The Facts Surrounding Cannabis Use and its False Representations

[Hannah591]

It seems whenever cannabis is mentioned online, an argument ensues. Cannabis users immediately defend the drug as being a harmless one, with no harmful effects, that it's not addictive and that it doesn't lead people to try harder drugs. Now that the UK is hoping to legalise cannabis in years to come, I think it is an important time to get my message across.

So, in this MyTake, I would like to share the facts about cannabis use, but not with the intention to denounce it. I am not against those who use cannabis and I am not saying that everyone should stop using it. By sharing the negative effects of cannabis use, this does not mean that I am denying that there is a positive effect of using cannabis – I know that it has been hugely beneficial to people with certain medical conditions and I think that’s great! I want to make it clear that my issue is with the spread of a false representation of cannabis, not cannabis use itself.

The immediate effects

Aside from the positive feelings cannabis can induce, some users can feel sick, become anxious and have hallucinations. There is also an increased risk of having a car accident with cannabis in your system.

Long term effects

Many studies have been conducted and have found an association between cannabis use and adverse health effects. These include dependency, cardiovascular disease, impaired respiratory function and an impact on mental health and psycho-social development. There is some evidence that regular cannabis users' brains have slight differences to those who don't use cannabis, suggesting that cannabis does have an impact on the brain and any alteration to the structure of the brain is going to induce some kind of effect, either good or bad. Additionally, cannabis use can impair basic and complex cognitive functions.

Cannabis and mental illness

There are risk factors involved in whether a person will develop a mental illness through cannabis use. Using cannabis at a young age, smoking stronger types of cannabis, smoking regularly and for a long period of time, as well as having mental illness run in your family, can all contribute to making it more likely for someone to develop a mental illness from cannabis use. One study showed that teenage girls who smoked cannabis everyday were associated with a five-fold increase of reporting anxiety and depression. It is now stated that there is consistent evidence that cannabis use can lead to mental illness later in life. People who have schizophrenia who take cannabis can exacerbate the illness and cause relapses. Cannabis use is consistently associated with anxiety and these effects last after stopping use. Participants in one study who didn't use cannabis were found to have less symptoms of alcohol and nicotine dependence and anxiety, compared to cannabis users.

There is a reason why the NHS has had to open a cannabis clinic to deal with cannabis induced psychosis and why psychologists are concerned about the psychological damage that daily cannabis use can cause.

The gateway effect

Unlike some of the public and most cannabis users, psychologists recognise cannabis as being a gateway drug and research is still being carried out on this. However, from a social viewpoint, there is evidence that suggests people who are surrounded by those who use illegal drugs are more likely to obtain said drugs and view drug use more positively. Also, using softer drugs like cannabis can lead some people to become naïve and fall into a false sense of security with a less powerful drug, so they may be more willing to try out harder drugs in future.

Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD)

Although this one is always up for debate, there is a medically recognised condition called Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) which recognises that some do become dependent (addicted) on cannabis. Just because you don't find cannabis addictive, it doesn't mean that someone else won't become addicted or that the drug doesn't have the ability to be addictive.

Social implications

Regular cannabis use has been attributed to reduced educational achievement and that daily cannabis users are said to be functioning at a reduced intellectual ability. One study found that there was a reduction in high school completion and an increase in the use of other drugs, cannabis dependency and suicide attempts compared to non-users.

Beware of false information online

This is the reason why I'm writing this. Too many times I see posts online giving out false information about cannabis to the masses (including the young and impressionable), in the hopes of pushing their own belief/agenda. By all means, support your own belief of being able to legally use cannabis, but don't share false information like the ones below and choose to be ignorant to the facts about the negative side of cannabis!

The image above gives the impression that the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved cannabis as being safe. Yet, WHO have shared the acute and chronic health effects of cannabis use, such as cognitive impairment and an increased risk of chronic bronchitis.

