#2631 (4/4) "Marijuana and Psychosis - Real Data, Real Bad"

"MARIJUANA AND PSYCHOSIS - REAL DATA, REAL BAD" - by John Stonestreet and  Roberto Rivera , Breakpoint.org, March 27, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/breakpoint-marijuana-and-psychosis/ [AS I SEE IT: What this article points out about what legalized marijuana has done to the state of Colorado only emphasizes the fear I have that my own state of Florida seems to be moving in that direction. It started in the last election with the legalization of "medical" marijuana that I suspect is only a gateway effort to one day making legalized marijuana the norm here. I can only PRAY the voters here will wake up and reject such an effort. The next generation is at stake! - Stan]

     The pitfalls and perils of marijuana legalization are well-documented. But whenever we discuss that research here on BreakPoint, we’re accused of not having the right research. What that means is that we’ve used studies that contradict the very vocal advocates of weed.

   Well, let’s see what happens when we cite The British journal The Lancet, which, along with the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, is considered the “gold standard” for peer-reviewed medical research. It doesn’t get more “real” than being published in The Lancet.
   A just-published study in The Lancet involving, among others, researchers at King’s College London, compared 900 people who had been treated for psychosis with 1,200 people who had not. Sample participants were drawn from across Europe and Brazil.
   Both groups were surveyed on a host of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs. The study’s authors concluded that “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times.”
   By “high-potency” the researchers meant marijuana with a THC content of more than ten percent. To put that figure in context, a study of the weed seized by the DEA between 1995 and 2014 found the THC content went from about 4 percent in 1995 to 12 percent in 2014.

   Today, it’s not uncommon to read of marijuana that’s legally-sold in places like Colorado with THC content above 20 percent, occasionally 30 percent! Legalization advocates minimize the exponential growth in potency by saying that twenty or more years ago, Americans didn’t have access to “the good stuff.”
   Well, that misses the point by several astronomical units. The point is that those people who daily use “the good stuff” are five times more likely to find themselves in a hospital suffering from delusions and hallucinations, to name only two symptoms of psychosis.

   Now, critics will respond, “That’s correlation, not causation.” And that’s the criticism leveled at journalist Alex Berenson, author of “Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence,” a book I recommend highly. But as I heard Berenson say just last week in Denver, of course it’s correlation and not causation. The only way to prove causation would be to ask half a sample group to experiment with something that may harm them. That’s not ethically possible. By the way, all the studies that made us believe that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer were correlated studies too, but that was enough to convince us all.

   Even so, writer Ron Powers doesn’t need a peer-reviewed study to convince him of the link between marijuana use and psychosis. In his 2017 book, “Nobody Cares About Crazy People,” he tells the moving story of his two sons, Dean and Kevin, who were both diagnosed with schizophrenia in their late teens. As Powers tells readers, while there is a strong genetic component to schizophrenia, there is no “schizophrenia gene.” Instead, it’s a constellation of genetic and environmental factors that make people susceptible to schizophrenia. One of these, as Powers painfully learned, is heavy marijuana use, especially in the teenage years.
   Of course, some people will tell you that they and most people aren’t mentally ill, so there’s little if any risk. But for a host of reasons, no one can know that with certainty. In fact, all pronouncements about how safe marijuana legalization is simply overstates the case.

   That’s exactly what happened here in Colorado. The possible pitfalls were denied or downplayed. And so, Colorado now holds the dubious distinction of leading the country in first-time drug use. And the rate of monthly marijuana use among 18-to-25-year-olds in states with legal weed is nearly three times as much as states that haven’t legalized it.  By the way, 18-25 is the age when schizophrenia often begins to manifest. And since legalization, Colorado has seen a a spike in marijuana-related emergency room visits by people between the ages of 13 and 20.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

   Given the well-documented mental health risks, especially to not-fully-formed adolescent brains, the rush to legalization is the height of irresponsibility. An irresponsibility that can shatter lives. And don’t just take our word for it.


[italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES
"The contribution of cannabis use to variation in the incidence of psychotic disorder across Europe (EU-GEI): a multicentre case-control study" - Marta Di Forti, PhD et al | TheLancet.com | 19, 2019; https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(19)30048-3/fulltext 
"Changes in Cannabis Potency Over the Last 2 Decades (1995–2014): Analysis of Current Data in the United States" - Mahmoud A.ElSohly et al | Biological Psychiatry | April 1, 2016; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322316000457
"Marijuana sending more teenagers to the emergency room, Children’s Hospital doctor finds" - John Ingold | The Denver Post | May 18, 2017; https://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/18/marijuana-teenage-emergency-room-patients/
"NJ marijuana legalization: Don't do it:" - Stephen D. Reid and Kevin Sabet | app.com | March 14, 2019; https://www.app.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/03/14/nj-marijuana-legalization-don-to-it/3161249002/

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is the one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer." - Stan 

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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/

The women of the persecuted church—in April, Open Doors is focusing on this group crucial to the spread of the gospel and thriving of the global Body of Christ. Throughout the world, 
women and girls are doubly persecuted: for their faith and for their gender. We invite you to step into their stories and pray with these sisters in Christ.

April 4 | MYANMAR - Pastors’ wives from different villages and towns will be coming together today for a three-day training. The women are traveling long distances on motorcycles and must go through a strict security check. Pray for traveling mercies and safe passage.
*Names changed to protect identities