Cannabis Current Events (Part 2)

Depending on whose definition you look at smoking a single joint is cannabis use disorder.

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I would only look at the DSM definition.

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The Forbes article may be trash, but the underlying research ainā€™t. It builds on a substantial base of scientific research which clearly shows that THC use triggers schizophrenia and/or makes it worse. Iā€™ll try to summarize.

This study, which analyzed the mental health of 7,000,000 Danes aged 16-49 from 1972-2021, showed thereā€™s a strong connection between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia, and that this association is seen about 4x more frequently in males than in females. Long story short, they used statistical analysis to show that about 15% of the male Danish schizophrenia diagnoses in 2021 could be attributed to Cannabis Use Disorder, which is (roughly) a psychiatric diagnosis where habitual weed smoking causes problems in your life, and/or you canā€™t quit.

The researchers also think that the increase in Cannabis Use Disorder diagnoses may be due to the increase in THC content of products on the market, since that causal link has been established in prior studies, so they suspect higher THC = lots more schizophrenia in men, but only slightly more in women. They based this on the greater increase in schizophrenia diagnoses associated with cannabis use disorder in the youngest population samples of men, but not in women. Since the youngest men are likely to have only used high THC products in their lifetimes, as thatā€™s almost exclusively whatā€™s on the market these days, thereā€™s a strong statistical connection between habitually using high THC products and higher rates of schizophrenia.

Long story short, it turns out that using weed isnā€™t completely harmless at the population level, so itā€™s important to do more research so it can be regulated accordingly. My thought is that solid research such as this is whatā€™s going to prevent weed from being completely descheduled, and thatā€™s likely a good thing for society as a whole. As long as they let me grow it myself, just like I can manufacture small amounts of alcohol products (brew my own beer and wine) which have similar health risks, Iā€™m OK with the possibilities.

:rainbow: :sun_with_face:

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Yes and I agree it can exacerbate underlying conditions but by this definition if I get busted twice, which constitutes disruptions in my life, then I have cannabis use disorder

It also doesnā€™t take into account the higher likelihood that schizophrenics are more likely to self medicate.

But enough science! Onward towards the arts!

Degas eh? Pretty cool.

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I think maybe you took my very rough definition as rigid gospel. Iā€™m not a psychiatrist, but I think if you look at it more generally it makes sense - itā€™s the habitual part that defines the disorder, not simply the outcomes of the use.

If you use weed and repeatedly get into trouble for doing it, your life outcomes may improve if you stop using weed. If you canā€™t stop, despite the problems it causes in your life, you may have a cannabis use disorder.

Does that help make more sense?

Iā€™d love to hear how you came to that conclusion.

:peace_symbol:

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Itā€™s not your definitions itā€™s the DSM.

Look at Alcohol use disorder. Itā€™s funny too.

Itā€™s well known that the mentally ill use substances to mask their symptoms. Am I a coke head or a depressive that uses coke to function?

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Not that I read it that carefully but I think one point of the study was to alert clinicians to be on the lookout for CUD in people with schizophrenia (somewhere in there they said CUD was associated with poorer treatment outcomes).

No doubt cannabis isnā€™t harmless, for everyone, or all of the time.

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Just a thought but if itā€™s the cannabis everyone who used it a lot would have schizophrenia.

Itā€™s a not all but a percentage, so that percentage has some kind of psychological problem that causes schizophrenia when cannabis is consumed.

You would also have to take into account that they didnā€™t all use the same weed grown by the same person, and it was all treated the same way with the same things. Some may have been sprayed with toxic substances.

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Iā€™m paranoid because I grow weed; Iā€™m paranoid that one day Iā€™ll wake up in the middle of the night to my door being kicked down, and a bunch of large men with guns will come into my house, put me in handcuffs and drag me off to throw me in a cage. Iā€™m also paranoid that when the time comes to stand trial, Iā€™ll be typecast as a dealer because itā€™s impossible to prove a negative, and the state will seize everything I own as proceeds of crime.

