Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence

TerryMiller · Jan 30, 2019

It's been a while since we had a knock-down/drag-out here on OSA.

Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence

The gentleman whose speech was adapted for Imprimis seems to have mentioned that a number of studies around the world has determined that there is, at least, some kind of link between the three.

JD8 · Jan 30, 2019

Could you post the link to all these studies? Because he surely didn't, which says a ton about the credibility of the article.

DA 20 · Jan 30, 2019

I'm not sure what links he used, but this might help. https://psychopharmacologyinstitute...use-disorders/cannabis-effects-mental-health/

Glocktogo · Jan 30, 2019

The nut is buried about 2/3rds of the way into the article:

Nor do any of these studies prove that rising cannabis use has caused population-wide increases in psychosis or other mental illness. The most that can be said is that they offer intriguing evidence of a link.

The article is long on correlations and short on causations. There's no double blind study in a controlled environment with post study peer review. There are observations on trends and statistics. That's soft science IMO.

My question is whether there's proof that THC causes mental maladies, or is it that people with mental maladies tend to seek out ways to self-medicate in order to alleviate their symptoms? Honestly it's probably a bit of both. Someone with anxiety may benefit from medical use of THC, while someone with paranoia may suffer more when using medical THC. You can't lump all mental maladies together and make assumptions.

Likewise, simply saying someone who uses marijuana is three times more likely to use other illegal drugs is not really telling. If someone is willing to violate the law to do something, that predisposes them as someone more likely to break other laws than someone who won't break the law in the first place. Did the marijuana use cause them to try other illegal drugs? Or was it the same disregard for mala prohibita laws before using marijuana that made them more willing to break other drug laws?

This entire debate boils down to whether the horse is pushing or pulling the cart. Making assumptions about causation isn't a solid foundation on which to make informed decisions.

CHenry · Jan 30, 2019

RKM · Jan 30, 2019

I've seen more mental illness, abuse and law breaking done by drinkers, not pot smokers. Sounds like a "Reefer Madness" review.

SdoubleA · Jan 30, 2019

zghorner · Jan 30, 2019

every time I smoke weed I feel genuinely more relaxed and accepting of the world around me. Much less violence prone than my usual self. I am convinced that just about everyone is mentally "ill" to some degree so I cannot comment on that.

From the article posted: "For centuries, people worldwide have understood that cannabis causes mental illness and violence—just as they’ve known that opiates cause addiction and overdose. Hard data on the relationship between marijuana and madness dates back 150 years, to British asylum registers in India. Yet 20 years ago, the United States moved to encourage wider use of cannabis and opiates."

^^^ This is utter ********. Maybe people that are ALREADY mentally ill use marijuana, but I do not believe cannabis use makes "sane" "normal" people mentally ill. The author has clumped together weed and opiates to make 1 argument for both and it is silly.

Pearl Cruz · Jan 30, 2019

I thought maybe this was an intervention...

CHenry · Jan 30, 2019

zghorner said:
every time I smoke weed I feel genuinely more relaxed and accepting of the world around me. Much less violence prone than my usual self. I am convinced that just about everyone is mentally "ill" to some degree so I cannot comment on that.

From the article posted: "For centuries, people worldwide have understood that cannabis causes mental illness and violence—just as they’ve known that opiates cause addiction and overdose. Hard data on the relationship between marijuana and madness dates back 150 years, to British asylum registers in India. Yet 20 years ago, the United States moved to encourage wider use of cannabis and opiates."

^^^ This is utter ********. Maybe people that are ALREADY mentally ill use marijuana, but I do not believe cannabis use makes "sane" "normal" people mentally ill. The author has clumped together weed and opiates to make 1 argument for both and it is silly.

Come on, you dont even inhale lol
Maybe you do and maybe your a case study for "smoking weed leaves you at the picnic short of a sandwich or 2"

Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence

TerryMiller

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JD8

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DA 20

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Glocktogo

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CHenry

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RKM

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SdoubleA

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zghorner

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Pearl Cruz

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CHenry

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