Weed

[peterinmalaga]

In my experience working with teens in the mental health field, it seems that your statement is very true. Teens who smoke marijuana tend to have other, more severe problems which they use weed to get away from or forget about . . . typically, PTSD from physical and/or sexual violence. Unfortunately, when the weed stops working for them, those traumatic experiences linger and the problems remain unsolved. From there, they tend to delve deeper into drug use.

And what is the percentage of young people that get hooked on the medication prescribed them by doctors? In my experience 90% of students use weed at some time or other. I worked in a school in a nice area where 80% of 15 year old girls had used weed. 99% of these students (at the very least) do not move on to hard drugs. Your experience is not typical of the vast majority of people. Most people do not fit into the category of "teens with mental health issues". Alcohol abuse is a much more serious issue and it affects a much larger percentage of the population. Getting stoned on weed is cheap - you can grow your own. Alcohol is expensive. Young people don't have much money.
The point of my post was that "there are lies, damned lies and statistics" (Disraeli, I think). Can you or anyone else identify the causal connection between weed and mental health problems? Until that connection is established nobody is going to listen to your argument.

[HankyPanky]

Is using weed better than some over-the-counter drugs? I say yes.

[HankyPanky]

There are different strains of cannabis. Which strains and doses were used in these tests?

[fredv3b]

Peter,

I am not sure I understand what you are saying. Do you not believe it is harmful at all or just that it is not harmful enough to justify people's attitude to it? If it is the former could you be more specific about what sort of evidence of harm would convince you?

[LadyMontage]

I find the stuff disgusting. I've tried/experimented with it a handful of times and hated it every time. The last time I tried it, it really messed with my head. I made a total fool of myself to boot. However, it doesn't bother me much if other people do it. So long as they're responsible and mature about it. A lot of people do and act like total idiots. :/ That's my stand..

[peterinmalaga]

Peter,

I am not sure I understand what you are saying. Do you not believe it is harmful at all or just that it is not harmful enough to justify people's attitude to it? If it is the former could you be more specific about what sort of evidence of harm would convince you?

What I am saying is that practically everything is harmful if abused and that some people's attitude to weed is disproportionate to the amount of harm it produces - in comparison to, say, alcohol, over-eating and some prescription drugs. My main point was that the vast majority of people who use weed at some time in their lives do not go on to become users of hard drugs - if the contrary were the case, the junkies would be in the majority in the UK, USA etc.

[eastofeden]

I would be very interested to see the research which actually identifies the mechanism whereby weed causes mental health problems. I'm sure that kids who smoke weed before the age of 15 are more likely to develop mental health problems but nobody has shown that the weed causes those problems. Kids who smoke weed before 15 probably had a shitload of problems before they ever smoked anything.
Identifying the causal mechanism would be hard work. Anyone can feed numbers into a computer and I'm sure there's any number of organisations that will fund the number-crunching research, if it seems to prove what they want to believe anyway.
I am quite cynical about research undertaken for "medical" purposes. They proved that Prozac was not addictive, didn't they? They conned us into buying Tamiflu last winter and that apparently does no good at all except to Ronald Rumpsfeld who had invested heavily in it. (Not sure if I got his name right!)

I agree that the mental health problems or the pre disposition exists already...

Surveys and studies often give the desired result of the entity that commisions the study. I always think of the big drug corporations and their shareholders who would lose some of their precious $$$$ if they legalized marijuana. We are about to legalize it in California this coming Novemeber...most indicators have shown the majority of Californians approve.

I always have some great marijuana chocolates in my freezer...I don't smoke anything as I had a major heart attack from smoking (have long since quit) and once upon a time when I was younger my arteries were blocked due to smoking and I would caution anyone against smoking anything...there are, however, other ways to enjoy cannibus.

[peterinmalaga]

I agree that the mental health problems or the pre disposition exists already...

Surveys and studies often give the desired result of the entity that commisions the study. I always think of the big drug corporations and their shareholders who would lose some of their precious $$$$ if they legalized marijuana. We are about to legalize it in California this coming Novemeber...most indicators have shown the majority of Californians approve.

Absolutely. Somebody once found a statistically significant correlation between the number of bananas consumed in the USA and the number of protestant immigrants (or something equally absurd).
It is a little know fact that the importation of marjuana seeds into the UK is perfectly legal. The growing of them is not permitted, not that that has ever deterred anyone. Most Brits have a garden and the plants fit in well at the back of the herbaceous border!

[peterinmalaga]

"...They proved that Prozac was not addictive, didn't they?"

I dunno about that, I have a friend who is addicted to it... Maybe a certain type. I dunno.

That was exactly what I was saying. We agree on that!

[Mikebmth]

I used to smoke everyday without fail but stopped about 2 years ago due to my mental health getting bad, I was super paranoid all the time and could become violent because of the paranoia so I quit.

I have a friend who spent quite a number of months in and out of a mental unit and then rehab on more than one occasion, he is now registered as a paranoid schiophrenic (sorry bout spelling, lol) but hen again my brother has been smoking since he was 14 and he is now 27 and apart from his temper which only becomes a problem when he cant score up from anyone he is fairly chilled.

Difficult to say whether weed actually can cause mental health problems but from my own experience it is addictive and anyone who says it isnt hasnt ever smoked it for long periods, and before you shoot me down there are far worse drugs out there than weed but I just think the effects all be it mental health wise are different from person to person and your general state of mind.