Aside from the above image ignoring all the acute and long-term effects of cannabis use, it fails to acknowledge fatal car accidents where the driver was under the influence of cannabis. There was an increase, from 4% in 1999 to 12% in 2010, of fatal car accidents related to cannabis use, where one in nine drivers who have died at the wheel had cannabis in their system.

Another obvious attempt at sharing false information about cannabis. Aside from the evidence already covered, the 'saves police & NHS billions' part isn't correct. For one, there is evidence that shows a causal link between cannabis use and an increase in violent behaviour. It found that "continued cannabis use is associated with 7-fold greater odds for subsequent commission of violent crimes. This level of risk is similar to the increased risk of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes over a similar duration (40 years)." In some countries, there has been an increase in crime rates which have been linked to cannabis use. In terms of the NHS, aside from the cost of providing cannabis on prescription, the NHS would have to deal with the long-term health effects of regular cannabis use and the development of addiction and mental health issues. As said previously, the NHS already has a cannabis clinic for those suffering with cannabis-induced mental illness.

To conclude and to reiterate, I am not saying that people should stop smoking cannabis. This is about regularly sharing the false idea, where young people can see, that cannabis is harmless and less damaging than alcohol or smoking because "no-one has died from cannabis use". There are many things that harm us but don't kill us, that doesn't mean cannabis is a perfectly harmless drug and to completely deny the facts is naive and ignorant. It's also important to be mindful of false information you see on the internet, not just about cannabis use.

Everyone is different, they respond differently to different drugs due to having different brains, genetics and life experiences. One person can use cannabis with little to no ill effects, whereas another person may have all the risk factors that lead them to develop a dependency or to exacerbate a mental illness. If you've had a good experience, it doesn't mean you can speak for every cannabis user and that cannabis use itself is harmless.

I have provided some facts and evidence; it is up to you to make your own mind up.

Thanks for reading. ☺

[Nikidoll17]

I am honestly so tired of everyone trying to defend it.. But then again every drug user would, as would someone who smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol. Many of my friends claim it makes them calmer but I'm against anything that you have to take to make you feel a certain way. If you need to get calmer or you want to relax, you're going to have to go through it like everybody else, deal with your shit and face it to reach the other side. They don't even think about it, like just think about it for a second. 'I am too depressed so I'll keep smoking marijuana and it works!' It sounds so sad that you need something like that to make you happy or less depressed. Why can't more or us just do things naturally, face our feelings instead of turning to smoking up or other substances for a temporary fix and in turn push them down even further triggering an unhealthy way of handling emotions and living.

[Hannah591]

I agree!

[Jager66]

I believed exactly like you do for most my life. Tried Cannabis for the first time last year at 38 years old and my entire viewpoint of the world has changed for the better. It has had a MASSIVE and 100% positive impact on my life.

Because of Cannabis use personal problems I have been working very very hard to fix for nearly 2 decades and getting almost no where are now well on their way to being healed. I have grown as a person more in the last year than I have in the last 10 years.

I cannot stress enough how wrong you are. Your path in life IS NOT everyone else's path, and if someone wants to make an informed decision to do any drug they should be allowed that choice.

[Nikidoll17]

@Jager66 I never said that it doesn't work or that it isn't your choice. I'm just saying that I really dislike when people only accept the positives of how a drug has healed them. I dislike that they deny that it has its negatives as well. I just think its right to do things naturally rather than rely on a drug to 'heal' you. It sounds quite insane when you really think about it that you need a drug to heal you mentally and emotionally. You can't grow without it like everyone else? I've noticed patterns with those that smoked, their thinking, their mindset, they called themselves enlightened in a way and all had these similar feelings of how things should be and that they were a step ahead of everyone else, almost close to being a part of the supreme Being or something. Apart from the health effects, if that doesn't sound spookey and scary as hell, I don't know what else will.

[Jager66]

yeah okay i get your point and I know how crazy this "It sounds quite insane when you really think about it that you need a drug to heal you mentally and emotionally." sounds.

