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Pot Can Make You Psychotic
Pubdate: Fri, 24 Feb 2006
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Canoe Inc
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Sam Cooper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
POT CAN MAKE YOU PSYCHOTIC?
Heads up potheads. Cannabis use may lead to psychosis.
At an SFU forum on cannabis, mental health and addiction, Professor
David Ferguson from the University of Otago, New Zealand, told his
audience pot is definitely not a harmless drug.
Based on an ongoing 25-year study of 1,200 youth, Ferguson found
daily cannabis users reported various symptoms of psychosis about 1.5
times more than non-users.
But this small increase of symptoms in individuals will boost the
rate of psychosis in society by about 10 per cent, he said.
The youths were tested for cannabis while aged 18 to 25 and control
tested for additional social factors from birth.
However, Ferguson said it's important not to over-exaggerate his
findings in the debate about marijuana de-criminalization.
"In susceptible individuals, cannabis use may lead to mental illness,
but in many it does not have harmful effects," Ferguson said.
"It's about weighing the rights of the majority for whom use is not
harmful, against the risk of the minority who experience adverse consequences."
He said youth are most susceptible to the mental health risks of pot
use because their brains are still developing.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman