cannabisnews.com: Cannabis 'Damages Mental Health'





Cannabis 'Damages Mental Health'
Posted by CN Staff on April 07, 2003 at 08:02:14 PT
The health effects of cannabis are controversial 
Source: BBC News 
An expert on the health effects of cannabis says that there is growing evidence that the drug is responsible for mental health problems. Professor John Henry, a consultant in toxicology from St Mary's Hospital in London, told the BBC that studies from Sweden and elsewhere pointed to an increase in schizophrenia among regular cannabis smokers. The mental health effects of smoking cannabis are a controversial area, with any evidence of harm strongly disputed by some. 
" People who want to smoke cannabis ought to be aware that it has equal effects to cigarettes on the body and worse effects on the mind " -- Dr John Henry, St Mary's Hospital However, Dr Henry is planning to tell a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday that it appears likely that some cases of schizophrenia are attributable to the consumption of cannabis, rather than the alternative explanation that patients prone to mental illness are more likely to be drawn to use the drug.   Strong warning Dr Henry says that the strength of cannabis on sale now far outstrips the strength of the drug sold during the "flower power" era of the 1960s and 1970s. He told the BBC: "There's no government health warning against cannabis but there are all kinds of warnings about tobacco. "People who want to smoke cannabis ought to be aware that it has equal effects to cigarettes on the body and worse effects on the mind. "You've got the fact that regular cannabis smokers develop mental illness. "There's a fourfold increase in schizophrenia and a fourfold increase in major depression. "That is something very very different from what smoking does to you. "There's a lot of epidemiological evidence from as far apart as Sweden and New Zealand that cannabis actually causes these problems."  Debate continues According to a review carried out by UK drugs information service Drugscope, evidence of long-term mental health effects of cannabis is far from clear-cut. It points to criticism of the Swedish study mentioned by Dr Henry - and says that while cannabis consumption is increasing, the incidence of schizophrenia is not, which would suggest that cannabis may not be to blame. It is possible, says Drugscope, that cannabis precipitates schizophrenia in people who would have developed it anyway. Currently, the number of cannabis users in the UK is estimated at more than three million. The drug is due to be "downgraded" this summer from a Class "B" to a Class "C" drug by the government. This means that while possession of small quantities of cannabis remains illegal, it is not an "arrestable" offence unless there are aggravating factors, such as use of cannabis near children. Lesley King-Lewis, chief executive of charity Action on Addiction, said: "This evidence further demonstrates that cannabis use can be dangerous. "The public should be made more aware of the risks involved with using this illicit drug. "As many as one in 10 cannabis users become addicted. Cannabis use is associated with cancers of the mouth, tongue, throat, oesophagus and lung and reductions in fertility, as well as with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. "Chronic cannabis use clearly involves significant costs to society as well as to the individual user. Many of these problems are shared with alcohol and tobacco. "Therefore more research is needed to provide effective education highlighting the relative dangers of different substances and targeting those most at risk."  'Time bomb' Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation (BLF), Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, described smoking cannabis as a "health time bomb". She said: "Over 3 million regular users in the UK could end up with chronic lung failure. "It is vital that the public know the damage smoking cannabis can cause." Dame Helena said a BLF lung consultant recently gave a lung transplant to a young patient who had only ever smoked cannabis. "Unfortunately, cases like this will become more and more common if public awareness of the dangers is not raised." Source: BBC News (UK Web) Published: Monday, April 7, 2003Copyright: 2003 BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Contact: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/Related Articles & Web Site:Chronic Cannabis Use in PDFhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/ccu.pdfCannabis 'Link To Schizophrenia Rise' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15887.shtmlMarijuana Doesn't Cause Lung Cancer http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10025.shtmlCannabis a Medical Miracle - It's Official http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11254.shtml 
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Comment #14 posted by Lehder on April 07, 2003 at 20:10:35 PT
drinking from toilets
"it appears likely that some cases of schizophrenia are attributable to the
   consumption of cannabis, rather than the alternative explanation that patients prone to
   mental illness are more likely to be drawn to use the drug. "---------"The question that naturally arises is:
         In which direction does the
         correlation go? Do people turn to
         TV because of boredom and
         loneliness, or does TV viewing
         make people more susceptible to boredom and loneliness?...more viewing
         may contribute to a shorter attention span, diminished self-restraint
         and less patience with the normal delays of daily life [sound familiar?]. More than 25
         years ago psychologist Tannis M. MacBeth Williams of the
         University of British Columbia studied a mountain community that had
         no television until cable finally arrived. Over time, both adults and
         children in the town became less creative in problem solving, less able
         to persevere at tasks, and less tolerant of unstructured time. "http://www.depression2.tv/week/index.html
(click on article Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor")The benefits of marijuana are exactly opposite to the mental debilitations induced by watching television. Without the mass enfeeblements inflicted upon viewers, the work of fascism would be infinitely more difficult. It might be worthwhile to think upon how people can be broken of their addiction. Borrowing from drug war tactics, ridicule and open expressions of contempt for the habits and intelligence of viewers may be in order. Unsolicited expressions of condescending sympathy for their disease, or the offer of directions to the city library may help. Ask if they are unlettered. Maybe there are better ways. Anything that interferes with people's dependency on TV can only benefit them - and therefore us.
