Think Ya Know? Does Marijuana Cause Mental Illness?

THC is destructive to critical neuropathways and can result in permanent brain changes. The worst case scenario is psychosis that becomes permanent and is then considered schizophrenia, a life-long, debilitating disease.
The mental health harms of cannabis are well known to scientific researchers.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...

Symptoms of psychosis are: paranoia, feelings of doom, irrational thoughts or behaviors, delusions, confusion, hearing voices or seeing people who are not there, and inability to communicate coherently. A person suffering from psychosis is 20 X more likely to lash out violently, and 7 X more likely to hurt themselves.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Cannabis Induced Psychosis (CIP) is listed in the DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a manual used by medical professionals for assessment and diagnosis.

Professionals say the evidence found in peer-reviewed studies is undeniable: THC in cannabis, even in low concentrations, can cause psychosis. And out of the drugs that can cause a temporary episode of psychosis, marijuana/cannabis has the highest conversion rate to chronic psychotic disorders like bipolar and schizophrenia.
There are hundreds of peer-reviewed, scientific articles that prove a correlation between marijuana use and psychotic outcomes such as schizophrenia.

The causal relationship of psychosis with marijuana is outlined in a paper on the International Academy on the Science and Impact of Cannabis website: Applying the Bradford Hill Elements of Causation to Cannabis Causing Psychosis.
Frequent use of more potent products results in more cases of schizophrenia. Proportion of patients in south London with first-episode psychosis attributable to use of high potency cannabis.
Marijuana use generally comes before the psychosis, not vice-versa, so self- medication is not likely the cause. Continued cannabis use and risk of incidence and persistence of psychotic symptoms.
The consensus is that use of marijuana with a THC content over 10% increases the risk of a psychotic disorder by 4 to 5-fold: Meta-analysis of the Association Between the Level of Cannabis Use and Risk of Psychosis.
Cannabis intoxication becomes Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Disorder once certain severity and duration criteria are met and CIP is heavily associated with future schizophrenia diagnoses: Cannabis and Psychosis Through the Lens of DSM-5.

"Youth are more at risk, but adults are not immune"
Dr. Morrison, Chief of Psychiatry for Nova Scotia's central zone was quoted by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation in December 2020 "...there is lots of research when it comes to substance-related psychosis in young people who use daily, but the surprise was the findings for patients between 35 and 44 years old...We typically say if you're going to start smoking cannabis a lot, wait until you're after 25 at least, and I think this study kind of made us pause a little bit about that"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...


Support Groups
Marijuana Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share our experience, strength, and hope with each other that we may solve our common problem and help others to recover from marijuana addiction.
https://marijuana-anonymous.org/

National Alliance on Mental Illness
https://nami.org/Support-Education/Su...

Mar-Anon - Mar-Anon is a 12-Step program designed specifically for those who are affected by another’s marijuana use.
https://mar-anon.com/

Every Brain Matters Community Use this link to see the current list of meetings.
https://everybrainmatters.org/support...
https://everybrainmatters.org/support...

Mounting reliable evidence is proving that cannabis is very destructive to brain health. Yet, the marijuana industry continues to peddle misinformation on a wide-scale level. It is important that parents and drug prevention activists share this science-based knowledge and protect our society from avoidable mental illness.

Write your elected representatives and share your concern about the cannabis-psychosis link.
Share Your Story with MomsStrong.org.
https://momsstrong.org/contact-us/
Share this important Think Ya Know article with 10 friends.

Join the Every Brain Matters Community.
https://everybrainmatters.org/