Before I get into this, I just love this quote from the article:
"Consumption has decreased in the last year because of all the fuss about it. We need a campaign like the anti-smoking campaigns in the US. *This is one of the rare occasions when we should follow the Americans*."
ha! Anyway.....
This article from the Independent UK shows that some folks still are out to destroy the "weed". Can't we all make it alot easier on everyone and just remake Refer Madness every few years and allow a bunch of overweight suburban moms to scream and yell into the camera instead of trying to use psychiatrists to warn us? Sigh. Oh, just so ya know, I have smoked "the pot" twice since 1994. I am a Pabst and Johnny Walker Black man myself. I also liked 'Shrooms and Acid more than weed back in the day. So, I am not a pothead or anything close to it. Just a disclosure.
But two years after the Government listened to these voices and the law was relaxed, its safety is under question as never before. A report to be published within the next few weeks is expected to confirm what some psychiatrists have been warning for years. That cannabis, reputedly taken by Queen Victoria to banish her period pains, may be driving its users - many of them children - insane.
I'm sorry but, WHAT?! You would think this was straight outta the nonsense and misinformation from the 1930's in this country. *"It will drive your little itty bitty baby INSAAAAANE!!"* What nonsense! Did DuPont pay these people to say this?
A psychotic episode can involve hallucinations, fantasies and a loss of touch with reality which may last days, weeks or months and can be very frightening. Although it is possible to have a single episode without recurrence, the risk of attacks is increased after the first.
Again, What?! I do recall having fun and laughing and eating more than I should but.....I never hallucinated or had fantasies at all. And certainly not for "days, weeks or months". That is silly.
Robin Murray, professor of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, has sounded the loudest warnings about cannabis, but even he says: "It is obviously ridiculous to say everyone who smokes cannabis is going to become psychotic. Even in our studies of adolescents, *90 per cent of those who smoked cannabis did not go on to develop psychosis*."
Is he saying that 10% did?! I call Bullshit on that. And what were the ages of the "adolescents"?!
A study by the Institute of Psychiatry published in the journal Biological Psychiatry last May suggested that people with a variant of the gene COMT, carried by 25 per cent of the population, had a five times higher risk of psychosis if they smoked cannabis.
"The gene is involved in the breakdown of dopamine in the brain and anything that impedes this we know increases the risk of psychosis," explains Professor Murray. "We are saying a quarter of the population are vulnerable. It is the same as for heart disease. We know some people can smoke cigarettes and eat a high-fat diet without suffering a heart attack, but if you have a family history or genetic predisposition then the risks are increased."
Well, I think he answers his own B.S. in the last paragraph. Should we make Oreos illegal because some people get fat and ruin there health beacause of them? I would also think that at least 50% of the population are in more danger beacuase of the crap they eat. If his "study" is correct, well, 10% are in harms way beacause of THC.
The article is long but good. It includes a really over-the-top testimonial at the end by some guy blaming pot for his mental state. Whatever. Didn't La Guardia already make scientists take a reasoned look at this waaay back in the day?
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.