Young people who smoke cannabis or marijuana for six years or more are twice as likely to have psychotic episodes, hallucinations or delusions than people who have never used the drug, scientists said on Monday.So, like, don't bogart the data.
The findings adds weight to previous research which linked psychosis with the drug — particularly in its most potent form as "skunk" — and will feed the debate about the level of controls over its use.
Duuude, you're, like, harshing my mellow here.
"Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had six or more years since first use of cannabis were twice as likely to develop a non-affective psychosis (such as schizophrenia)," McGrath wrote in a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal.
Psychosis? Man, like, I'm not, like, psychotic. Just ask my unicorn.
They were also four times as likely to have high scores in clinical tests of delusion, he wrote,
I don't got no delusions neither, it's just these damned bugs, THEY'RE CRAWLIN' ALL OVER ME, GET 'EM OFF! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, GET THE BUGS OFF ME!
and a so-called "dose-response" relationship showed that the longer the duration since first cannabis use, the higher the risk of psychosis-related symptoms. Previous studies had also suggested smoking cannabis can double the risk of psychosis, but the British study was the first to look specifically at skunk.
Or, like we like to, like, call it, "primo bud."
Skunk has higher amounts of the psychoactive ingredient THC which can produce psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.
Paranoia? I'm not paranoid. You're just saying that 'cause you're out to get me!
McGrath said, however, that "the nature of the relationship between psychosis and cannabis use is by no means simple" and more