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Comment #13 posted by mayan on April 07, 2003 at 17:34:20 PT
Blown Out of the Water...
"According to a review carried out by UK drugs information service Drugscope, evidence of long-term mental health effects of cannabis is far from clear-cut. It points to criticism of the Swedish study mentioned by Dr Henry - and says that while cannabis consumption is increasing, the incidence of schizophrenia is not, which would suggest that cannabis may not be to blame." That pretty much blows Professor Henry's theory out of the water.
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Comment #12 posted by Virgil on April 07, 2003 at 16:44:53 PT
Floyd
The greatest harm from cannabis comes from particle inhalation when it is smoked. It is pretty much universally agreed upon by the informed. The claim that cannabis has never caused lung cancer by someone who only smoked cannabis has been made by Dr. Russo and others. I can recall Dr. Russo's use of the words respiritory and pulmanary in describing the harms of smoking. This is reflected demonization from tobacco which is primarily smoked and kills 440,000 people a year in this country alone. Yes there are health issues but smoking is just part of obfuscating while summoning up the images of tobacco smoking. Smoking has nothing to do with prohibition or you would be allowed to eat it.There were two popular writer's that developed there formulas for spitting out stories of the west. One was the dentist,Zane Grey, that wrote what is most often called the best western novel ever- The Riders of the Purple Sage. It was so popular that it was one of the first movies ever made and this would mean it was a silent and black and white film. I only mention it because it was at our library and it had what had to be one of the first special effects. Anyway on the formula a cowboy comes into town riding his horse and fast gun formula, Lassiter has to pull several quick draws in the movie. They cut the film out and in one frame the gun is in the houlster and in the next it is full drawn.But Grey did not write an autobiography like Louis L'Amour did (there is a biography I have read and remember nothing from) and if there were a tie for greatest western novelist, this fact would make me decide on Louis L'Amour. Now on the what I remember subject. Louis L'Amour lived in the west and he knew what the experience of going hungry and thirsty was. When he described a real set in hunger instead of missing lunch it was the first and only time I ever heard the subject discussed. He said that after a person is hungry and presented with food, what he wants instead of mass cand vigorous consumption like portrayed in the movies was something that compacted taste. He mentioned soup as it compacted taste and could be savoured. It has been about ten years since I read the autobiography of L'Amour and biography of Grey, but I feel confident that L'Amour used the word savour even if their is a difference in spelling.What I really would like is soup with the cannabis in it. Those cannabinoids are going to evaporate when they cross 300 degrees and baking has to really degrade them. But when you have soup you are protected from going over 212 degrees and you could have a source of fat to carbolize a perfect soup. The issue is not smoking though or they would let you eat it.Then again the issue is not cannabis that never has killed anyone. The issue is cannabis prohition that may well be unconstitutional in its inception and longevity and its need to be nuked and forgotten.I do not think a soup of my desire is harmful at all. On the contrary, it would be beneficial. Now if anyone knows of any harm not related to prohibition from having a healthy bowl of soup, you are free to comment and employ the power of Google and the Internet.I have been waiting for my first reading of the word fascism by a member of Congress. It appeared in the words of a Democratic Congresman from New York, Jerrold Nadler, at onlinejournal.com- http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/040703Binion/040703binion.html
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Comment #11 posted by floyd on April 07, 2003 at 15:48:06 PT:
Lung problems and smoking cannibis
Hey guys,
 I am pro-marijuana, but I think it is unfair to say that there are no ill effects from smoking MJ. I dont believe the claims regarding schizophrenia, but I think its folly to assume that breathing smoke from anything is good for our lungs. I smoke pot often, and while I dont think its as bad for me as tobacco, I know for a fact it has an impact on my respiratory health. Its just a price I am willing to pay for how much enjoyment I get from it.
