Does Marijuana cause psychosis or schizophrenia

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There is an article in the USA today about pot and psychiatric disorders,instead of the news forum I thought I would post it here.

What do people think about pot,psychosis and schizophrenia?

The countries with some of the highest pot consumption also have some of the lowest prevalence of schizophrenia per capita. Schizophrenia and pot is just a myth that prohibitionist want everyone to believe to justify their hatred of pot. It's in the same category of bs that just because you have some trace amount of THC in your blood weeks later after using pot that you are somehow impaired. They use this to justify locking people up even in regions where it's legal to use.

A recent study suggests that some patients with bipolar disorder who use marijuana actually performed better on certain neurocognitive tests. However, marijuana appeared to have the opposite effect on schizophrenic patients.

Dr. Ole Andreassen of Oslo University Hospital in Norway and his colleagues studied the effects of marijuana on bipolar and schizophrenic patients. They believe that the different effects of marijuana on cognition indicate “different underlying disease mechanisms in the two disorders.”

Marijuana is known to have a number of negative effects, including decreased cognition. Recent research has suggested that marijuana use can worsen symptoms of schizophrenia, and early use is associated with psychosis. The effects of marijuana on bipolar patients are less well known.

Further Articles...
Marijuana Worsens Schizophrenia
https://psychcentral.com/news/2010/06/19/marijuana-worsens-schizophrenia/14786.html

I had a psychotic episode with halucinations off some christmas tree bud in the early 90's,it was scary.Had it not been for that episode I would never had gotten into cocaine which wasted a lot of my money.I am clean almost 20 years now.

I had a friend who ended up in a psych ward over some skunk bud at a party,the cops thought he was dosed with LSD but it turned out to have been the high grade pot.We all got interviewed by detectives it was crazy.

^^^ My brother wound up schizophrenic, after having a very tragic life(he was a baby when we our mother died in her 30s in Australia, and my AS father wasn’t parenting so well ... at 15, my brother was made homeless, and he wound up on drugs. I’ve had 2 family members wind up being diagnosed as schizophrenic, after taking illicit drugs, who almost certainly were AS. I was horrified when I saw how much my younger brother had aged, seriously looked like an old man in photos ... since the diagnosis. Those with schizophrenia tend to live a good 25 years on average less than they would have, and tend to age must more quickly ... Congratulations, on being clean for 20 years, VS. I’ve never dabbled, though can’t say I’ve never been curious about trying some marijuana ... I’m fairly clean living, and alcohol is my only real vice ... now and then ... Hope your friend made it out of the psych ward ok ... what an experience for you all that must have been, detectives involved!

Glad Cliff's doing well now. Shame about the new Chief of Police ... unfortunately we all know that postions of power are highly attractive to certain types ... you deserved better ...

I've known some schizophrenics who found marijuana helped them.

I've had several psychotic episodes with MJ including a 3-day hospitalization. It was wild. I was staggering down the street after just a few hits and felt like I was sinking into the ground. By the time I got to a corner, my limbs wouldn't stop moving. I was laughing and in a panic mode at the same time so passersby called 911 and I was carted off to a hospital for three days.

Thinking that to be a freak accident, like I was dusted with PCP or something, I tried MJ later. Unfortunately, it'd make me paranoid or feel like I was falling through the earth again, so I just said forget it. I'm allergic to the stuff and now just stick to beer.

I had a long period of psychosis about 20 years ago and smoking industrial strength Sativa really feels similar to that. As a rule of thumb I avoid high THC content and opt for Hashish, usually smoked in small amounts at the end of the day, with people that I trust.

^ A lot of those times, all I had was one or two puffs before my head started spinning around.

I was staying the night at a friend's house when I smoked some pot. I was not prepared for the effect. I got extremely paranoid and started checking that every door and window was locked, over and over. I was afraid "they" were coming to get me even though I didn't know exactly who "they" were.

This adventure lasted until morning and I fell into bed exhausted. Thinking back on it, I knew I wouldn't smoke pot again because it definitely was not the relaxing good time my friend said it would be.

Funny you should ask. Once in high school, we were in a bus going on a field trip and some kids lit up a joint and I had some. Where was the field trip to? Pilgrim State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital (At the time it opened, it was the largest hospital of any kind in the world). This was a literature class and we had read "One flew over the Cuckoos Nest". Anyhoo, a shrink from the hospital talked to us about the dangers of pot and how people with existing problems may be driven into psychosis easier than NTs. I assumed he was referring to me . I never had a problem with pot. However, once in college I smoked some hash oil. I remember afterwards talking to a friend who hadn't smoked it and I scared him a little. I think I was more incoherent than anything though .

There's a synthetic form of marijuana called Spice which can make people crazy