cases of marijuana induced psychosis annually and that simply isn't the case. With 50 million users in the US alone it would be an epidemic but no such epidemic has ever been reported.
Psychosis is relatively common in the general population and the extremely low numbers of marijuana induced psychotic events might lead me to a possible belief that marijuana may actually be effective in combating psychosis. I would love to see a study on that, wouldn't you?
The BBC news article touches on a point related to young people and psychosis:
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The risk was much higher in young people who were already genetically vulnerable to developing psychosis.
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Once again it is pointing to people that have a genetic predisposition toward psychosis. In other words, it isn't linked to creating the problem but to perhaps aggravating it. Hey, I can buy this argument. If someone has a predisposition towards being psychotic I wouldn't recommend them smoking pot just like I wouldn't recommend eating sugar to a diabetic.
But it is interesting reading although it doesn't establish any facts related to marijuana causing mental illness. It does point to the fact that mentally ill people probably shouldn't smoke marijuana. Smoking pot isn't for everyone and that's a fact.
At the same time there still isn't a rational justification for it being illegal.