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Comment #10 posted by Lehder on April 07, 2003 at 15:17:38 PT
prohibition and mental health
I'd like to see a study of the effects, probably all kinds of anxiety disorders, of prohibition on otherwise healthy pot smokers. What about the mental health of parents who must cope with their healthy children imprisoned for years at a time?More dramatic would be a study of the sequelae of no-knock raids by masked and screaming drug agents, an experience that's been inflicted on tens of thousands of citizens of whom a great number were completely innocent of any drug activity. And what are the mental effects of witnessing the killing of one's family members by drug-raiding cops?http://www.ncptsd.org/facts/general/fs_overview.html
http://www.mentalhealthchannel.net/gad/What are the effects on society in whole of millions of people living under low level stress for years on end in the midst of a drug war, decades of excited bs about global nuclear destruction, and now perpetual colored alerts? 
Studies could be made if you like, but it's all got to end.
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on April 07, 2003 at 13:47:09 PT:
Thanks, Dr. Russo.
I find these schizophrenia assertions from the UK particularly annoying since they just keep dragging out the same discredited "research." It's just an updated version of Harry J. Anslinger's Reefer Madness assertion that marihuana [sic] makes you crazy. Thanks for setting the record straight. Unless or until credible scientific medical research verifies this assertion, it must be viewed as political medical propaganda, meant only to scare people and to undermine political reform.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on April 07, 2003 at 12:33:58 PT
Cannabis causes schizophrenia?
Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon!
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Comment #7 posted by phil_debowl on April 07, 2003 at 11:52:28 PT
ONDCP Marijuana Ads Criticized
ONDCP Marijuana Ads Criticized
4/7/2003 Some youths and educators say anti-drug ads from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) are ineffective and inaccurate, the Montgomery Gazette reported April 2.The television commercial shows two teenage boys sitting and smoking marijuana and talking about normal teen topics. One of the teens pulls out a gun, while the other asks if it's loaded. The teen answers, "Nah." A gunshot is then heard as the screen fades to black.The message of the ad is that marijuana can distort your sense of reality.The television commercial is part of a multi-million dollar campaign designed to reduce drug use among youth and encourage parent intervention. The campaign includes print, radio, and television advertisements that link drug use to peer pressure, date rape, and terrorism.Maria Cunha, a senior at Winston Churchill High School in Maryland, said the marijuana/gun ad is ineffective."The commercials are hurting the message," said Cunha, 17. "I think it's necessary to have those commercials, but they are too exaggerated. It does make their message less likely to believe."Others say the ads exaggerate the problem and present erroneous statistics about marijuana."I thought they would see it as lame adults trying to shape kids' behavior," said Rita Rumbaugh, an addiction-prevention specialist for Montgomery County Public Schools, about how students might react to the ads. "I find them far-fetched myself."Rumbaugh said commercials emphasizing low-academic achievement and gang-related incidents would be better examples of the effects of marijuana use, since they are real issues in public schools.Jennifer de Vallance, an ONDCP spokeswoman, said the commercials portray incidences that could occur when under the influence of marijuana. 
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0,1854,562538,00.html
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Comment #6 posted by John Markes on April 07, 2003 at 09:46:51 PT
Really???
 'Dame Helena said a BLF lung consultant recently gave a lung transplant to a young patient who had only ever smoked cannabis.' Many readers may not know that most cannabis that is smoked in europe is not really cannabis. It's a mixture of cannabis and tobacco. The tobacco mixed into the bowl or joint is not usually mentioned, it is just accepted as an unmentioned given. The purported reason is that cannabis doesn't smoke as well unless mixed with tobacco.
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Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo MD on April 07, 2003 at 09:13:33 PT:
Repeating Comments, Cannabis and Mental Health
Here are the links to the PDF's of the 3 British Medical journal articles and the editorial from the BMJ. It is possible that you will not be able to access them without a subscription. 
http://bmj.com/cgi/reprint/325/7374/1212.pdf 
http://bmj.com/cgi/reprint/325/7374/1199.pdf 
http://bmj.com/cgi/reprint/325/7374/1195.pdf 
http://bmj.com/cgi/reprint/325/7374/1183.pdf 
Some of the data was generated via self-reports of drug use, which are notoriously inaccurate. 
At most, such data can indicate an association, or even what we call "comorbidity," meaning that two "problems" occur in the same patient. However, none of this proves that cannabis produces psychosis. 
