Can Cannabis Cause Schizophrenia?

Fascinating article and I'm glad you wrote this summary as I didn't here the radio programme

I got a lot of nasty comments from pro-cannabis people on my article in Huffington Post, but a Harley St therapist contacted me and said "I agree with you". I checked out her recent article on cannabis and mental illness and found this excellent reference: : http://www.myspace.com/sarahgraham69/blog/502794499

Here is a relevant extract:

"Of all the mind-altering drugs that people use cannabis is the one that causes the most controversy and about which there is enormous cultural denial.

My appearances on TV talking about cannabis (see www.youtube.com/sarahgdirects) often bring me considerable hate mail from people who think that cannabis is "just a bit of spliff".

Hi Rupert and Victoria,

I just wanted to drop a quick note to explain why I wrote a reply on the HuffPo to Mr Wolfe-Murray:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jason-reed/cannabis-does-not-drive-you-c...

I've tried to cover a lot of areas in this, but inevitably some aspects had to take an edit. As said, I wrote in good faith and tried to keep it out of the realms of personal rebuttal. I hope that comes across.

I would like to address, what you say: "I got a lot of nasty comments from pro-cannabis people..." -- you do tend to find that addressing cannabis will get a response as it is an area that a person's liberty is at stake.

I think one of the reasons that the piece received a fair bit of negative feedback is owing to the lack of science in the piece in favour of opinion. It's also a full misconception that those that comment are 'pro cannabis' simply by default. To re-state, there are many many scientist & academics that take exception to bad science and will really take us to task if we get it wrong. I tend to speak direct to the primary sourcers.

As most scientist will tell you, some of the science around drugs is some of the worst around, especially tabloid science which is laughable on many levels. It's quite actionable. I will only cite from peer reviewed or eminent figures, and will avoid my personal voice when addressing drug sciences -- or any science. You have to remember that drug policy, and the related subject, is trying to find a solid footing based on science and evidence, and I'm sure we can all agree this is preferable.

The Sir Robin Murray programme is certainly interesting, and as you can see, he freely admits himself that the caveats involved in the cannabis psychosis link are quite vast and significant -- not to mention he conveys that the risks are still significantly small, but of course worth the investigations. It's also hugely relevant that migrants are 6 times more likely to suffer than indigenous folk, and city living is a major contributing factor. It's quite apparent that this discussion is a vast tapestry, and addressing the whole subject is preferable.

Thank you for allowing me to address you and with my sincere best,

Jason.

To echo Jason, the reason your piece was demolished is because it is a house of cards built on sand.

The "drug support industry" is one of the most wicked and corrupting influences in modern society. Entirely for its own benefit it invents quasi-medical conditions and conspires with the police, the CPS and the courts to drum up business for itself.

The best evidence about cannabis and mental health is:

1. Hickman et al, 2009. A review of all published research so, by definition­, not cherry picked. It shows that the risk of lifetime cannabis use correlatin­g with a single diagnosis of psychosis is at worst 0.013% and probably less than 0.003%.

2. Hospital Episode Statistics. Count of finished admission episodes (FAE) with a primary diagnosis of mental and behavioural disorders due to use of cannabinoids (ICD10 code F12) and alcohol (ICD10 code F10)

Cannabinoids (F12)

2009-10 713
2010-11 799

Alcohol (F10)

2009-10 47,402
2010-11 47,287

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

There are three million regular users of cannabis (Atha et al 2011) and 31 million regular users of alcohol (NHS Information Centre 2009). Therefore alcohol use is six times more likely to result in admission for mental and behavioural disorders.

3. Frisher et al 2009. The ACMD commissioned a study by Keele University into the trends in schizophrenia specifically to test the claims in the media of a link between it and cannabis. It looked at almost 600,000 patients and concluded that "..the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining" despite alleged increased use of allegedly more potent cannabis.

How come with every study that proves no link between cannabis and psychosis there are figures and factual evidence to support it, but with the converse, all that is given is "based on scientific research". Where are the figures? Where is the evidence?

Five joints per day is a large amount to consume. To say smoking that many would give you issues is to firstly not understand how much that actually is, and to secondly fail to equate this with an amount of something you would entertain, such as alcohol or sugar.

If you were to drink 5 litre of vodka per day, you'd probably die early and painfully. And if you were to consume 10kg of sugar per day an even worse fate would greet you. There certainly wouldn't be merely an as-yet-unfounded suggestion of 'increased likelihood' of something happening.

So without even debating the dangers of a non-toxic plant, or the ethos of living in a free society, we can see that this article doesn't cover balancing out dangers with hard facts and comparisons. There are no peer-reviewed studies which support this level of scaremongering. Cannabis is a relatively safe plant, and we should focus on controlling the quality and education around its use. We know very obvious groups who shouldn't take it, and that's the sort of safeguarding that's needed here - not prison sentences and criminal records.

What seems to be happening here, in my own personal opinion, is those unwilling to accept that their biased opinions which have served them well in the past are now being quite rightly brought under scrutiny, and inevitably the outcome of which will be a change in the way we handle drugs for the better.

That is unless the government wish to continue burying their cowardly heads in the sand allowing criminals to prosper and deluded, paranoid, sensationalism spreading articles such as this research lacking drivel to be passed as fact.

I don't think it mere coincidence that those who make a career from so called cannabis psychosis and its prohibition are those who are firmly against changing laws and attitudes towards drugs. Why should they want to protect peoples welfare when there is large amounts of money to be made.

And to responded to the allegation that myself and those who also oppose these ridiculous pieces are part of a cult I would actually agree. We are the cult who use our own eyes to gather information and fact based evidence from scientific studies and bodies made up of well respected and learned individuals who question the current status quo. We are part of a new generation who have access to vast amounts of information and are able to form our own opinions rather than have them forced down our throats by self serving journalists trying to pave a career by stirring the s**t to send the masses into a frenzy of paranoia, provoking them to eat up more of the same filth on a daily basis in the hope you might actually feed them some answers. If there is one thing that society at large has realised in recent times is that the media is not interested in the truth, they are interested in selling papers.

How about you do the honourable thing for once and actually back the idea that prohibition has failed miserably and that change is inevitable. Whilst you resist you hold back progress and help harm society. Very shameful of you indeed.

I've been using cannabis for years and so have most of my friends, none of us have schizophrenia; strange that innit!

My doctor has prescribed me cannabis a couple of years ago. At first i was surprised because how can smoking help asthma. But the results where astonishing.
I am now a frequent user and even growing my own medicinal white widow.
I think cannabis has been helping a lot of people over the last hundreds of years.
People who have a predisposition for psychosis should maybe not smoke cannabis... but probably not drink also.