Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

Sporeworks
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Feedback and Administration > Shroomery News Service
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds, Bulk Cannabis Seeds   Myyco.com Golden Teacher Liquid Culture For Sale

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Cannabis-Mental Illness link 'very small' [UK]
    #5178159 -

Panel says link with mental illness is 'very small'
guardian.co.uk

New scientific evidence suggests a causal link between cannabis use and long-term psychotic symptoms, according to the government's top drug advisory committee. But in a draft report to the home secretary, Charles Clarke, seen by the Guardian, the committee says that the risks are not high enough to support reclassification as class B.

The report says: "The [committee] considers that cannabis products should remain class C. At worst, the risk to an individual of developing a schizophreniform illness as a result of using cannabis is very small. The harmfulness of cannabis, to the individual, remains substantially less than the harmfulness caused by substances currently controlled under the act as class B." A source close to the committee said only one member out of 36 voted to shift cannabis back to class B.

The report said: "Collectively, the weight of evidence from these studies suggests an association between cannabis use, and the development of schizophrenia or a schizophreniform disorder, that is causal ... The best current estimate of the populations-attributable risk of schizophreniform illness due to cannabis (the percentage reduction in the prevalence of the condition if the use of cannabis could be totally eliminated) is about 8-10%."

In March, Mr Clarke asked the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to look at the decision to declassify cannabis from B to C and consider evidence that cannabis available in Britain is increasing in potency. He directed it to two recent population-based studies suggesting a link between cannabis use and mental health problems.

On the potency question, the ACMD concluded: "There is no evidence that, during this period [1995-2005], the potency of cannabis resin has changed in any significant way ... There has, however, been an increase in the potency in sinsemilla." This refers to intensively grown super-strength varieties such as skunk.

Since 2002 a handful of population-based studies have pointed to cannabis being a causal factor in schizophrenia and the development of more subtle psychotic symptoms.

"Each one of these studies has its own deficiencies, but the impressive thing is that they all point in the same direction," said Robin Murray, a psychiatrist at King's College London who wrote some of the papers. They suggest that cannabis increases the chance of a user developing psychotic symptoms two- or fourfold, he said. The risk of lung cancer for cigarette smokers is 10-15 times.

He believes that reclassifying cannabis was a mistake, but he accepts that the scientific case is far from watertight. Cannabis use and schizophrenia could be linked by a third factor, perhaps cannabis users being more likely to use another drug that causes mental health problems, something the new studies try to take into account.

Others are sceptical of the new studies. "The total number of people involved is very, very small," said Professor Leslie Iversen, a pharmacologist at Oxford University and ACMD member. "If you look at any of those studies, a very tiny proportion of the cohort actually develop psychotic illness that might be attributable to cannabis."

Research by C?cile Henquet and her colleagues at the University of Maastricht was also considered by the council. "The consensus is that cannabis is not harmless. It is much more harmful than we expected, but it is not that cannabis in itself can cause psychosis," she said. ""Apparently some people have a sensitive brain to cannabis exposure."

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Cannabis-Mental Illness link 'very small' [UK] [Re: veggie]
    #5186420 -

for whatever reason, a great majority of schizophrenics smoke cigarettes.


--------------------


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Cannabis-Mental Illness link 'very small' [UK] [Re: veggie]
    #5186434 -

> The harmfulness of cannabis, to the individual, remains substantially less than the harmfulness caused by

If they were really concerned about people's health, they would be comparing the harmfulness of, oh, lets say... of fighting a war in Iraq...


--------------------
Just another spore in the wind.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Cannabis-Mental Illness link 'very small' [UK] [Re: Seuss]
    #5193310 -

:penguindog:


--------------------
The answer to 1984 is 1776.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Cannabis-Mental Illness link 'very small' [UK] [Re: Seuss]
    #5193321 -

Seuss said:
> The harmfulness of cannabis, to the individual, remains substantially less than the harmfulness caused by

If they were really concerned about people's health, they would be comparing the harmfulness of, oh, lets say... of fighting a war in Iraq...


A-men to that! And to add, I'm considered mentally ill, and frankly, the weed relieves some of my more unpleasant symptoms. And, it's nice to see someone de-bunk these myths about cannabis.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds, Bulk Cannabis Seeds   Myyco.com Golden Teacher Liquid Culture For Sale

Feedback and Administration > Shroomery News Service
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Regular cannabis users 'at greater risk of mental illness' Stein 2,958 4 07/06/03 03:14 AM
by Adamist
* Lancet: "Cannabis Use Not Linked with Psychosocial Harm" Le_Canard 594 0 05/18/04 07:44 AM
by Le_Canard
* Doctors' fears at cannabis change AuroricDistortions 2,041 2 01/23/04 07:20 PM
by DailyPot
* Scientology link to public schools AnnoA 2,291 6 06/14/04 06:34 PM
by Mitchnast
* NO LIMIT SET ON CANNABIS st0nedphucker 1,605 2 09/13/03 05:19 PM
by DailyPot
* Dope link to lung cysts motamanM 1,954 1 05/17/03 03:27 PM
by Hans_Moleman
* Cannabis smokers risk nicotine addiction AnnoA 5,916 18 07/26/06 03:32 PM
by hooksbooks
* Cannabis law sends 'wrong signal' Crapula 4,882 7 03/06/03 09:55 AM
by Purple_Voyage

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
1,696 topic views. 0 members, 1 guests and 1 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.025 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 16 queries.