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Re: Marijuana, the Anti-Drug

Posted by linkadge on December 29, 2006, at 9:35:31

In reply to Re: Marijuana, the Anti-Drug » linkadge, posted by Quintal on December 28, 2006, at 21:35:24

>Schizophrenia is more than a temporary alteration of biochemical functioning.

>How do you know?

Well a temporary alteration in brain functioning is by definition a state which is only temporary. Schizophrenia is not a temporary disorder. Cocaine can make people high like a manic episode, but this is not bipolar disorder.


>There are real structural differences between >the brains of healthy people. Few cases of >schizophrenia have ever been conclusively linked >to pathological brain structure.

I guess it is hard to link a substance to a disease, when the underlying cause of the disease is not understood. I'm not saying its impossable for marajuanna to cause schizophrenia, I am just saying that it is possalbe that false associations could be made. If marajuanna were shrinking the hippocampus, for instance, I would say that could be a risk factor for mood disorders. I just think there needs to be a little more proof than: "here's a bunch of people with schizophrenia, and see...they smoke pot"

>How can you tell the difference? I was using the >word stoned as a general adjective for marijuana >intoxication.

Well, a number of people believe it is possable. Just as it is possable to use stimulants theraputically for ADHD without getting high.

I took two puffs one night, and found that it helped me sleep. This was much less than I needed to get high. It didn't make me high, it just helped me sleep, killed GI problems etc.

>I have had residual effects from prescription drugs. For instance, lithium + SSRI's was very trippy. I thought the railway crossing barriers were swords of giant soldiers.

>That sounds like a 'seeing as' hallucination, or >delusion? I was alarmed to read in my dothiepin >patient information leaflet of the risk that it >could "precipitate schizophrenia". Many OTC >cough and cold remedies containing >diphenhydramine and dextromethorphan carry a >similar risk so this isn't just 'War on Drugs' >propaganda. Marijuana does trigger psychotic >episodes in some people - I think that's a >better way of describing what happens to those >unfortunate people rather than 'causing >schizophrenia'.

I think we are in agreement.

My older brother, for instance, is a walking timebomb. He shows all the symptoms of developing a mood disorder in the future. He is at high risk, both genetically, and environmentally. If he smoked marajuanna and became psychotic the untrained eye would blame it on the marajuanna, but our family knows that this would just be the straw that broke the cammmel's back, so to speak.


>Thats kinda why I encourage the medicinal use of it. At least people know then what they are getting

>I agree, but even then some people have had >psychotic reactions to nabilone and medical >grade marijuana. The only drug that I have ever >had full blown hallucinations with though is >Ambien - I saw little elves dancing around a >maypole on my quilt cover.

Wow, how about that.

I guess what I am really trying to say is that I don't think that the investigation of marajuanna as a medicine should cease based on such reactions.

Linkadge


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061224/msgs/717224.html