Long Term Marijuana Use + Mental Health?

[Jing]

Here is one of those 'fuck your facts' thread.

Denial is so predictable.

 

[RoryFan]

Would you say that the amount of weed you and your friends smoked, was excessive? Was it a daily/weekly thing?

Daily, we all do the 9-5 work deal then blaze up in the evening and weekends. Smoking "excessive" weed is an odd thing because after 2 weeks of heavy use you build up a ridiculous tollerence to weed incredibly fast and it takes much more to get high, after 10 years of daily smoking you can smoke from the second you wake to the second you fall asleep and still be functional but take a week off and smoke nothing and it's like your immune system resets or something and half a joint sends you over the moon.

 

[Mountain Dew]

Here is one of those 'fuck your facts' thread.

Denial is so predictable.

Not too sure what you mean, explain?

 

[RoryFan]

Here is one of those 'fuck your facts' thread.

Denial is so predictable.

For as many "scientific" studys you find claiming it causes mental illness you can find just as many debunking the idea, and tbh unless you have a phd in biology and have spent the last 30 years studying long term use I don't see how you can come to any sort of rational conclusion at this point.


While writing this post I did a little research and found this on wikipedia which i found interesting:

"At one time cannabis was considered a drug that had no withdrawal symptoms because users did not display symptoms similar to those withdrawing from alcohol or opiates. Contrary to this, experimental research supports reports of users who relate evidence of heavy cannabis use producing psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms."

This I can 100% confirm from personal experience, it's odd because most people have the misconception that there is no withdrawl. There definitely is it's just so mild and so different to other substance withdrawl it's not widely recognised.

 

[Mountain Dew]

Daily, we all do the 9-5 work deal then blaze up in the evening and weekends. Smoking "excessive" weed is an odd thing because after 2 weeks of heavy use you build up a ridiculous tollerence to weed incredibly fast and it takes much more to get high, after 10 years of daily smoking you can smoke from the second you wake to the second you fall asleep and still be functional but take a week off and smoke nothing and it's like your immune system resets or something and half a joint sends you over the moon.

Really interesting, thanks for your contribution.

 

[Jing]

Not too sure what you mean, explain?

Every time a thread like this comes out the pot defenders come out in droves trying to deny any proof that is presented for the negative effects and potential serious consequences of the heavy usage of pot.

 

[Slick_36]

Also, I was listening to Jay Mohr's podcast and his manager Barry Katz was on the show, he also managed Dave Chapelle. He said that Dave smoked insane amounts of weed everyday to function socially, and believed it was part of the reason he went nuts.

Lmao I could definitely see Dave getting blazed to the point of nirvana. I think he was screwed from the beginning though, too smart and too funny for his own good. Before he knew it, he ended up in a situation he never wanted to be in and wanted out. He was desperate, and it worked. I love that guy and I wish him all the best.

I've worked in an industry dealing with people that use for 17 years or so. I've had people that have gone thru rehab tell me personally that it does lead to harder stuff and it can contribute to psychosis and schizophrenia.

I have also seen enough to suspect the same. I don't have degrees in mental health though so my opinion is officially shit.

I've been through the system myself, albeit on the opposite side. And I can tell you, having biased doctors tell you the evils of every nonprescription drug and then prescribe you cocktail after cocktail of antidepressant, sleep aid, painkiller, and everything else you can imagine, it fucks with your head. It becomes second nature for those guys to denounce everything the doctor didn't hand them. Weed can definitely become an addiction and a hindrance in one's life. But in the same way overeating, working out too much, or even overusing a Blackberry will.

Here is one of those 'fuck your facts' thread.

Denial is so predictable.

You think that's what this is? Seems like a fairly nonbiased thread as far as these things go. Even the diehard stoners will admit that it does exacerbate schizophrenia in people and is harmful to a minor's brain development. Outside of that, there really isn't anything to criticize about it.

 

[Jing]

For as many "scientific" studys you find claiming it causes mental illness you can find just as many debunking the idea, and tbh unless you have a phd in biology and have spent the last 30 years studying long term use I don't see how you can come to any sort of rational conclusion at this point.


