More and more people’s lives are ruined by marijuana, and the evidence is mounting.
An alarming new study was just published by scientists at the US National Institutes of Health and the Danish Capital Region’s National Institute on Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services. One of the most startling results of this study is the suggestion that cannabis use disorder could be avoided in as many as 30 percent of instances of schizophrenia in men aged 21 to 30.
The mainstream culture is increasingly portraying the drug as harmless. The reports are in, and it’s daunting.
Heavy marijuana use can induce symptoms of schizophrenia even if they would not usually appear.
Drug misuse and mental illness are inextricably linked, as noted by the study’s director and co-author, Nora Volkow, of the National Institute on Drug Misuse.
The current research supports previous findings about marijuana use with schizophrenia but also provides evidence that the disorder becomes more severe, especially in young men. The problem has become more widespread since today’s cannabis is far more potent than the typical street marijuana of the 1950s.
The study’s lead author, Carsten Hjorthj, noted that thanks to widespread decriminalization and legalization in recent decades, cannabis has become one of the most widely used psychoactive substances worldwide. This study adds to the growing body of information showing that cannabis use is not risk-free.
The risk of schizophrenia is merely one of many.
Cannabis usage is associated with an increased risk of suicide ideation in young people. As the use of automobiles has grown, so has the number of deadly accidents, which have doubled between 2000 and 2018. Young toddlers are increasingly becoming victims of marijuana poisoning. Crime, significantly committed by armed crime syndicates, has increased rather than decreased in states where it is allowed.
Cannabis is far too destructive to be so cavalierly legalized.
