Myth: Marijuana use can lead to an increased risk of schizophrenia later in life.
The Truth: This is a total media scare story. Different sources of this myth have different numbers. Some say you are 4.5 times more likely to become schizophrenic if you smoke pot. This “study” from the UK claims “Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%”. Pretty scary isn’t it? Fortunately these studies are total bullshit.
There have been many studies promoting the link between cannabis use and the onset of schizophrenia. It is not the quantity of scientific studies that matters though, it is the quality. As stated in some of my other marijuana myth posts there are three criteria that need to be satisfied in order to prove causality, these are: Association, Temporal Antecedence and Isolation. Association means the cause and effect must occur together, temporal antecedence means the effect must follow the cause and isolation means all other causes must be ruled out. The first two can be shown for pretty much anything.
For example if I performed a raindance and it rained later in the day I have satisfied association and temporal antecedence but not isolation. Therefore I cannot scientifically prove that my raindance worked. If raindances were a controversial topic the media would then publish the “study” and the headline would read “Recent Study Suggests that Raindance Leads to precipitation”. Sounds ridiculous right? Well that is exactly what has been happening with the hundreds of “studies” on cannabis and schizophrenia.
Isolation has not been proven in the marijuana-schizophrenia link. In fact evidence to the contrary is indisputable. Marijuana use has grown significantly in the last 30 years. If schizophrenia was caused by marijuana use then there should be an observable rise in schizophrenia rates as well. No such link has been established. This study from Australia demonstrates these findings (pdf). Before marijuana became popular less than 1% of the population was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and now that marijuana use in widespread the rate of schizophrenia diagnosis is still less than 1%.
The Report of the Senate Special Commitee on Illegal Drugs from Canada in 2002 concluded the following,
No mental pathology directly related to the overuse of cannabis has been reported, which distinguishes this substance from psychostimulants such as MDNA, cocaine or alcohol, heavy and repeated use of which can give rise to characteristic psychotic syndromes. Similarly, cannabis does not seem to precipitate the onset of pre-existing mental dysfunctions (schizophrenia, bipolar depression, etc.).
Those suffering from schizophrenia are known to use drugs. In a recent study, 60% of people with schizophrenia were found to use psychotropic drugs and 37% would be diagnosable with a substance use disorder. It is assumed that people with schizophrenia use drugs to overcome self-esteem issues and negative feelings due to antipsychotic medication and the condition itself. There are studies that show that cannabis can actually be used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia (link1, link2). The scientifically accepted factors that contribute to the onset of schizophrenia include genetics and social situations such as childhood abuse, poverty, and racial discrimination. Social outsiders generally cling to drug use as a means to self-medicate depression or just add a little enjoyment to their lives.
Three-quarters of persons with schizophrenia develop the disease between 16 and 25 years of age. The studies that suggest that marijuana causes schizophrenia claim that pot use during adolescence will cause schizophrenia around the age 26. That is the age that it will occur anyway. What does marijuana use have to do with it? Nothing. Persons who are predisposed to schizophrenia are awkward teenagers and much more likely to use cannabis and other drugs than their peers. It actually looks like schizophrenia causes some marijuana use!
Despite lack of evidence the media promotes these studies as true. Headlines like this, “UK researchers to claim as that pot is causing 14% of schizophrenia cases in the UK” are scary. These media scare stories are unfounded and designed to create widespread fear around marijuana use, also known as propaganda. The UK is currently in the middle of a psychological war on cannabis. Check out some of these recent claims taken from a pot-schizophrenia news story,
Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, warned yesterday that the risks were likely to be heightened by the increasing use of powerful skunk cannabis.
and
Cannabis has been implicated in a string of vicious killings, including the recent stabbing of fashion designer Lucy Braham.
These claims are absurd this is pure propaganda. Unfortunately the majority of people know very little about cannabis and accept these claims as true.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16534433
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-471106/Smoking-just-cannabis-joint-raises-danger-mental-illness-40.html
- http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html
- http://www.ukcia.org/research/TestingHypotheses.pdf
- http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7908
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_schizophrenia
January 29, 2010 at 1:49 pm
You need to bump this after that David Suzuki propaganda piece last night.
January 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Spread the word man. That’s what the internet is for. I wrote a post about that Suzuki propaganda, read it here https://loopylettuce.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/canadian-government-fear-mongering/
February 21, 2010 at 3:30 am
Even Amamda Fielding of the Beckley Foundation has written an article of the dangers of’skunk’- its on Brainwaving- so we have a pro psychedlic drug site and upper claas proponent joining in the psychological war on cannabis .don’t you just hate those ‘experts’!
