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Renovating Your Mind Bongs Up The Evidence Saying Marijuana And Mental Illness Maybe Connected

By rkutchjm on July 3, 2013 • ( 0 )

You can see how popular the cannabis movement is becoming throughout the United States. Articles are appearing throughout the nation showing that “pot” does have its problems. What substance, even food doesn’t have a problem in some individual or sub-group of the population? My teacher in toxicology told us “there is a level for every individual that any substance no matter what becomes toxic or dangerous” That just depends on the sensitivity of the individual and the toxicity of the substance. You can drink too much water, over-hydrate and die. Google it!

Please consider looking at a past article Renovating Your Mind published on marijuana:

Up In Smoke With Cannabis

There is a big comment explosion going on pertaining to an article written by a physician in “The Wall Street Journal.” The article is titled, “Pot-Smoking And the Schizophrenia Connection.” Even though this is an Opinion page, the “Journal” highlighted a sub-section of the writing with, “Medical research shows a clear link between marijuana use and mental illness.” The article was written by Dr. Samuel T. Wilkinson, a physician at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry.

In the conclusion of the article Dr. Wilkinson states, “individuals with schizophrenia are vulnerable” and we need “to consider all the facts, risks and potential benefits before we embark on this drastic social experiment.” Meaning the full legalization of marijuana throughout the country for medical and recreational use should be seriously considered. It has been seriously considered.

Every state that legalizes marijuana for recreational use has to keep it out of the hands of someone under the age of 21. In addition, anyone with mental disease including schizophrenia shouldn’t be utilizing medical cannabis unless it’s under the authorization of a health care professional.

Children smoking marijuana daily are associated with having a significant increased risk of schizophrenia. Whether that association is truly a causation or not, this mind/body altering medication should not be in the hands of anyone younger than 21. Just the same as alcohol should be not available to a minor.

The blog article from Neurobonkers has this to say about marijuana and schizophrenia:

Cannabis: What The BBC Forgot To Tell You

Dr. Wilkinson you say:

“it is becoming clearer that claims that marijuana is medically harmless is false”

Nothing is medically harmless, even food. If someone has a severe gluten intolerance, wheat is toxic. That goes on for many people with severe reactions to anything and everything.

“is a significant and consistent relationship between marijuana use and development of schizophrenia and related disorders”

Everything is toxic depending on the dose and the sensitivity of the specific individual. 80% of individuals with schizophrenia smoke cigarettes compared to about 20% of the regular population. So smoking is 400 times more prevalent among patients with the disease. Can we then connect schizophrenia with smoking cigarettes?

Legal age limit for recreational cannabis at 21. Have sign and verbal warnings for those with mental diseases at the place of purchase. In this way we let the purchaser decide to risk compromising his condition by cannabis.

“smoking causes lung cancer, yet over 80% of smokers do not develop lung cancer”

The physician’s point here is that even though only a smaller percentage may develop schizophrenia than who smoke cannabis, it’s still the “supposed” factor in those getting the disease. If we strictly enforce age limitations and warm buyers about possible mental disease implications then this is a moot point. Again, everyone has sensitivities to something that if severe enough may cause death. Peanuts can kill you if you are highly allergic. The country has not denied freedom of choice to its citizens on purchasing cigarettes. The U.S has rescinded the illegality of alcohol again giving its people the right to make a mature decision to enjoy alcohol. Why not cannabis?

Renovating Your Mind is for cannabis mainly because of its ability to treat illnesses that modern medicine can’t do safely nor correctly. It’s also much less addictive than our Class 2-5, narcotics and controlled substances for pain and severe headaches.

WA and CO are the first in the union to have the guts to push for recreational legalization. There is still no comment from the Federal Government. President Obama said, marijuana, should not be a “top priority” and “we’ve got bigger fish to fry” when he spoke on a talk show in Dec. ’12. Feds still classify marijuana as a Class 1 narcotic. Class 1 means that “pot” has no current medical use. Although the FDA has allowed THC to be used as a prescription drug under the name of Marinol™ for years.

The entire country is watching as we expand our legal freedom of choice beyond the realm of alcohol.

Would love your feedback on the issue of both medical and recreational cannabis use. Let the world see your feelings on this controversial topic.