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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Ottawa funds research to study link between pot, mental illness

By: Larry Kusch

19/08/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 11

GETTING high on pot can be a real bummer for your mental health, the Harper government warned on Tuesday.While the public regards marijuana as a "soft" drug, there may be "very serious consequences" for young pot smokers who have a predisposition to mental illness, Winnipeg Conservative MP Joy Smith said Tuesday.

"Science has shown that cannabis may actually trigger the onset of psychosis and may also intensify the symptoms for those who already have a psychotic illness," Smith (Kildonan-St. Paul) said in announcing a grant of more than $550,000 to the Schizophrenia Society of Canada.

"It has been suggested that up to 80 per cent of youth who have had a psychotic episode were using cannabis. And that's pretty shocking," Smith, pinch-hitting for Health Minister Lenona Aglukkaq, told a Winnipeg press conference.

The schizophrenia society will use the money to further research the links between cannabis and "early psychosis" as well as develop materials warning youth about the dangers of smoking pot.

The money is part of Ottawa's $30-million national anti-drug strategy, announced in 2007.

Chris Summerville, CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, said the public doesn't realize cannabis users have a sevenfold increase in risk of developing schizophrenia. He pointed to recent research out of Victoria, B.C., linking pot smoking and mental illness.

The grant of $559,370 is the largest Health Canada has ever provided to the society, he said.

As part of the society's research, some 30 youths who have experienced psychosis will be trained to gather information about the reasons their peers use cannabis. The results will be used to develop educational materials aimed at decreasing the use of illicit drugs among young people.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 19, 2009 A6

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11 Commentscomment icon

I am disgusted by the overwhelming response of pot users trying to say that the government has some conspiracy set up. Seems to me like your getting too paranoid from the pot. I thought pot was a safe drug too, as I smoked it when I was 17 years old. Never reacting quite normally to it, I suffered from psychosis 1 year later and now I am diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder. And to say that pot helps your schizophrenia is ridiculous. Pot worsens anxiety and depression in the long run and is horrible to use if you have a mental illness. Pot is a hallucinogen, and causes paranoia so tell me how that would be good for schizophrenia. My friend has schizophrenia, and when she is in a room of people just smoking it, she blacked out and starting going psychotic. I am not angry at people smoking it, but angry at how people don't understand that this drug can be harmful. It's proven that it causes latent schizophrenia. I hate having this illness and If I could I would go back in time and not use pot I would. I wish somebody would just listen, and not take the risk of using it. Get a hobby or do something productive with your lives instead of doing drugs. If I would have made that decision I would have had a normal life instead of this depression and chronic fatigue hell that I have to put up with. This has the only good thing Harper has done ever and I applaud him for this.

5% of those who take an anti-depressant such as Prozac will develop manic-psychosis as a result. 60% or more of those who take SSRIs and SNRIs will experience "discontinuation syndrome" (addiction).

And then there's sleepwalking and suicidal/homocidal ideation, which studies have concluded are produced by these dangerous addictive drugs.

Sleepwalking + homocidal ideation = Columbine

[Edited]

Adolescent pot use and schizophrenia

Cannabis does not cause schizophrenia. There is no link at all. When pot use goes up or down there is not a corresponding increase or decrease in schizophrenia rates in the general public.

It is more likely the people affected were trying to medicate the relieve symptoms. They had a family history of schizophrenia and were heavy cannabis users from there early teens. This early use supposedly made them have a earlier on- set of schizophrenia. Don't believe it.

A recent study on schizophrenics (on really bad schizophrenics) found that all the patients studied had a reduction in symptoms ranging from mild reduction to full blown get out of hospital free card after 2 months of THC use. They were given Marinol in the study but that is 100% pure THC.

This study will be and is a form of Propaganda.

Cannabis is the safest of all drugs, safer than aspirin, safer than alcohol, safer than even water as people have died from drinking to much water, but it is not possible to die from a Cannabis overdose. It dose not cause cancer, I protects the body from cancer (even smoked). You can get bronchitis from heavy use so don't smoke it. Use a vaporizer or eat your weed.

The safety factor alone should be a reason enough to legalize it, Right Now.

Further info on drug reform policy can be found at www.leap.cc and see why Cops Say Legalize Drugs and go to www.norml.org for Cannabis truth.