I guess people like Fielding think they are helping the proles.Her essay was awlful and shows she is no expert on any thing drug related.I am thinking upper class parasite but perhaps thats a bit strong.
March 11, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I agree totally. I think that this is a way that the social security administration uses to get away with screwing people out of benefits they otherwise deserve. I was diagnosed as psychotic at 8 years old and later at 19 diagnosed as schizophrenic. I was denied my benefits based on cannabis abuse. According to a dotor at my hearing cannabis not only caused my schizophrenia it caused me to develop Lupus. Go Fing figure.
July 2, 2010 at 6:10 am
Its actually possible that this schizophrenia media scare stunt is causing more schizophrenia than the actual bud. I mean, think about it, a pot smoker reads this shit, finds out schizophrenia runs in his family, and decides hes doomed to develop it. Becomes depressed etc, and ends up actually developing it because of the scare rather than the bud. I mean, the government doesn’t care though, as long as they’re scaring some teenagers and DELAYING the legalization. Selfish assholes.
February 23, 2011 at 12:37 am
Really good artical. As someone who suffers from mental illness, I greatly appreciate information on this subject. Thanks!
March 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm
If you’re not too stoned, try and read this article I found on:
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000220
“In the absence of definitive evidence from randomized, long-term, placebo-controlled trials, the strongest evidence of a connection between cannabis use and development of a psychotic disorder comes from prospective, longitudinal cohort studies. In the past 15 years, new evidence has emerged from 7 such studies that cumulatively provide strong support for an association between cannabis use as an adolescent or young adult and a greater risk for developing a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia.”
My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2006, and marijuana has greatly damaged his life.
Be smart. Hugs not drugs children! Schizophrenia isn’t fun.
March 22, 2012 at 7:02 pm
Bullshit. There is so much wrong with this. Talk about twisting facts to suit your agenda.
March 23, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Please explain where I went wrong.
March 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Kayla V, Thanks for the link. Actually that article offers a lot of support for my arguments as well. As stated at the start of that article “Establishing direction of causality is difficult…”. It is hard to prove that marijuana causes schizophrenia. That is the core of my argument. When making an extraordinary claim such as pot causes schizophrenia it is necessary to find that proof.
I think I made it pretty clear that just because A happens before B does not mean that A caused B. Correlation does not equal cause. A properly conducted scientific experiment will try to prove a hypothesis wrong. Only when all attempts to disprove a hypothesis have failed it is accepted as true. That’s science.
So far there is no actual proof to this myth. The best that any study has done to date is shown that marijuana could be a component cause to those who are already predisposed to schizophrenia. Which is another way of saying they were already on their way to becoming schizophrenic in the first place. That is a far cry from saying that marijuana causes the disease. Nearly half the population of North America has tried pot at least once in their lives if the myth is true there would be a lot more cases of schizophrenia.
Too stoned? Seriously this is a marijuana blog that kind of condescending remark is really not funny. I’m sure that schizophrenia is not fun but it has nothing to do with pot.
March 24, 2012 at 1:52 am
My apologies..I feel strongly about this subject because my big brother suffers from schizophrenia. Carry on with your marijuana. Take care.
June 3, 2012 at 2:50 pm
from the opinion of someone who has gotten schizophrenia from the use of marijuana.