While writing this post I did a little research and found this on wikipedia which i found interesting:

"At one time cannabis was considered a drug that had no withdrawal symptoms because users did not display symptoms similar to those withdrawing from alcohol or opiates. Contrary to this, experimental research supports reports of users who relate evidence of heavy cannabis use producing psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms."

This I can 100% confirm from personal experience, it's odd because most people have the misconception that there is no withdrawl. There definitely is it's just so mild and so different to other substance withdrawl it's not widely recognised.

I was speaking in terms of early development it is not just a matter of opinion it is the consensus. There is a serious degradation in the thought processes of those that are habitual smokers starting from adolescence. All brains scans of show the exact areas that have shut down. There is also a correlation to the development of mental illnesses with those who have a predisposition to them.

Are you going to go crazy? Not if you use in moderation. But be a heavy pot smoker from an early age and you are most certainly playing with fire.

Any time you alter the body's natural homeostasis there will be the possibility of side effects. Do you really think a mind altering substance could not produce long lasting negative changes in the brain?

 

[Jing]

Lmao I could definitely see Dave getting blazed to the point of nirvana. I think he was screwed from the beginning though, too smart and too funny for his own good. Before he knew it, he ended up in a situation he never wanted to be in and wanted out. He was desperate, and it worked. I love that guy and I wish him all the best.

I've been through the system myself, albeit on the opposite side. And I can tell you, having biased doctors tell you the evils of every nonprescription drug and then prescribe you cocktail after cocktail of antidepressant, sleep aid, painkiller, and everything else you can imagine, it fucks with your head. It becomes second nature for those guys to denounce everything the doctor didn't hand them. Weed can definitely become an addiction and a hindrance in one's life. But in the same way overeating, working out too much, or even overusing a Blackberry will.


You think that's what this is? Seems like a fairly nonbiased thread as far as these things go. Even the diehard stoners will admit that it does exacerbate schizophrenia in people and is harmful to a minor's brain development. Outside of that, there really isn't anything to criticize about it.

Eh, read the first page only. Usually that's where it's headed and fast. Guess the berry has changed.

 

[Slick_36]

I was speaking in terms of early development it is not just a matter of opinion it is the consensus. There is a serious degradation in the thought processes of those that are habitual smokers starting from adolescence. All brains scans of show the exact areas that have shut down. There is also a correlation to the development of mental illnesses with those who have a predisposition to them.

Are you going to go crazy? Not if you use in moderation. But be a heavy pot smoker from an early age and you are most certainly playing with fire.

Any time you alter the body's natural homeostasis there will be the possibility of side effects. Do you really think a mind altering substance could not produce long lasting negative changes in the brain?

This is absolutely right. It's just like you don't put a 9 year behind the wheel of a car. It's not safe and it's not necessary yet. No 13 year old needs to be smoking unless they're dying of a terminal disease. It's harmful to their growth and will only develop bad habits for them. Like the douchebags who equate weed with partying because they're such losers that the only exposure to it they ever had was at parties they started attending way too young. I started smoking at 18 and I sometimes wish I could have a waited just a little bit longer. Just as a precaution. You don't need it until you start having real independent thoughts of your own. Very very few teens are capable of that.

Eh, read the first page only. Usually that's where it's headed and fast. Guess the berry has changed.

First page didn't seem bad at all lol. In fact the first 10 posts all go against it. The procannabis crowd wasn't even particularly argumentative when we showed up.

 

[Yardener]

I'm a professor of clinical psychopharmacology at a large teaching hospital and staff on an inpatient psych ward. I've given lectures on the pharmacology of cannabis, medical marijuana, and have looked into the schizophrenia risk discussed in this thread.

There's some decent evidence that adolescent abuse of cannabis correlates w/ prodromal schizophrenia and even frank psychosis later on. However, lots of these studies are retrospective in design, so it's difficult to definitively establish cause/effect relationships. It's the chicken & egg argument.

example: http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...2153C12F.journals?fromPage=online&aid=7878597

It's also a nature vs nurture argument (genetics vs environment). Well, what's especially important is epigenetics - how your environment affects the expression of your genes. You may be born w/ a predisposition to develop schizophrenia, but that doesn't mean you're fated to become psychotic. Environmental triggers are crucial (i.e. like the shitty home life w/ poor family support a previous poster mentioned, trauma, even perhaps infections). Or, quite potentially, soaking your vulnerable brain in cannibinoids while still an adolescent.
As an adolescent, neurologically, your brain (esp the prefrontal cortex) hasn't finished developing. Also, your personality hasn't fully matured. So, that creates a more fertile ground for paranoia and other issues to take root.

on the other end, here's a prospective trial showing no correlation: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8730988

 

[Damien Karras]

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.

yup

My brother smoked copious and daily amounts of weed for nearly 15 years but recently stopped. He's quite irrational and paranoid. He called in sick for 3 full days before December 21st because he thought the world was going to end and he was panicking.

