The Evidence - Science Doesn't Lie
Crazy but True: Pot Contributes to Mental Illness
Studies linking marijuana use to mental illness are becoming as common as Hollywood breakups these days. In the past year alone, a handful of new studies highlight why marijuana users should be worried about their mental health.
Award-winning researchers have established that smoking weed triples the risk of becoming schizophrenic. Scientists from Cardiff University studied the life patterns of 50,000 people in Sweden over a 27-year period. The study found that people who had used marijuana more than 50 times before the age of 18 were three times more likely to develop schizophrenia.
Just in case you needed a refresher course in Psych 101, people with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and withdrawn. Schizophrenics usually have psychotic episodes and experience hallucinations and delusions. In other words, you lose control. Not fun.
This confirms an earlier study from New Zealand which showed that marijuana doubles the risk of schizophrenia.
A Danish study in the British Journal of Psychiatry in December 2005 showed that almost half of the people in treatment for marijuana addiction and mental illness go on to develop schizophrenic disorders.
These patients developed mental illness problems earlier than a control group. In January, the British Medical Journal revealed that smoking cannabis once or twice a week almost doubled the risk of developing psychotic symptoms later in life. This confirms a German study which proved further the link between schizophrenia and cannabis.
It's not just schizophrenia that marijuana users have to worry about. Researchers have linked marijuana use with depression, and, predictably, daily users of marijuana have the most to worry about. The British Medical Journal says so. The American Journal of Psychiatry says so. The British Journal of Psychiatry says so. What else do you need? In case that wasn't enough, check out the links to your right.