i strongly doubt the validity of the new studies that show pot doesnt increase the risk of schizophrenia, well ill tell you from personal experience i experimented with pot after i graduated high school and i was smoking for like 4 years, during that time i had a hand full of experiences while under the influence of pot that i still to some degree consider them spiritual experiences, for one thing it really improved my rhythm and meditation while playing musical instruments, there were sometimes where i was playing far above my normal abilities, so much so that i felt that i was no longer the one playing the instrument, i felt as if i was in a dream observing myself from the outside of myself play the instrument, my hands had a mind of there own. there was one peticular time where i was playing to a song on my ipod and this happened and the song seemed to be no longer the same song, the music was different and the song seemed to last much longer, well after the song was over a man with a british accent started talking to me as if my speakers was a phone, she said a few words about what i had experienced. the few experiences that i had like this had changed me into a different person, my perception of reality was not open to all sorts of possibilities. this was all great at first, now that i felt like anything was possible i slowly started to become delusional, i was also quite lonely at the time so i would imagine that same voice talking to me at times. my paranoia level was sometimes high because i felt like people were talking about me. eventually i started hallucinating the fantastic beliefs that i has believed in. it got to the point where i was walking home from school one night and i was feeling confused and lost and alone and as i passed this house i heard people in side talking, and they were talking to me saying come inside we will take care of you, at that point i was freaked out, and loosing my mind. stuff like this started happening more and more, but at some point it stopped and i was normal for quite some time. untill i smoked pot again. then the voices came back and were saying things about me that would lower anybodies self esteem. still nobody should have to experience that. ive had schizophrenia for 5 years now, it can really screw with your mind, and ive taken about 6 different meds non seem to do the trick, i did research and found orthomolecular medicine which has helped the most. ive learned how to meditate and that probably helps the most as the voices tend to happen the most during stressfull times. also i see a hypnotherapist, which are know to help a lot just like meditation. and also my Psychologist helps me sort out personal issues which help also. so my point is to be critical about you read and to not let your own personal desires come in the way of making an educated conclusion. if you still want to smoke pot because you like the euphoric feeling, there are other ways to acheave that feeling that will have lasting effects on your whole being. some of the things are
1 research into nutrition, i would especially recommend reading “The Primal Blueprint” also check out how many positive things you can get from a primarily raw diet. http://www.iowasource.com/food/lenkastudy_0806.html
some people like to smoke pot because they feel it help them to be more intellectual (i know this from first hand experience) but that only lasts for so long with pot and plus there is the possibility that you will feel stupid at the same time. with the raw diet 81% felt they had developed emotionally “quite a bit” or “tremendously”, that is just one positive thing out of 100s that you can get from adopting this diet.
2. quite the mind through meditation, when you get the hang of it, although it might take some time, you will start to feel more peaceful with everything also when you master the art of meditation through lost of practice you will start to unlock parts of your mind that are inactive, many religions talk of this, out of body experience is very common, (this is also termed as astral projection) the thing you experience through meditation are on a completely different level than drug use.
well i hope this info gets you in the right direction.
June 3, 2012 at 2:56 pm
i made a mistake for my first recommendation, it should be related to intellectual not emotional being,
8% of respondents felt they had developed intellectually “quite a bit” or “tremendously” since transitioning to live foods.
June 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Thanks for the input Marc. Raw diet? That is some interesting stuff. Thanks for the helpful advice on dealing with schizophrenia, I hope it finds its way to someone who benefit from it.
Regarding pot induced schizophrenia. Remember that a correlation is not a cause. I think I made that pretty clear in the article. Science does not support that marijuana causes schizophrenia. The strongest evidence comes from the fact that the prevalence of schizophrenia in the global population has remained at a constantly low percentage while marijuana use has grown enormously. If marijuana was a cause you would expect more people to be diagnosed with schizophrenia to follow the growth in marijuana use. There is more to the story but no need to reiterate the whole article here.
November 10, 2012 at 10:50 am
Why would we humans trust you over the media AKA scientists that examine this? Face it, your crap is awful life-ruining oh God. I pray to God for you!
November 10, 2012 at 8:33 pm
My intention was to tell my story for the benefit of others, after all i have first hand experience with marajuana triggering schizophrenia, it. Also i am writing this from a point in my life where i have a much higher level of emotional/psychological awareness, that has been noted by my long trrm psychologist/best friend. And putting together all the pieces of my puzzle it is fairly clear that my shut off personality, that resulted from hardships/trama, created a psychological necessity for me to manifest a sense of fufillment through mentally projected personalities onto normal everyday people. Ive been baking leaps and bounds to heal my wounds and move on, this methos is the only way i feel like im making significant movement towards healing; btw the hallucinations/expanded consciousness was what alterd my state of mental “normality” and triggered the manufestation of deep personal desires to feel a connection with god. Ohh boy i got that, it also drove me mad that wasnt all bad quite the contrary it was the best sense of social connectedness that i ever had, And ill leave it on a final strong note.
It turns out that majority of the different meds i was testing for my own actually had many clinics trials with negative results that went unpublished in the medical journals for a very valid reason but it also leades to bias results, interesting to learn the perspectives.
Here is one of the reputiable speaches on the topic.
Btw, dr Related deaths are ranked 6th on the top causes of death in usa. Check out y hr numbers if you can.
November 14, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Thanks, good input.
January 3, 2014 at 7:18 am
I think EVERYONE needs to read this, pot has many benefits other than just getting high