NEWS: Stoners are Psychotic

+1

Dude. It was a joke.

I enjoy pot. I also have a sense of humor about it. Cool down the outrage-o-meter and you might be able to get your point across a wee bit better.

Personally I believe liquor places people under the influence at a higher risk than smoking some bud. Realistically, how many people do you know that drive reckless while high? How many people do you know who have smoked one to many joints and beaten somebody the "love" to death?

Marijuana

Pot is a plant
that grows in the ground

If god didn't smoke it
it wouldn't be around

So when I die
bury me deep

plant marijuana
at me feet

zigzag papers
in my hand

so I can smoke myself
to the promise land
-Me


P.S. don't go stealing my poem either

Here's some anecdotal evidence. I used to smoke lots of pot-- not THC, pot. I finally quit, because it was, in fact, making me paranoid and mentally unstable. (not to mention lazy and forgetful but that's another story). And I'm not the only one to have gone through this. Marijuana affects individuals in vastly different ways; that's one of the keys to understanding it as a drug. I'm 100% for cannabis legalization, and 100% for legalization of industrial hemp (an incredibly vital environmental issue that non-stoners really need to get behind). I agree that in general it's far less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco and a lot of pharmaceutical drugs. But don't dismiss the negative effects it can cause or exacerbate in some people.

God, I miss it sometimes, too.

My voices tell me pot is good and John Hinkley was framed.

we are psychotic...so stay off the sidewalk punks!!!

Dude, it doesn't always "smell" like a joke. Do you not get that?

Good for you... I teach people about cannabis.

As do I.

Ummm.... no. You're kinda missing it here. First off, my outrage doesn't get in the way of my point at all. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure there are a number of SG members who show up because my outrage informs my argument. Further, do you not see that the outrage comes from people repeatedly couching that same, old, worn-out stereotype as "a joke" just so they can minimize the affect their BS caused once they hit "Enter" and kicked shit up on any number of screens accross the globe?? The SG news article has at least half a dozen "hippie jokes" about an issue that affects a not insignifigant portion of the SG membership. But it's okay to insult and derride a given percent of the SG readership who affiliate with that subculture.

And it just goes to show that were I some cute, dreadlocked, tattoo'd babe with an illuminated lotus above the crack of my ass and pierced nipples, it'd be okay to be a hippie, just so long as I posted pictures...

Respectfully, I acknowladge what you were trying to say PointBlank, but I don't accept it. It's still a slam, and a LOT of SG members are starting to get sick of the cliqish, exclusionary vibe that is starting to come through SG.

That's my last time-waster post in this thread. If anyone wants more of my hippie drivle, they can find it in SG:MM. Go figure, huh?

So pot causes paranoia? I'm shocked. No really. Never would have guessed that in a million years.

You need to learn what science is and how it works before you ever comment about it publicly again.

Yeah, and peanuts can kill some people but those people know to stay the hell away from them. I guess when it comes to drugs you can't trust the mentally ill to do what's best for themselves.

Doesn't really matter to me, I don't touch the stuff.

wait a minute...there was a study where you got free thc? Bastards....

You mind if I do a jay?

Well fuckin; DUH, of course it isn't a cure-all miracle drug. Just like cocaine and opium weren't as marvelous as everyone thought when first invented/discovered.But it's a helluva lot better than some of the contolled substances on the market. I tend to look at "what's going to hurt me the least" vs. "whats going to make me feel better right now but will probably fuck me up later because even though it's apprived by the fda it'll still give me a heart murmur/brain tumor/ulcers/exploding eyeballs or whatever the fuck else."

It still wouldn't be OK, we'd all just lie to you to see your titties.

it took scientists from yale to figure out that schizos get more paranoid when they puff?
no shit!
no wonder there is no cure for aids!
i'M GONNA GO ROLL A FATTY AND FORGET THAT i EVER THIS CRAP

Some of you people really need to settle down. I smoke pot and in no way was I offended by anything that was scribed here. I especially enjoy the irony of Subrosa's tongue in cheek comment about "self-righteous annoyance" and then some of you people go out of the way to completely prove that comment right. Whatever.

This might be my "paranoia" bubbling forth, but with the grip that the super industry of pharmaceuticals has around the United States financially, what are the chances that pot would be completely legalized? I mean honestly how much money would this industry lose? We can only speculate, but I would assume it would be in the billions. Also consider that if the United States dropped probation against marijuana how many other first through third world nations would follow suit thus increasing potential losses exponentially?

I mean do you honestly feel an "open dialogue" is going to change anything? Now that is a pretty fucking romanticized (read:hippy). After how long... they now have evidence that pot increases paranoia in schizophrenics? Thats it? Mentally damaged people become more mentally damaged under the influence of drugs. Mind blowing. In direct contrast how many people are going to die do to alcohol tonight?

