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Phil Stovell <phil@stovell.org.uk> wrote in message news:pan.2005.11.20.18.30.24.706529@stovell.org.uk...
> '"It's much safer to take heroin -- you can live to be 90 with heroin," Dr
> Campbell said.'
>
> Sums this reefer madness article up.
>
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.a...5E23289,00.html
>
> Cannabis is worst drug for psychosis
> Simon Kearney
> 21nov05
>
> FOUR out of five people with incurable schizophrenia smoked cannabis
> regularly between the ages of 12 and 21.
>
> Andrew Campbell, of the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal, warned that a
> hidden epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis could make the so-called
> soft drug more dangerous than heroin.
>
> "It's much safer to take heroin -- you can live to be 90 with heroin," Dr
> Campbell said.
<snip>
Extract from http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannab...s_health3.shtml
"Does Cannabis Cause Psychosis?
There are several distinct types of "causes": necessary, sufficient,
and component. A necessary cause is one that must be present
before the result can occur. A sufficient cause is one that is,
by itself, enough to cause the result. A component cause is
one that is part of a "constellation" of causes that work together
to bring about a result.
All of the recent research into this issue has found that cannabis
is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause schizophrenia
by itself. Rather, it is most likely a component factor when
combined with a variety of other potential issues such as
genetic pre-disposition or difficult childhood. Cannabis use,
along with its attendant lifestyle and subculture, probably
worsens symptoms in some of those vulnerable to psychotic
disorders. The same is commonly said of the psychedelics
such as LSD or psilocybin. As we don't know what causes
schizophrenia, determining how important a factor
cannabis use is cannot be determined."
>
> A five-year review of the histories of mentally ill patients in NSW who
> had been committed to an institution or needed compulsory treatment found
> four out of five had smoked marijuana regularly in adolescence.
>
> "That's 75 to 80 per cent of the people who are getting long-term
> psychotic disorders who are not getting better," Dr Campbell said. "That's
> four out of five who were healthy, they could smoke, they were not
> sensitive to the stuff, then they hit the wall.
>
> "It can take up to five or six years. It's an epidemic, and in some ways
> we're blind to it."
>
> Dr Campbell has kept records of his work reviewing the histories of these
> incurable patients and believes the results show the need for a national
> campaign about the health problems and dangers associated with the teenage
> use of marijuana.
>
> "If you can just keep the kids off cannabis until they're 21 and they've
> got the keys to the door," he said.
>
> "There seems to be a vulnerable period at critical adolescence. Give it to
> an adult -- people still get stoned, but you get over it."
>
> Monash university psychiatry professor Paul Mullen told The Australian
> there were several overseas studies that backed Dr Campbell's findings.
>
> In particular, a Swedish study had shown young men joining the army were
> more likely to suffer from schizophrenia in later life if they had smoked
> cannabis regularly in adolescence.
>
> Professor Mullen said scientists knew the early stages of schizophrenia
> caused people to be more likely to take drugs at a young age, but
> researchers had so far not been able to prove the drug abuse was causing
> the earlier onset of schizophrenia.
>
> "Most of us believe it may be bringing on schizophrenia earlier than it
> would have otherwise occurred," he said.
>
> "In some unfortunate people who are heavy users, they would have gone
> through life with the vulnerability but it would never have been exposed."
>
> Journalist and author Anne Deveson knows all too well the devastating
> impact schizophrenia can have.
>
> Her son Jonathan committed suicide after suffering from the disorder, and
> she turned the story into the bestselling book Resilience.
>
> "The sign was Jonathan ... started smoking quite early," she said. "A lot
> of young people who are vulnerable, who have a psychotic illness and are
> unable to cope with stress, they will use marijuana as a form of relief."
>
> Professor Mullen said there should be clear health warnings that while
> occasionally using cannabis was not going to be a factor in schizophrenia,
> heavy use could be.
>
> "The people who are out there, who at 13 are smoking several bongs a day,
> are in deep trouble," he said.
>
> Dr Campbell said his work showed that many people using cannabis
> experienced years of normality before succumbing to the psychosis
> associated with schizophrenia. In men, it mostly happened in their late
> 20s, while in women it could be as late as their 40s.
>
> "The psych wards are full of these people," he said.
>
> "There's a very clear division -- there's the cannabis group and the
> non-cannabis group."
>
> Dr Campbell said one study in Britain and The Netherlands had shown a base
> rate of schizophrenia in Wales of 11 per 100,000 people, compared with a
> rate in London and Amsterdam of 60 to 70 people per 100,000.
>
> He puts this outcome down to the higher cannabis use in those cities by
> young people between the ages of 12 and 21.
>
> --
> Phil Stovell, South Hampshire, UK
>
> Save Gales Brewery
> http://www.savegales.org.uk/
>
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