Posted by comftnumb on December 25, 2002, at 23:43:22
In reply to Re: What's so bad about Marijuana?, posted by Ed O`Flaherty on December 25, 2002, at 13:59:36
I started smoking pot in October 2001, and more heavily in November. My brother found me at school in a stupor, and he took me home to settle down. I ended up staying psychotic with plenty of delusions. I thought Larry King was talking to me on the tv, and that I could change red lights to green with my mind. Cutting out the weed didn't stop my psychosis, which lasted 6 weeks. I had to withdraw from school, I was hospitalized twice, and i was finally given the diagnosis of residual schizophrenia 6months later.
I'm not in any way saying marijuana caused my paranoid schizophrenia. But I'm almost 100% sure it triggered it. That means if it wasn't for pot I probably wouldn't have had my first psychotic episode for 2 to 5 years, maybe more. Going on antipsychotics, though, helped with a lot of issues besides just pure psychosis, so in a way I thank the marijuana for showing me I needed this treatment sooner. Currently if I smoke even the smallest amount of weed I get extremely psychotic and paranoid for the duration of the high, so I stay away from it.
For people who've been using pot a long time, I don't have a problem with your use. In fact, I think if it works for you you should keep on using it. It worked wonders for my social anxiety until I got sick.
But for young smokers, a word of caution. Know that marijuana has been shown to increase your chance of getting schizophrenia by sixfold. That means you have a 6% chance of getting schizo compared to a 1% chance normally. Is that worth it? I don't know: although both percentages are small, 6% is a significant risk.
Personally, I don't think marijuana is safe enough to be legal. I think decriminizaling a fairly small possession is a good thing. But let me not continue or Dr. Bob will redirect me!
poster:comftnumb
thread:133136
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021223/msgs/133200.html