Generically, I can say the following. The issue of cannabis as causing mental illness has been debated for at least 1000 years, usually on the basis of hysteria and myths, such as that of the hashish-crazed assassins. There is no substantiation of the whole story according to the thesis of Michael Aldrich. It is apocryphal. The first serious survey of cannabis in schizophrenia was the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission in 1893-1894. They scoured the country's asylums for cases of cannabis psychosis and came up with a mere handful of cases where there was not some alternative explanation. Their conclusion was that cannabis did not cause permanent harm of this nature. Everyone knows that a rare patient may have a temporary psychosis that seems to be triggered by cannabis overuse. Virtually all recover. This does not require the caging of human beings, especially those who are ill, to protect our society from a rare sequela. In contrast, alcohol clearly rots one's brain in overuse. The same conclusion that cannabis did not "cause permanent psychosis"was reached in the Panama Canal Zone studies in the 1920's and the LaGuardia Commision report of 1944. The IOM in 1999 and the Canadian Senate Report in 2002 came to the same conclusion with lots of other studies inbetween. 
Some people will have schizophrenia and depression, and in some cases, cannabis will not help, or may even contribute to the problem. However, there is just as much high quality evidence that cannabis ameliorates symptoms for afflicted people. See study by Leweke et al.: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10501554&dopt=Abstract I also address this topic in the cannabis chapter in Handbook of Psychotripic Herbs. Thus the truth on this issue is a shade of gray that is much closer to white than it is to the black that the BMJ, ONDCP and other acronyms espouse. In the Patton study from Australia, the only real increased association involved depressed and anxious girls who smoked cannabis daily. They did not have excess use of other substances, and that was taken to mean that cannabis must have had a causal effect. Notably, no one analyzed why they smoked, or confirmed diagnoses via more specific testing. There is more heat than light. It is quite possible that many of the patients had symptoms of one kind or another that were alleviated in some fashion by cannabis (e.g, the depression, anxiety or even gynecological issues such as endometriosis). Why would they use more tobacco, alcohol or other drugs to try to treat their symptoms? They would not help, and would not necessarily be sought out preferentially. The Zammit study from Sweden on schizophrenia is most suspect. They examined Swedish conscripts from 1969. This investigation seems to be an attempt to rehabilitate an extremely criticized study of the same cohort published in 1987 by Andreasson et al: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2892048&dopt=Abstract Zimmer and Morgan savaged this study in Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts. The current authors claim that, based on their data, up to 13% of schizophrenia incidence could be attibutable to cannabis. This is an unsubstantiated and outrageous allegation. Keep in mind that only 1.4% of the conscripts that ever smoked cannabis wound up schizophrenic. Men of such age are at the critical time of development of the disorder. All of the eventual schizophrenics in the earlier study were recognized to have some psychiatric issue before they entered the service! As they say, "Garbage in, garbage out." I would add, "Garbage is not worthy of rehabilitation."The Arsenault study examined a cohort of young New Zealanders for cannabis use vs. development of adult psychois. In this 1 1/2 page article, "controls" smoked cannabis 0-2 times, while "cannabis users" took the drug "three times or more" by age 15 and continued at some unspecified rate of intake by age 18. Supposedly smoking cannabis increased the incidence of psychosis in adults, and it was more likely the earlier they began. If cannabis were truly etiological in development of psychosis, it would be reasonable to expect some dose-response effect. That is not evident here in any respect. As they say, "More study in warranted." As a journal editor, I would never have even published this "investigation." It contributes nothing to our understanding of the alleged problem.
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Comment #4 posted by druid on April 07, 2003 at 09:08:51 PT
hmmm
Dame Helena said a BLF lung consultant recently gave a lung transplant to a young patient who had only ever smoked cannabis."Unfortunately, cases like this will become more and more common if public awareness of the dangers is not raised." 
Who wants to bet that the lung transplantee was a soapbar smoker? 
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Comment #3 posted by markjc on April 07, 2003 at 09:04:07 PT
evidence?
"Cannabis use is associated with cancers of the mouth, tongue, throat, oesophagus and lung and reductions in fertility, as well as with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. " Is there any evidence to support this?
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Comment #2 posted by TecHnoCult on April 07, 2003 at 09:01:01 PT
Ethan
I look forward to Dr. Russo's take on these published findings. I am open minded enough to believe that there is some (very limited) truth in these findings. While I don't believe that cannabis can cause mental illness, I am wondering if it can cause an existing condition to surface. I have been smoking daily for about three years, and I have recently been diagnosed as bi-polar. Now, I believe I was always bipolar, since my mom is too, and I have always manifested the manic side of the disease, but the depression side didn't show it's ugly face much (or at least I didn't notice it) until the last couple of years.THC
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 07, 2003 at 08:56:03 PT
A Counter Point
Instead of the above title it should read:Cannabis Prohibition Damages Mental HealthFear of prison can do bad things to our minds!That's the truth!
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