Marijuana use connected to aggression

[RainDog]

63. No doubt - some people should not use cannabis

even so - as your first link notes:

Paul Corry, spokesman for Rethink, a mental health group, said there isn't enough data to know whether marijuana leads to aggression, or if kids living in environments that promote aggression are more prone to smoke marijuana.

and as your second links notes:

Studies show that violence can occur more often among people who use marijuana regularly, rather than those who use it occasionally or not at all. It is unclear why this is the case, but it may be because people with violent tendencies can also have a range of other psychosocial problems and are therefore more likely to use marijuana. marijuana is also part of the illegal drug market, which may increase the chances of violence occurring in some social interactions.

Research also shows that marijuana users who commit violent acts usually have a history of violence before they start using the drug.

There's nothing new under the sun about these two reports. Some people should not drink alcohol, either. They become aggressive - tho not everyone does. It seems the aggression is linked to the individual, not the alcohol itself, since millions of people drink and never start a fight. We do not prohibit alcohol because a subset of the population may have social or mental problems if they drink.

A subset of the population will have a problem with any substance, aspirin, coffee, milk... and so if someone is in that subset, that person should not consume those things.

But what anyone who has ever dealt with people with substance abuse problems knows is this: people often use substances like alcohol, and probably marijuana, to self-medicate. Causation isn't there - the causation exists in someone's individual vulnerability to mental health problems that, generally, exist within that person's family, as well. Of course, if someone never drank, they would not develop alcoholism. But they would very likely still have the same mental health problems that exist outside of the use of alcohol.

What we do as a society is regulate alcohol so that young people do not have easy access to it - it's easier for a teenager to get marijuana than to get alcohol. If young people are more susceptible to problems because of cannabis use - then regulating its use would help to keep cannabis out of the schools where it is sold.

If cannabis were regulated, one issue that is now of concern, that came about because of the war on drugs, is the higher levels of THC in some strains that may cause negative outcomes for some people - but only while they are under the influence of the THC, which would mean a few hours.

Higher levels of THC mean lower levels of CBD. These two cannabinoids balance out one another and, with less CBD, some people are likely to experience negative outcomes like paranoia - this is an effect of the THC without compensating CBD. If cannabis were regulated, however, people could make responsible choices based upon levels of THC and CBD. Some people might choose very low levels of THC in order to utilize the effects of CBD, instead. CBD isn't associated with intoxication - and is, in fact, under study as a possible treatment for schizophrenia.

Even though the studies you include indicate no causation, there may be a miniscule causation AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE between some mental illness issues and cannabis. As a large study indicated:

If...cannabis use is relatively common in the population but appears to cause schizophrenia rarely, it would follow that at least one of the other component causes in the causal constellation is rare. Indeed, calculation of the overall risk for schizophrenia associated with cannabis use revealed that cannabis use confers only a twofold increase in relative risk for schizophrenia.

Cannabis does not appear to represent a sufficient or a necessary cause for the development of psychosis but forms part of a causal constellation.

The development of psychosis, however, can happen without the use of cannabis.

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/184/2/110.full

The above link is not "pro-cannabis." What it is HONEST about is this: cannabis, in and of itself, cannot be considered a cause of mental illness. As Roger Pertwee (Britain's leading pharmacologist regarding cannabis) noted - cannabis may be part of a constellation of factors. Not the cause.

What the study I quoted, above, does is make an assessment of studies to indicate that, yes, we should discourage cannabis use among teenagers - especially very young teens. I don't know anyone who disagrees with this statement. So, the issue then becomes - what is the most effective way to prevent cannabis use among very young teens?

1. Education about risks for use as a young person, most ESPECIALLY if they have a family history of particular mental illnesses.
and
2. Regulation of distribution to limit access to those who are of legal age.

As this study noted, as well, cannabis use is part of the actions of the general population and the majority of people have no problem with it at all - so, the question becomes this: how do we work to limit access to very young people? The answer is: in the same way that we limit access to alcohol. Kids, generally, do not sell alcohol at school. They do sell cannabis, however, and there are no constraints on their actions to sell to very young teens.

All this mental health information, above, whether it explicitly states this reality or not, confirms Roger Pertwee's statement that cannabis should be legalized because it poses no significant risk for schizophrenia for the general population. (Again, Pertwee is the leading pharmacologist who studies cannabis in the UK, with decades of data to draw upon.)

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/News/FestivalNews/_Rethinkingcannabis.htm

...you could identify people who might be at risk of developing schizophrenia. Cannabis is one factor which increases the risk of schizophrenia, but only if it's mixed with a bad childhood environment or a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia.

So, it seems to me that scare stories only work if someone wants to make false statements about the danger of cannabis for the general population. The fact remains that cannabis is one of the most benign substances that exists for the treatment of illness and the associated problems with other illnesses. It is also less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes, two substances that are legal.

iow, the reality remains that prohibition of cannabis is bad policy.