""It has been suggested that up to 80 per cent of youth who have had a psychotic episode were using cannabis. And that's pretty shocking," "
-----------
Youth who are brought up in difficult, abusive or troubled homes will gravititate towards substance abuse.

Youth who are brought up in difficult, abusive or troubled homes are more likely to have a psychotic episode.

Tell me, what is shocking about that?

B.

Always glad to provide you an example of clear insight when notions like Schizophrenia or any other so-called mental illness is the topic.

Dr. Thomas Szasz is the author of The Myth of Mental Illness and he was responsible for alerting the public to the fact that incarceration was a more apt term for how the so-called mentally ill were treated in the early 60s. Schizophrenia, the Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry is another example of Szasz's insight into how government uses the profession as an institution of social control in much the same way the church used to deal with heretics.

I read just about everything Szasz has written on mental illness and you will find no greater critic than I against such vague notions as "psychosis."

I bring to your attention that psychiatry can always play both sides of the street. You do know they have a diagnosis for persons who see "-Dilusional thoughts, psychosis & paranoia, etc" where none exist, don't you? Schizophrenia is the answer to that!

One study manages to link a disease not scientifically proven to exist with the general definition of "psychosis" and we should take it seriously?
What a waste of money! No provable results + faulty conclusions = scare tactics

How can you prove pot triggered the psychotic episode? Maybe youth who experience psychotic episodes cope by using pot. I don't see where using pot is directly linked to being the CAUSE of a psychotic episode.

I agree with Chris Buors. Untill I see scientific proof of the exact cause of schizophrenia I'm not going to throw all my eggs in one basket on how its triggered. It is disturbing that the word of this study is being ignroed and the outcome is being redesigned to suit political agenda. I find it insulting to science to use one journal article as the end all truth. It lessens the value of the knowledge we gain from science. I hope someone at least attempts to challenge this article, or that more are printed in the topic. One article does not give the 'science stamp of all truth approval'.

"The Conservatives are very ugly politicians to stoop to these abuses in order to justify drug prohibition"

There's your PROOF-Dilusional thoughts, psychosis & paranoia, etc, with pot use are absolutely linked!

Thanks for another great example Chris!

So the Schizophrenia Society of Canada is being given $550,000 to research the link between marijuana use and mental illness. I can tell you the link. Young people who have undiagnosed schizophrenia use marijuana to help them feel better. If the research is done correctly that is what the Schizophrenia Society will find with their $550,000. However, because this is part of an anti-drug strategy, I suspect that the Schizophrenia Society will happily turn this correlation into a cause and effect.

Chris Summerville is already indicating a belief that cannabis causes schizophrenia with the ridiculous statement that cannabis users have a seven-fold increase in risk of developing schizophrenia. What he doesn't realize is that young people with schizophrenia have found their own medicine long before they approach the system for a diagnosis. If his statement were true, don't you think we would have seen a sharp increase in the incidence of schizophrenia since the 1960's? We haven't. The incidence is about the same as it always was worldwide and has actually decreased slightly in Canada in recent years.

He who pays the piper calls the tune is an age old truth that applies in this case. Governments have funded this kind of politicized research for about 100 years now trying to find something bad to say about pot. No doubt the Conservatives will get the results they are paying for.

"Science" has yet to prove the existence of Schizophrenia so how it is this science can prove cannabis affects schizophrenics one way or another is beyond my comprehension. If there are any doubters out there I challenge them to name the test that proves that a person either has or does not have schizophrenia. There is no such test, schizophrenia being a diagnosis, an opinion of a professional who has a vested interest in stating such opinions.

I would bet if the Conservatives were to pay me a half million I could provide them with evidence that cannabis users were prone to be Mesmerized too! Just place your hand on my chest and look into my eyes! People believed Mesmer even though he couldn't prove a thing either. Lots of people believe mental illnesses are proven fact too. Mental illnesses all exist by force of law and need no proof. The Mental Health Act tells us what behaviors are diseases. There is no such Act to tell you that you had a heart attack or that you have a virus. For those diseases, we have tests and they are found in pathology books, not in legislative acts.

The Conservatives are very ugly politicians to stoop to these abuses in order to justify drug prohibition.

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