Our Views

The new British study published in Lancet, also covered in various articles, regarding marijuana greatly increasing the risk of psychosis is bound to throw some people into panic – especially those who are taking it legally. I’m not necessarily a proponent of prescribing marijuana as medication, but I must say I feel badly for cancer patients who trusted their doctors and are now going to be heading for drug detox and rehab, and trying to find other solutions for their pain.

Honestly, I don’t think this news will have much impact on abusers - maybe on those who are just beginning to experiment with it, but not hardcore users. After all, whatever the effects of marijuana, hardcore users are probably already suffering from them and their judgment may not be the best. Also, I don’t know how many pot smokers continue to just smoke pot without moving onto other drugs. When I first started taking drugs I probably smoked pot exclusively for less than a year, did hash at that time too, but then got into LSD, a variety of other drugs, then heroin, then methamphetamine. I think it’s fairly unusual to stay on marijuana and not get into other drugs. Which is one of the reasons why marijuana is so dangerous.

When I first started using marijuana, I wouldn’t have considered doing other drugs. But with frequent use over a period of several months my judgment obviously became clouded, and I went from there. That was quite a while ago and I don’t think I’d even heard of drug detox or drug rehab. Certainly no one in my circle talked about it.

Regardless of the public’s reaction, this study is bound to make people more aware of the problem. Perhaps those who know people who smoke marijuana will be more diligent about getting their friends and loved ones into a drug detox program, and possibly drug rehab, even if the drug users themselves don’t get the point.

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