Long Term Marijuana Use + Mental Health?

I have an old friend from school who is having some serious mental issues and is currently institutionalised. I'm not super close with the guy or anything, but I've heard he's been pretty violent on occasions and is known to respond to "voices" and such.

This same guy has probably been smoking weed everyday in large amounts since he was like 11 or 12 (now 23).

Do you believe there is a connection between the two in this particular case?

Note: This isn't an anti-weed thread either, I do enjoy it also occasionally, just curious on some of your thoughts/experiences.

 

From what I understand there isn't any evidence either way on long term effects of marijuana use. It's much more likely to be something else.

 

I think it's possible that using heavy from that young an age could disconnect you from reality.

 

I know a hardcore weed smoker that now suffers regularly from panic attacks. I'm not sure if it's related to his smoking though.

 

The only thing I remember hearing marijuana does to one mentally that I agree with is paranoia. I say that because my brother has been using it for about 3 years now (anywhere from 1 to 5+ times a day) and he has become crazy paranoid over everything.

I personally don't know enough about the drug to say anymore than that.

 

Marijuana is known to cause schizophrenia and psychosis.

http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html

 

Ive been smoking sense i was 12 and im 20 now anyone who says chronic use of marijuana is harmless is lieing.

 

Now you've pissed off all the pot smokers.

 

Didn't look at the link, but I don't think that's quite been established.

It will exacerbate any existing schizotypal/schizophrenic symptoms however, so if your friend had an unfortunate predisposition the weed probably didn't help him much.

 

I've known tons of potheads. Some are generally worthless people. Others are motivated and do all kinds of productive shit. In other words, they're like any other cross section of society.

 

My friend was a huge pothead and is schizophrenic. Many people that smoke huge amounts of weed are actually self medicating for mental problems, even if they themselves don't realize.

Weed didn't cause this.

 

This is my understanding of it. It won't cause schizophrenia, but it might make it worse if you are already predisposed to it.

 

If your friend started smoking weed at eleven I'm guessing the shithead family he grew up in probably had something to do with him manifesting into a nutcase.

 

(Retarded phone)

 

I wouldn't blame the weed, it didn't help his case if he had mental health issues without knowing. Too many people want to place the blame on one thing and make that the issue. Reality is, there are prolly a lot of problems he had that led him to where he is now.

 

Some studies have indicated it, others have dismissed it.
It's still up in the air, though I'd guess it could aid those things.

But let's not forget that it can only help a little bit.
It's not little 100% sane people will turn into crazy people.

 

With these types of things both sides seem to have "studies" that contradict each other and support whatever they want so who really knows. As it was put in "Thank you for smoking", research teams "could disprove gravity". However, I don't think smoking a shitload of anything can be great for you.

 

I've been smoking since I was 13 and I'm now 29, I have no issues from using and I am a heavy user. My lungs could use a break from smoking it again, but other than that I don't have any issues. Too many people smoke weed to cover up their issues, like someone stated already, so its hard to tell when something goes wrong if it was the weed, or if the issue was there before they started.

 

Medically I don't think its any worst than alcohol or cigarettes, I'd say less.

The effects it has on people differ, some people just kinda sit around all day, get high & don't do much. Others like Seth Rogen write movies and Joe Rogan (didn't realize till now the same lastname thing) use it to stimulate their philosophical thoughts.

 

Great summary, thanks.