But it's seriously not something you can understand without experiencing it yourself. The best way I can describe it is like being able to see my self and others from a new perspective that otherwise would have been impossible to see, both good and bad. So it's a lot like turning on a flashlight while in a dark room, the plant is the flashlight and everything else is still up to you.

And it gets even more crazy.. It's a theory that has stood the test of time and is now becoming a serious competitor in how humans developed sentience the way we did and as fast as we did. The theory is that humans were eating Psylocybin mushrooms as a staple of their diet for hundreds of thousands of years. And that is just the tip of the ice berg.

It's also thought that a part of human development into adulthood actually requires a few high dose DMT or Psylocybin trips. Meaning that nearly everyone on earth is essentially an adolescent in their psychological development. Even Carl Jung, one of the greatest scientists to every live he was a psycologist, based huge amounts of his work on the effects and things learned from shrooms.

You can even see it's impact in religion and art when you know what to look for.

The Great Awakening is happening :)

[joeblow123]

@Jager66

Carl Jung was a very religious man yet Jungians (those that believe in his theories) are secular humanists. Some are even atheists. How is that for irony?

[annon12341234]

My opinion on the gateway effect as someone who has at one point in time been addicted to every substance under the sun is as follows: while yes after smoking cannabis there is higher likelihood that you will try other substances it takes a specific kind of person to abuse them. Whether or not cannibis is involved for the most part is irrelevant; by that I mean that it's in your personality to want to experiment. If you are a curious person you will want to try substances other than cannabis no matter what. I have seen people go straight to narcotics smiling cannibis interily because of curiosity. You must keep in mind that corrilation does not alway mean causation, and that just because people who have smoked cannabis have moved on to "harder" substances does not mean that cannabis lays at fault.

[Hannah591]

I think their understanding is largely based on cannabis users being around others who smoke drugs, but also in regular contact with drug dealers who likely sell other drugs. I've never met or bought from a drug dealer in my life, unlike cannabis users. Their dealer may start to encourage them to try something else.

[Kurαȷ]

A guy I know almost killed himself on a trip by jumping off a cliff.
When they asked him why he did it, he said that everyone around him wanted him dead and that they were cheering for him to jump.
Then he spent 3 weeks locked up at the psych ward due to severe cannabis induced psychosis where he was fighting off nurses who wanted to "experiment on him".

Drugs aren't fun, kids.

[Hannah591]

Wow that's rough. It can definitely really mess up people's brains.

If it doesn't affect your brain though, it affects other aspects of life. I knew someone who chose cannabis over college. She eventually stopped going because all she thought about was getting high, so unsurprisingly, she failed college. It went from a little pastime to do with friends, to requiring it every day within a year and her life revolved around it.

I saw a couple years later, family were commenting on her social media (presumably unable to get in touch with her) saying they're worried about her and her drug use.
She's unemployed, failed college, has a druggy boyfriend so it's a perfect recipe for her to move onto harder drugs in future. It can definitely spiral out of control for some people.

[Psynax]

People will use drugs despite their having harmful effects.

People get behind the wheel even though they're not intoxicated and know that they can lose their life when they get on the street. It's a risk they are taking.

People use knives despite knowing that they may cut themselves, bleed heavily and possibly lose a finger. It's a risk you take.

People use chemicals for cleaning despite knowing that if it enters your system it can be lethal. It's a risk they take.

But we don't introduce fear to teach them about the consequences, we teach them the knowledge to make it as safe as possible with harm reduction.

Regarding the increase with car accidents and Cannabis, they've found an increased amount of people with THC in their body, but they've never been able to conclude if Cannabis were the cause of the accidents. There is not any tool currently to find if the person was intoxicated during the ride or 1-4 weeks prior.

Cannabis does not damage your brain. There is a possibility that during the period of consuming there may be some changes in the brain structures but once the person absent from it, it will return back to normal. It's just a temporary change and these abnormalities have been found out to not be any different than changes caffeine or sugar makes. Also, those research topic that claims you become dumber is based on IQ tests, which isn't reliable to calculate intelligence overall.