 

[Slick_36]

Awesome contribution Yardener! Assuming you're not lying, which seems unlikely, you're input is greatly appreciated here.

 

[rorydaboss]

Me and my circle of friends have all smoked for countless years I've never witnesed any adverse psycological issues from smoking weed in any one I know, In fact I've witnessed a lot of the opposite some really angry guys that started smoking weed and are now much more mentally stable.

Call me a hippie weed advocate if you like but this is just my personal experience over the past 10+ years.

I have had a different experience. My two best friends from high school and I used to smoke a shit ton of weed for years and years. My one friend is schizophrenic and bi polar, my other friend has anxiety issues as do I. My other friend from high school is also bi polar and has issues with anxiety.

 

[Yardener]

Awesome contribution Yardener! Assuming you're not lying, which seems unlikely, you're input is greatly appreciated here.

Your welcome! Knowledge is power. And no, I'm not lying. I'd probably come up w/ something much cooler if I was going to troll or front some alternate persona.

another thought: it's cliche, but true - everyone is different. And it's always a stretch (esp in psych) to draw individual conclusions from broad/general population studies. Cannabis is genuinely helpful for lots of people (I can't legally Rx it, but I recommend it to patients sometimes), and genuinely harmful for others. Try to get an honest handle on how drugs affect you, practice moderation, and know when to quit if shit doesn't agree w/ your system.

 

[BEER]

Also, I was listening to Jay Mohr's podcast and his manager Barry Katz was on the show, he also managed Dave Chapelle. He said that Dave smoked insane amounts of weed everyday to function socially, and believed it was part of the reason he went nuts.

Did Dave actually go nuts?

Or is that what the media lead people to believe when he left the country to get away from the media circus?

 

[Oblivian]

There are multiple studies in regards to cannabis and mental disorders such as schizo, anxiety, psychosis, etc. I truly don't think you can make definitive statements on it, but any long term smokers that deny the possibility of negative effects from long term use of cannabis are delusional.

 

[Slick_36]

I have had a different experience. My two best friends from high school and I used to smoke a shit ton of weed for years and years. My one friend is schizophrenic and bi polar, my other friend has anxiety issues as do I. My other friend from high school is also bi polar and has issues with anxiety.

I had anxiety issues and bipolar disorder before I ever touched the stuff. And I can absolutely guarantee that weed helped me more than any pill ever did. None of my friends, who are actually much much more avid users than I am, have ever shown real signs of any kind of mental disorder. Except for one who is really in to new age nonsense but he's a really gullible kid, he'll believe anything if he wants to enough.

And I'm not trying to say that it's not going to happen or it can't happen. Just that I've had a different experience. That seems to always be the case.

 

[ManiacTroll]

I personally always thought that pot use would have some sort of negative effect on mental health, but obviously am not an expert so it was just a personal assumption.

It's always funny talking to pro-pot people about this issue though. You get the impression, that it's the one holy grail of all substances to consume, and that it is so much better than anything else. So obviously, it wont do anything to you in long term either. Lol...

What I was a lot more convinced in was that long term/heavy usage can make you completely useless for anything. It happened to a good friend of mine, and it's pretty to see actually.

 

[Damien Karras]

I personally always thought that pot use would have some sort of negative effect on mental health, but obviously am not an expert so it was just a personal assumption.

It's always funny talking to pro-pot people about this issue though. You get the impression, that it's the one holy grail of all substances to consume, and that it is so much better than anything else. So obviously, it wont do anything to you in long term either. Lol...

What I was a lot more convinced in was that long term/heavy usage can make you completely useless for anything. It happened to a good friend of mine, and it's pretty to see actually.

I think you forgot a word in there