"In practice, we found that cannabis is very bad for people with schizophrenia," he said. - I'm glad there's a bit more research showing this, because it's something that mental health professionals have been saying for a while now.

Knowing that there are some risks to cannabis doesn't mean it can't be legalized for everyone over 18.

Exactly what I was thinking - anyone who thinks anything "can't ever be refuted" is not a scientist, nor are they thinking scientifically. True science is skeptical, always, especially of itself.

They now have more evidence that pot increases paranoia, and not just in schizophrenics but in people without previous symptoms of mental health problems, and they now have a possible mechanism for that action. This is a bit more evidence that cannabis causes problems, and not that cannabis is used by people who already have problems.

Some people in this thread keep saying things like "after all this time" as if there's hundreds of studies going on all over the world on thousands of people. There's very little research on cannabis; ethically it's tricky to pump people full of stuff that you think might harm them. Governments don't need evidence to ban anything, look at all the stuff that's illegal in the UK for examples.

I don't care what this says except for the part about hallucinations.

I told people I hallucinated twice of pot just alone, and no one believed me. Telling me it must have not been pure. Damn it, my roommate at the time had grown it, like he'd lace it with something to fuck with me. Then again? hmmmm..

Seriously, this is great. No more being told my hallucinatory experiences were bullshit! Take that hippy friends!

Oh, and on a personal note. I don't smoke pot, I went through a phase of really extended usage and it made me crazy paranoid, and from personal experience I would agree that mass quantities probably make a person psychotic.

However, when it is used in moderation it seems to have a number of benefits, especially for anyone in pain.

...and boner pills can make a certain percentage of users go blind, have a stroke, or heart attack.

Wow, a drug with some sort of negative side effect.
WHAT A SHOCKER!!!

Maybe if THC wasn't illegal, this study would have been done 70 years ago, and people with schizophrenia would have been warned from a legitimate scientific standpoint about its possible side effects to that small percentage of the population. Maybe they could have saved some people from becoming psychotic.
But no. Why study and learn knowledge about something when you can just say it's "bad, bad, bad, stay away from it."?

I always love this Legalization in America debate.

There was actually a study dine here in The Netherlands a few years ago abouthow badly smoking pot influenced they way people drive (done with Dutch marijuana, which i hear tell is wuite a bit more potent than the stuf you get in america). the results were some what surprising.. and extreemly humorous! People actually started driving BETTER when under the influence of pot than they did in the control tests.

Anyone who has a mental disorder can be adversly affected by mind altering drugs. Even normal cigarettes can have serious effects on people who are mentally ill. (This has been told to me by a friend of mine who works with the mentally ill. I'm willing to take it as fact but feel free to provide evidence for/against if you have any).

As for the legalization debate.... Well I always say the main difference between the Dutch attitude towards marijuana and the American "war on drugs" attitude is really quite simple: The Dutch system works.

I would even be in favor of across the board legalization of (almost) all drugs. I believe that society as a whole would be much better off accepting their presance, rather than fighting a loosing war against a habbit people have been indulging in since before any of our modern societies even existed.

Actually their was an extraordinary amount of research done in the 60s and 70s towards cannabis in the United States, and a marginal amount in the same time period in the United Kingdom. The majority of the research in the States was thrown out or outright dismissed for a plethora of reasons. Most the UK research information can still be found relatively easily.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/31_07_06_drugsreport.pdf

To say that their is little research on cannabis is completely incorrect.

My fitrst thoughts upon reading the OP:

"Gee, weed may make people paranoid.

Hmm.

Who'd-a thunk?"

Oh get a grip for christ's sake. The fact of the matter is that all psychoactive drugs (this includes canabis, speed, ecstacy, cocaine, heroin and, surely not, alcohol) will increase the likelyhood of psychosis in some people. This is, however, not cause to freak out. Most canabis users, like most alcohol users are not psychotic because

a)They are not genetically disposed to psychosis
b)They do not, contrary to popular belief, spend all their time getting mashed up.

As a result the vast majority of canabis, alcohol and many other drug users are not and never will be psychotic. Furthermore there are many studies that will tell you that psychotic people are often drawn to using drugs in an attempt to medicate themselves and as such the rate of coincidence between psychosis and substance abuse as a whole, is high.

I have also read a study today that suggests that cannabidiol actually decreases psychosis. I read a study lasty year that said that being a goth is an excellent indicator of self harm but this does not mean that if we prevented people from being goths that they wouldn't self harm? Of course not.

People becoming psychotic as a result of substance abuse is tragic but it will always happen. Does this mean that we should criminalise the behaviour of the majority of people who are doing no harm to themselves at all? Of course not.