Cannabis has not been found to not be a specific type of drug and that's what makes it special. Cannabis ranges from everything between anti-depressant, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogen, and opiate.

When people talk about death, they don't talk about situations that can occur from the outside. If someone is in a car accident, it doesn't mean that Cannabis killed him. The car crash did. Therefore the number remains zero because Cannabis as a primary factor hasn't caused any deaths.

Regarding the crime. No, there hasn't been an increase amongst consumers, more than the increase in consumers which is technically a crime because it's illegal in pretty much half the world. the increased crime comes from the gangs or smugglers who are competing in the Marijuana black market. More people consuming equals more people wanting to sell, more people go into criminal activity, gangs being more violent for costumers and their regions, etc. As long the criminals have a monopoly in the market, they'll continue to rise.

I don't know how GAG tolerates a massive amount of links in the comment section, but if you're interested I can share as many as I can that I have on my Mac through PM, which is approximately 400-500 different research papers if not more. I lost count. When my PC is fixed I can get the other 500 ones.

P. S
I'm not blaming you or jumping on you and I'm speaking to everyone here, but you've missed a lot of details which is important to take note of. Not just reading the results, you need to know how the results came up. Reading 1 article or 1 research paper/meta-analysis isn't enough to claim as evidence. Every word is important and not just the conclusion.

[Lauren-green]

I would rather marijuana be available to people over alcohol and tobacco. And there are no recorded deaths of overdose by marijuana. When referring to those recorded from driving whilst under the influence, if marijuana was legalized this could be prevented or minimised through breath testing - like the laws revolving around drink driving. Marijuana is hardly a 'harmful' drug, in fact all of the positive sides to marijuana, THC and CBD derived from marijuana, greatly out weigh the minimal negative side effects.

In contrary to the other drugs you can get on the streets, e. g meth, coke, mdma etc, I believe we should be focused on getting these drugs off of our streets. They have all negative side effects, and no legitimate positive sides.

I also noticed you put "If you've had a good experience, it doesn't mean you can speak for every cannabis user and that cannabise use itself is harmless", but if like over 90% of cannabis users are trying to get marijuana legalised, doesn't that say something? Even many non-cannabis users are for legalization of marijuana. On top of that, if you haven't had any experience in marijuana yourself, how can you confidently tell us what is and isn't harmful? Marijuana helps a lot of people, psychologically and physically.

[Hannah591]

I never denied the potentially good effects of marijuana or tried to say it is all bad. I'm sure there is a lot of evidence to support what marijuana can do for people. I don't believe long term mental illness and long term physical effects are minimal side effects though, not to mention the noticeable brain changes, but I guess that's subjective. A lot of users don't know all the facts or simply choose to ignore them and push for cannabis legalisation, which is fine and I support it for medical use, but my point of this myTake is for people to stop going around assuming that it's a harmless plant (and constantly compare it to other drugs and alcohol when my whole focus is on cannabis alone) when there is obvious evidence that there are downsides to almost any drug. Legalising the drug may make way for better research to determine whether the benefits do actually outweigh the negatives and it may lead to producing safer forms of cannabis.

[Nana323]

Well I'm not a big fan of cannabis for example my best friend been a cannabis user since she was 18 and at the beginning she was fun and out going now she just wants to stay home and smoke. Also my younger sister started using it at age 20 because she had problems sleeping and her attitude was also moody but now she get irritated right away when she's not smoking and we hardly spoke to each other because she get mad really easy about minor things. I tried smoking it just to make me relax since im always stressed out but I don't like the way I feel the back of my throat and it makes me want to throw up so I rather eat candy infused with cannabis oil and that makes fall asleep I only used it once in a blue moon because I always believed that everything should be used in a certain amount and moderation because you can't always use same thing for too long otherwise it won't effect you as much anymore your body gets used to it and then it won't feel the same as you felt the first couple of times. So if there is way to advised teen-ager not to smoke at a young age that would help this generation succeed better in life because now everywhere I go I see young people getting high anywhere ( I live in s. c L. A ) and its everywhere here they have a pot shop every two blocks of each other and it's sad to see young teens getting high just cause. Do I believe some persons that are sick and suffered from chronic and other diseases everyday benefits themselves using medicinal marijuana and I understand the purpose of their used to eased their pain suffering but people that just wants to get high for no reason should just try to avoid it and enjoy life the normal way. That's just my opinion
Love , peace, and always help others