I was gonna quote another Forbes article, but theyā€™ve locked it behind a paywall. I canā€™t even read the first one you guys posted now. :frowning: Oh well. Probably about the same quality - the gist of the quote I was looking for was that now that itā€™s legal, people get a lot less paranoid when they smoke it. Almost like the weed wasnā€™t causing the paranoia in the first place, just accentuating what was already thereā€¦ a legitimate fear of being persecuted. Then a few paragraphs about how the study was conducted, such as self-reporting from people using at home, which would quickly invalidate the findings if subjected to any peer review.

So yeah, I have very little trouble believing that this study, most of which must have been conducted while cannabis was entirely illegal in Denmark, has at the very least some unconscious biases involved in either the methodology used, or the people studied. Cannabis still isnā€™t legal in Denmark; itā€™s conditionally legal in a medical program that will soon expire, as far as I can tell from a 5-minute search. People were probably self-reporting in this one too. There might be a tiny bit of validity to it, but sorting out how much seems more difficult than just doing a new study. Unfortunately, thisā€™ll just be used as evidence to tighten the noose a little bit more and leave the MSOs as the only ones with rights, because it causes schizophrenia and therefore needs to be tightly controlled and the corporations are the only ones who can be trusted. :rofl:

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That wasnā€™t really what it said. For awhile now clinicians have been pointing to an increase in the number of emerging cases of schizophrenia and making an association between cannabis legalization, the availability of high THC products, and the rise in the number of cases. Up until now the link has always been the association, they arenā€™t pointing to a causal link. This study seems to have still concluded that they couldnā€™t for sure say thereā€™s a causal link, but inferred that there is a link.

That said, this is all about people diagnosed with a Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD). The DSM divided CUD into three categories by level of severity, Iā€™ve always been curious how many elements the people in the study diagnosed with schizophrenia met (the more you meet the higher level of severity).

I should add, schizophrenia is a serious mental illness, and one that itā€™s unlikely would be diagnosed lightly (it isnā€™t mere paranoia).

One thing I wish these studies would make absolutely clear, what percentage of the overall population was diagnosed with schizophrenia annually, both before and after legalization. I suspect that it is pretty small, but it would be interesting to know.

As it happens, I have a close family member who is a psychiatrist and has treated people living in the community with serious mental illnesses. Their opinion was that the strongest thing linked to schizophrenia is having experienced trauma (particularly terrible abuse and/or neglect). Iā€™d think the level of substance abuse disorders among that population is pretty high in general (and alcohol and cannabis are almost universally available).

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https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/3995479-weed-and-greed-how-marijuana-taxation-went-up-in-smoke/

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Only people making money on legal weed is the tax man and they really donā€™t have any skin in game. No overhead, just profit

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This writer disingenuously and conveniently ignores the very existence of hashish, which exposes this piece for what it is.
He appears to be simply shilling for the dubious ā€œDetox Industryā€, as well as the burgeoning ā€œNanny Stateā€.

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The only thing remotely true in that article is about driving.

ā€œhigher doses of THC are more likely to produce anxiety, agitation, paranoia,ā€

Since legalization I find I have lower doses of anxiety paranoia and agitation. Weed mustā€™ve changed.

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Iā€™d like to know more about this average seized joint in 1980 had a THC level of 1.5% claimā€¦ teenagers smoking ditch weed?

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Iā€™m working through a 3rd joint and Iā€™m anxious that im out of doritos, paranoid that I ate them all and agitated that I forgot to get more at the store yesterday.

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Definitive evidence on the societal dangers of marijuana! :joy::joy:

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Donā€™t do the weed, kids itā€™ll give you a violent case of the munchies! :rofl:

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ā€œHow are you supposed to afford the .79 for Doritos when youā€™re unemployed because youā€™re in a marijuana psychosis?ā€

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79 cents?

What year is it?

Whoā€™s the Viceā€¦ do you have a Vice something in Canada?

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