|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Canada: Pot can make you psychotic?
Sam Cooper Vancouver 24 hrs
Friday 24 Feb 2006 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.
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!