[markscott]

I don't believe for a moment that there are zero deaths due to marijuana. I know people who have had vehicle accidents due to the effects of smoking marijuana. And as a health professional, it
s ludicrous to think you can regularly inhale a substance like marijuana and for some to get lung diseases from it.

[Hannah591]

This is my problem with it. "It's a plant so it must be great", but other harmful drugs are derived from plants. The moment you smoke something though, there is going to be lung damage (so I'm all for CBD oil). People just seem to choose to ignore all other side effects or long term problems because "alcohol kills more people, no-one's overdosed". It's like a repeat of history when people thought smoking cigarettes was good for you and great, but years on, we're dealing with the effects and people smoking and drinking is at a huge low.

[markscott]

Hannah: I hadn't thought about it being a repeat of history, but you are right, it is.

[TacocaT6969]

I would rather live in a world of cannabis than alcohol.

Not a single death from cannabis, but thousands of annual deaths directly caused by alcohol.

Don’t get me started on to tobacco.

Shall we go into how cannabis prohibition is ineffective and does nothing but stimulate the black market, fill prisons with non-violent citizens and cost taxpayers money much like alcohol prohibition did?

If you don’t like something, don’t do that thing.

It’s not your business or anyone else’s what an adult decides to do with their body.

[TacocaT6969]

Also, check your sources. Articles from 10 years ago hold no value.

[Hannah591]

I'm for legalisation - I know it would be better in numerous ways for it to be legalised. As my last sentence says, it's up to the reader to make their own mind up. I said numerous times throughout the article that it's up to people what they want to do, but just to not ignore the evidence out there. I'm not telling people to stop smoking cannabis, especially as I'm for its legalisation.
My article was about cannabis alone and false information about it, not an article comparing it to alcohol or other drugs.

[TacocaT6969]

But much of the false information was the “truth” you gathered from those outdated propaganda articles.

I recommend looking for sources that wrote articles this year.

[BeautifulMind59]

Putting ANYTHING in your lungs but AIR is harmful in the long run. You don't need long term studies to know that.
Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's not harmful. Acetaminophen is available over-the-counter to everyone. But it does have adverse effects on your liver, or ibuprofen on your stomach.
Abusing anything is harmful. Again, too much of acetaminophen or advil can even kill you, but they are sold over-the-counter.
Anything that impairs your judgement and takes your control from you is harmful not only to yourself, but to the people around you who might be hurt by your actions.

A very sad and tragic event happened to a very young mother. She left her two kids in the car and did marijuana in her friends house. She fell asleep afterwards, a very natural and harmless thing to do. But her kids died in the car from the heat. The story is on yahoo news. She is in jail for life.

[Spiritwander]

Personally, I think that people are stupid (in general - not you lot who are actually using your brains, at least 😉), and stupid people (& some smart ones) would rather scapegoat:
A plant/drug
A politician
A religious figure
A mythos or meme
But the favorite by far is still the poor idiot standing there asking everyone why they're looking at him funny...

The truth of the matter is, NOBODY wants to admit *just HOW stupid* people have truly become, BECAUSE IT MAKES PEOPLE SAD.

THAT drives people to want drink, drugs, religion...
Shit, that drives pretty darn near everything.

