People who smoke high-intensity pot "dabs" every day more likely to develop psychosis

People who smoke high-intensity pot "dabs" every day more likely to develop psychosis

Individuals who smoke high-potency marijuana every day are more likely to develop psychosis, according to a new study.

The study published Tuesday in The Lancet Psychiatry medical journal found that daily marijuana users were more likely than those who don't smoke marijuana to develop psychosis. Those who use high-potency types of marijuana are almost five times more likely to develop psychosis, according to the study.

The study authors defined high-potency cannabis as marijuana with more than 10 percent THC, the chemical responsible for marijuana's psychoactive effects.

The researchers obtained data from surveys administered between 2010 and 2015 of 901 patients with first-episode psychosis. They also surveyed 1,237 people as a control group.

The study is the latest to show a link between marijuana and psychosis, though it did not definitively show causation.

“If you decide to use high-potency marijuana, you should bear in mind: Psychosis is a potential risk," Marta Di Forti of King’s College London and the lead author for the study told the Associated Press.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...e-high-intensity-pot-every-day-more-likely-to

Oh man, devastating! I had a recent room mate who was a young woman, and she smoked "dabs" every damn day. I knew there had to be health risks associated with that. Now, I see this news story today, with a convincing study showing some very scary possibilities.

Do you know what "psychosis" is?

"Psychosis is an abnormal condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not. Symptoms may include false beliefs (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear (hallucinations)."

Just horrible. The young people today who are into "dabbing" could be ruining their mental health later in life, to a devastating degree. Not worth it!

Arkadia7 said:

Do you know what "psychosis" is?

"Psychosis is an abnormal condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not. Symptoms may include false beliefs (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear (hallucinations)."

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Ain't that odd? By those same researchers I died 10 years ago from cancer caused by tobacco. I guess I'm halucinating I'm still alive.

Well joxer that sorta fits you. Sometimes you see MMO that isn't there.

A separate study showed that those same people are also 11 times more likely to get "the munchies".

It's already a well known fact that cannabis use can help bring out an already existing psychosis condition in some people. Most products have drawbacks for a minority percentage of users, violence with alcohol, (young) cancer for tobacco, heart conditions for Nicotine, restlessness with caffeine, etc etc etc. If this isn't a politics thread which isn't designed to make people eventually talk about 'the state of society' blah blah blah, then the logical assumption to solving this 'problem' is simply education and awareness of the problem to any potential users, so that they can seek the correct kind of help should any symptoms occur.

As lackblogger said, education and awareness is the key for these issues. Knowing your self limits and keeping balnace helps a lot too.

The study would be more interesting if it said what strains they smoked, otherwise it's like saying people who takes "migraine pills" have a higher tendency for this or that. It needs to be more specific.

My bet is that the ones who might eventually suffer psychosis are the ones smoking heavy Sativa leaning strains and that the Indica leaning smokers are in the safe zone. The effects are on the opposite sides of the spectrum (up vs down), psychedelic and creative for sativa vs relaxing or sleep inducing for indica. Though i bet a lot of stoners smokes both indicas and sativas and the most common strains are a mix of the two so.. but yeah, it would be interesting to see if e.g sativa-mostly smokers stood out.

Smacking yourself in the head with a hammer repeatedly is also bad for you. It should be simply common sense, breathing in smoke/vapors of any toxic variety simply cannot be good at all for your body, considering the almost immediate affect it has on blood circulation and other parts of the body. I smoked for three years as a teenage and boy am I glad I got over that nasty habit in my youth!!

A "psychosis" aka a "trip". I have partaken and heavy use might sometimes cause a trip. Depends on strain, concentration and tolerance levels. Personal experience varies.
Personally I don't enjoy being a zombie but I enjoy cannabis as a micro doser.

..with psychosis i guess they mean something long-lasting, something which is outside of the high. A trip is always something that is induced by the drug itself, a high, it also passes, while a psychosis is something else and can last for days or years and does not need a drug to be active.

Depending on their angle perhaps they call a normal trip / an intense high a "psychosis", it would be lie though because it's not what a psychosis really is.

It's possible to have an acute episode of psychosis without developing a chronic psychotic illness. Too much alcohol or even sleep deprivation can do the trick. I think they're talking about developing long-term conditions here.

Interestingly, most of the studies I have seen implicate the super-strength strains. I think part of the problem is that prohibition has led to aggressive breeding to produce the highest THC concentrations - to get the most bang for the buck. This resulted in the cannabis equivalent of high-proof moonshine. It is perhaps unsurprising that regular high doses of such things risks some serious problems. Drinking strong spirits or a pint of espresso every day wouldn't do you many favours, either.

Also, it would be useful to research further whether cannabis has an inherently deleterious effect on mental health, or whether the problem is specific to aggravating underlying conditions.

Ripper said:

Also, it would be useful to research further whether cannabis has an inherently deleterious effect on mental health, or whether the problem is specific to aggravating underlying conditions.

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I agreed with everything you said, but just picking at this last paragraph. Studies have been made into whether cannabis is inherently deleterious and have come up negative. The western world has been consuming cannabis in a very large volume for a very long time now and I think you'd notice by now if we'd all gone doolally (well, insert joke here, obviously). And it's actually the scientists who do such studies who are the greatest proponents of legalisation.

As you say, the area where even they have issues is in the extreme manipulation of breeds to be hyper-strong, to which the main culprit started when 'skunk' emerged. Skunk has about as much in common with regular MJ as, as you say, bizzare 95% moonshine does with a nice dinner wine.

Yes, I suspect that's right. And, due to the attitude taken towards cannabis in modern times, it's comparatively poorly researched, and we don't have much of a common-sense understanding of it within society. As you say, with alcohol, we would all understand the difference between a nice glass of merlot, and a bucket of absinthe. With cannabis, we just don't have that same grasp.

vurt said:

..with psychosis i guess they mean something long-lasting, something which is outside of the high. A trip is always something that is induced by the drug itself, a high, it also passes, while a psychosis is something else and can last for days or years and does not need a drug to be active.

Depending on their angle perhaps they call a normal trip / an intense high a "psychosis", it would be lie though because it's not what a psychosis really is.

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You are correct. Psychosis is difficulties telling between what is real and what is not. I can trip but I know it is not real at the same time.
I once thought a trip was akin to delusion but that does not seem to fit that definition either since it is considered a psychotic belief. Psychology can be confusing at times.
It's a new age and we need new words. Great comments everyone.