A Common-Sense Refutation of the Supposed Link between Cannabis and Psychosis

Written on Dec. 28, 2008, by Amethyst

"Smoking cannabis virtually doubles the risk of developing mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia, researchers say."
--BBC Reporting, Mar 19 2005

"...daily users of cannabis had rates of psychotic symptoms that were between 1.6 and 1.8 times
higher than non-users of cannabis... The present study suggests that [...] the association between
cannabis use and psychotic symptoms is unlikely to be due to confounding factors..."
-- Fergusson 2005 - New Zealand Survey

Too often, anti-marijuana propaganda is high on statistics and short on common sense. In the
case of the cannabis-psychosis linkage, to draw such a sweeping conclusion based upon
insufficient data is worse than mere negligence. It is malicious. Already the British government
has cited this research as the ethical basis for increasing the legal penalties for cannabis users.

Imprisoning suppliers and users will increase human suffering. Legal sanctions cause evil that is
often overlooked and hidden from the view of the comfortable middle-class professionals who
tend to frown on drug use. I suggest visiting the prisons in the United States and speaking with
the hundreds of thousands of inmates charged with victimless drug crimes. These are the real
issues that social scientists should be studying, but some sacrifice their integrity for the sake of
grant money from corporations and the government.

Let us pretend for a moment that millions of people all over the world are not being sent to
prison or executed based upon a victimless drug crime such as marijuana possession. Then we
can sort through the merit of this hypothetical linkage between marijuana and mental illness. My
first question concerns the study’s test group. People predisposed toward mental illness use
intoxicants at a far higher rate. I would expect anyone that gets intoxicated on a daily basis to be
self-medicating in response to pain and suffering, either physical or psychological. Self-
medicating is rational behavior, and cannabis is a better choice than alcohol because it is less
toxic. However, don’t blame the band-aid for the cut. The test group is mentally ill to begin with.
Therefore, causation is unproven.

A link can be easily established between schizophrenia and oxygen. Those who use oxygen on a
daily basis are more likely to go on to develop psychosis in late life. Those who stop using
oxygen will not develop psychosis. Does this mean that oxygen causes schizophrenia? Incidental
links can be found between anything without regard to causation.

Choosing to focus upon cannabis begs the question, why? There are numerous substances
besides cannabis that are detrimental for individuals with a predisposition toward mental illness.
The list is probably endless. The real message is that people predisposed toward mental illness
should receive the medical care and attention that they need, rather than resorting to self-
medication.

If cannabis were removed somehow from the world--and laws have not done it, so I assume a
magical wand would be required—alcohol would take its place, either alcohol or pharmaceutical
drugs. If all intoxicants were removed from the world, people would resort to physical methods
of intoxication such as sex and other risk-taking behavior. From a historical viewpoint, the most
war-like nations of the world tend to be the ones where marijuana is not the predominant
intoxicant. Alcohol, instead, is the drug of choice for militaristic societies. Strict abstinence from
all intoxicants does not necessarily produce optimal results in society, and at any rate, there has
never been such a society in recorded history.

For my part, I have not noticed any psychotic users of cannabis. Not even one. I have noticed
psychotic users of alcohol, however. Anyone can find tragic stories of violent alcoholics by
browsing the police blotter of a city newspaper. Do a survey of those condemned to die. I will
wager that more murderers drank, rather than engaged in rare exclusive cannabis use. Cannabis
inspires passivity, if anything. What does alcohol inspire, other than aggression?

Hundreds of millions of people already know that cannabis does not cause mental illness. This
has been known for thousands of years. Unlike valium, marijuana has been tried and tested for
untold generations, going back before recorded history. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never
caused an overdose. Unlike tobacco, marijuana is not physically addictive. Unlike conservative
politicians, marijuana does not start wars. Unlike modern psychology, marijuana has been
helping people cope with pain and suffering for thousands of years.

Marijuana only causes distress to the pharmaceutical industry. Medical marijuana challenges Big
Pharma’s expensive pills with their multiple, sometimes undocumented side effects. Marijuana
also poses a huge threat to every manufacturer of alcohol. Marijuana is despised by
conservatives because of its association with liberals, minorities and young people. This is the
real reason why the powers-that-be are throwing money at researchers to concoct wild claims
against marijuana, again, just like they have been doing since the 1930s.