[WhiteSteve]

I don’t really allow people who aren’t me to make rules for me, tell me what’s legal/illegal... but to play that game and wear those pants for the sake of this discussion: I have no problem with weed being illegal IFFFFFF alcohol and tobacco, two more harmful substances (if not MUCH MORE harmful) based on a pretty decent track record, are also illegal. You can’t tell people they can’t smoke a joint while you can walk to the corner store and buy a bottle of booze and a pack of cigarettes, which I’ve actually witnessed destroy families, lives, etc through accidents, disease, addiction, etc. Like that just makes absolutely NO sense, it’s completely ridiculous, arbitrary, and inconsistent, and makes me discredit any other word the so-called authorities have ever offered to me.

[Jayeldubya]

Cannabis is a food, just like spinach or kale. And like foods like spinach or kale, you don't get the benefits of it from smoking it. The combustion of anything you smoke is harmful to your cardiovascular system no matter what. If you don't believe me look at the inside of your pipe or your bong when you smoke it and tell me what you see. People just do anything to get high nowadays.

[GoodatBad]

I ask rhetorically whether the OP has any personal experience smoking cannabis to lend any weight to his or her opinions or is he or she simply regurgitating studies undertaken by other individuals who have no personal experience smoking cannabis?

I don't suggest that a lack of personal experience precludes one from having an opinion but I do feel it speaks to force with which one can assert said opinion, having no personal insight with which to assess the factual and statistical matrix which forms the basis of their opinion.

[GoodatBad]

As a regular cannabis smoker for some 20+ years I will endeavour to compose a series of posts with a view to addressing the OPs points as viewed through the prism of personal experience rather than distilled from a flawed factual matrix.

Of course, I have to balance this goal against my existing commitment to use my day off from my exective position at one of Australia's biggest companies to get baked and play Xbox so please consider this a work in progress.

[GoodatBad]

It must be noted here the rather delicious irony in seeking to take issue with the misrepresentation of facts surrounding cannabis by misrepresenting the facts surrounding cannabis.

Something often overlooked when discussing cannabis use, it's characteristics and it's effects is the wide variance in quality of end product and the numerous points in the chain of production at which quality can be affected.

I make this comment largely based on my personal experience: in countries where cannabis is classified as an illicit drug, the cannabis people are smoking is low grade and what I refer to colloquially as "ditchweed" or in layman's terms "fucking garbage".

This fact alone calls into question the validity of ANY and ALL studies purporting to offer any factual conclusions as to the effects of cannabis as the regulation of the cannabis industry in countries where it is legal has resulted in some of the highest quality cannabis ever produced and to suggest that one can expect the effects of medicinal quality cannabis to mirror the effects of ditchweed is simply preposterous and is akin to comparing balanced diet of organic foods to a diet consisting of nothing but Maccas.

[smølf]

Look as a medical doctor, I say the sides effects of Cannabis is fairly well documented. As a recreational drug, it's bad and dangerous. So it is as medicine, however, all medical drugs are bad and have side effects. Chemotherapy for instances will literately kill you if not done right, and to be effective should almost kill you. Yet we use it, why, because the benefit outweighs the disadvantages.

I am opposed the use of drugs for recreational purposes, I can't strongly enough discourage it. However, as a medical-grade drug, it certainly has its uses and we are only beginning to understand its many use cases.

[AlexanderBrunnrgaard]

Now this is refreshing. A rendition of cannabis and its truthful effects rather than an apologetic tangent against people who do not want it to swarm across society like candy. Thank you!

[Hannah591]

Thanks!

[itstheimpossiblekid]

Discussion material aside this is a perfect example for teaching people how the presentation of "stats" for readers to develop a discerning eye. Swiss cheese has less holes than these numbers and they way they are presented is flagrantly misrepresentative of what the studies find.

Weed does not need to be defended by me cause if I'm willing to shove worse drugs up my ass I honestly couldn't give a fuck whether weed anywhere from non harmful to slightly harmful to very harmful.

Weed doesn't need to be defended lol, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But itll be a cold day in hell when I chose to sit by and watch someone deliberately step all over the truth, accurate statistic explanations, and statistical ethics.

[itstheimpossiblekid]

*edit how the presentation of "stats" requires readers to have a more discerning eye.

