Pubdate: Mon, 28 Aug 2006
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Joanne Laucius, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

SMOKING POT CAN TRIGGER MENTAL ILLNESS, STUDY SHOWS

A pair of articles in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has 
resurrected the "reefer madness" argument about marijuana and its 
links to mental illness.

Cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in people already vulnerable 
to the mental illness -- and this fact should shape marijuana policy, 
argue two psychiatric epidemiologists in this month's journal.

The link between marijuana use and schizophrenia is generally 
accepted in the psychiatric community. The problem is that the 
vulnerable population -- mostly teenagers -- generally isn't eager to 
absorb the message.

Australian epidemiologists Louisa Degenhardt and Wayne Hall reviewed 
eight international studies of teens and young adults that examined 
the link between marijuana use and schizophrenia. They concluded that 
using marijuana can precipitate schizophrenia in users who have a 
personal or family history of schizophrenia.

One 15-year study of 50,000 young people in Sweden, for example, 
found those who had tried marijuana by the time they were 18 were 2.4 
times more likely to receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The 
Swedish researchers concluded that 13 per cent of schizophrenia cases 
could be averted if all cannabis use was prevented.

Another study of almost 5,000 subjects in the Netherlands replicated 
the findings, and also found that marijuana users were more likely to 
be diagnosed with schizophrenia during the study's three-year 
follow-up period. Other studies suggested subjects who used marijuana 
in their early teens were more likely to be diagnosed with 
schizophrenia by their mid-20s.
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