[itstheimpossiblekid]

Jesus 2 edits. Maybe I do need to smoke less lolol. "I couldn't give a fuck whether weed IS anywhere from non harmful to slightly harmful to very harmful."

[ArrowheadSW]

I'm glad that you point out the negatives. I think there is too much talk out there making it sound harmless when in fact it needs to be used with caution.

[Hannah591]

Exactly!

[loveslongnails]

There are really NO long term studies of any value being done on marijuana use. There are hundreds of studies on the long term effects of alcohol, nicotine, alkaloids, opiates, etc. Facts about these drugs are much more reliable. For example, when it comes to cannibas, it's easy to access short term effects on memory. But long term is another story because, obviously, memory fades in the vast majority of people simply due to aging. Just use your heads, people... anytime you ingest, smoke or breath a chemical compound, it's going to have some sort of effect in the short term unless it's a benign substance, like air in its unpolluted state. I would willingly wager that using any the three major substances above, be it alcohol, tobacco OR cannibas, in true moderation, would not result in long term damage to the vast majority of individuals. But THAT study, will NEVER be done !!

[Shamalien]

Sorry but the vast majority of this info is next to useless. "It may do this, it may do that"

Like I can 100% assure you that alcohol does kill brain cells

As far as negative health ramifications of weed, I've looked far and wide, and everything has turned out to be a crock of shit, mostly because it's almost impossible to find someone who uses only weed, as these people have generally taken many other drugs and also smoke cigarettes. As far as drugs go (including prescription drugs) weed has BY FAR the best track record and is the safest. All drugs have negative ramifications of some sort, obviously, but weed is so harmless we can barely find them.

Not to mention all the confirmed fake studies that cut off oxygen to the brains of rats then claimed it was weed's fault

[Shamalien]

it should also be noted that in incidents where doctor's claim cannibis induced psychosis, the individual already had the disease, and the incident occurred when they lowered their intake or stopped abruptly. Stopping any drug abruptly is dangerous, weed is no exception.

[Dongtai]

Finally! Thank you for sharing this and thank you for having sources sited. We need more informative articles like this one.

[Hannah591]

Thank-you! :D

[AdrianK303]

Ty for this take, had a laugh on the add with "safer then peanuts", just like alcohol, not everyone can handle it, should people try it? Not really, for example i feel more relaxed and a lot safer with a guitar and some good backup music then when i smoked weed

[Truthatanycost]

Think about all of those teens that use cannabis, buy it, sell it etc. Now think about how much other crap it's been mixed with to bulk out the product, sell more and get more profit. The question is how much impact does all of this have on the negative effects.

[TacocaT6969]

... you can’t bulk up cannabis. The best people can do is lace it, but that costs extra.

I bet you’ve never even seen what the buds of the cannabis plant look like. There’s no faking or changing it. It’s a plant.

[Truthatanycost]

@TacocaT6969 I've seen the buds and the plants before. I don't know whether this is true but they said some were discovered with embedded glass beads.

''spraying plants with the reflective element from the paint used on road lines. The tiny reflective glass beads become imbedded in the leaves...''

www.theguardian.com/.../drugsandalcohol.drugs

[TacocaT6969]

About as common as razor blades in apples.

And even if it was common, guess why it’s possible? Because it’s a black market product instead of taxed and regulated.

This is like comparing bootleg bathtub moonshine to the liquor at the store, but not really because the worst I’ve seen in 11 years of cannabis use was a guy put cocaine on his weed and charge triple.

[Edanurus]

The issue here is that its hard to find correct information when something is illegal. It could be assumed that the majority dont have problems but keep it to themselves.

But saying that it's not a harmless miracle drug, what you are seeing is a backlash the other way to the 'reefer madness' times.

For me part of legalisation is also a clearer view of the risks. I don't think that will happen untill its legal.

[Hannah591]

Yes, legalising it will bring some better control and producing cannabis that is safer to use compared to the illegal stuff floating around. I think it should be legalised for medical use, under supervision by a doctor who can make sure there are no ill effects that outweigh the benefits.