Cannabis Puts Teens at Risk of Developing Schizophrenia in Adulthood
If you are a teenager smoking cannabis (marijuana, weed, herb, pot, dope, cheeba, 420, the sticky icky, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane … whatever the name is) you are at great risk of developing schizophrenia in your adulthood.
Don’t take us wrong. We don’t want to rule your life, we don’t want to tell you what to do or not do. We can’t forbid you smoking cannabis even if we want to. We also understand peer pressure. At some point, we’ve been teenagers too. The reason of this article is just to provide you with information about long-term effects of smoking marijuana. It’s your life after all, your choice. We only would like you to make your decision on a solid basis.
Cannabis is the most widely used drug in the world
- Over 200 million people used cannabis worldwide. In 2015, 43% of Americans had used cannabis, which increased to 51% in 2016. [1]
- In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, it is stated that 22.2 million people had used the drug in the previous month. [2]
- According to the Monitoring the Future Study of 2016, almost half of 12th graders have tried marijuana at least once in their life. [3]
- About one out of every six teenagers who use marijuana develop addiction to it, and half the people who receive treatment for marijuana use are under the age of 25. [4]
The situation with marijuana may have the impression of being a harmless medicinal and recreational drug, a substance for fun and relaxation. It’s nothing but illusion. Little by little, cannabis irretrievably changes what goes on in the brain, making marijuana a dangerous drug with serious consequences that don’t show until years later.
To smoke marijuana or not to smoke? That is the question. We hope that information below will help you to find the answer.
What is THC?
THC is tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal psychoactive compound of cannabis. It is one of over 100 cannabinoids naturally occurred in cannabis. THC has a very low solubility in water, but good solubility in most organic solvents, specifically alcohols. [5]
THC is responsible for the way your brain reacts to marijuana. This chemical substance changes brain functions and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, and behavior. THC is scheduled by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a United Nations treaty designed to control narcotics. In most countries, THC is considered as an illegal drug.
What is CBD?
CBD is the abbreviation for cannabidiol. Like THC, CBD is also a natural component of cannabis, a major cannabinoid, accounting for up to 40% of the marijuana’s extract. [6]
Cannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors
Cannabinoids, including THC and CBD, are chemical substances that act on cannabinoid receptors in cells. Cannabinoid receptors are a class of neurotransmitters receptors.
Like the name says, neurotransmitters enable neurotransmission that shapes our everyday life. Actually, neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit signals (as chemicals) from one neuron to another neuron. The signals are received by special receptors on the target cells. Many neurotransmitters are synthesized in the body from amino acids, which are readily available from food.
Cannabinoid receptors are located in the brain and throughout the body and involved in a variety of biochemical and physiological processes including behavior, appetite, pain-sensation, orientation in time and space, mood, and memory. [6]
How cannabis works in the brain
In the brain, cannabinoid receptors are activated by cannabinoids from cannabis, such as THC and CBD. But our body produces cannabinoids on its own! They are called endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoids are good guys: they protect our brain against various types of insults, such as physical and emotional trauma. They control the production of neurotransmitters in the brain and relax muscles, regulate metabolism, reduce inflammation and do much more honorable jobs in the rest of the body. [6]
THC and CBD are like yin and yang. THC mimics endocannabinoids and targets receptors in a non-selective manner. THC is a lipid that may stick non-specifically to a variety of entities in the brain and can induce psychosis whereas CBD may counteract this effect. [7] CBD does not appear to have any psychoactive effects such as those caused by THC. [8]
Using marijuana with a high THC to CBD ratio produces stronger psychological effects. Cannabis strains with high ratios of CBD to THC may act (or may not) as antagonists to some of the THC’s effects. [9]
Today, high-THC strains of cannabis that cause psychosis in healthy individuals are flooding the markets.
Cannabis increases the risk of developing schizophrenia
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is an incurable and lifelong mental disorder characterized by failure to understand reality and abnormal social behavior. It is a life-changing psychosis, a severe mental breakdown when thoughts and emotions are so impaired that a person loses contacts with external reality. Common symptoms include false beliefs, inappropriate actions and feelings, unclear or confused thinking, withdrawal from personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and hearing voices that others do not. In more serious situations where there is risk to self or others involuntary hospitalization may be necessary.
Treatment can help relieve many of the symptoms of schizophrenia. However, the majority of patients with the disorder have to cope with it for life.
In 2013, there were an estimated 23.6 million cases of schizophrenia globally. About 50% have lifelong impairment. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is ten to twenty-five years less than for the general population. In 2015 an estimated 17,000 people worldwide died from behavior related to, or caused by, schizophrenia. [10]
There is a terribly chilling Steve Hammond’s story on the Schizophrenia.com website. Steve is one of 210,000 people in the UK who suffer from schizophrenia, and one of a growing number who think cannabis caused it. Experienced psychiatrists believe marijuana is a major factor that triggers schizophrenia cases. [11]
Why teenagers who smoke cannabis are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia?
Cannabis use at a young age has been associated with increased risk of schizophrenia by many studies. The harm of it is not fully reversible. Teenagers who smoke marijuana damage their brains for LIFE.
Why teenagers? Youth are especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis due to the fact that the brain is not fully developed until around age 25. THC in cannabis affects the same biological system in the brain that directs brain development.
- Usually, schizophrenia strikes between the ages of 16 and 30, and it develops so gradually that a person does not know that they have. However, in other cases, it can strike suddenly and develop quickly. [12]
- Ran Barzilay, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University, explains that: “Young people with a genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia – those who have psychiatric disorders in their families – should bear in mind that they’re playing with fire if they smoke pot during adolescence.” [13]
- Cannabis use in adolescence linked to schizophrenia. Psychoactive compound in cannabis may trigger the brain disorder, researchers say. [14]
- Marijuana and LSD are known to cause schizophrenia relapses. Additionally, for people with a predisposition to a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, usage of cannabis may trigger the first episode. [15]
- “Cannabis and schizophrenia”: What does the research say? There is consistent evidence that cannabis and psychotic disorders occur together more often than would be expected by chance. [16]
- The primary cause of concern with cannabis and schizophrenia is THC. [17]
- Marijuana can help ease chronic pain but it can raise the risk of a severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, a new report found. [18]
Cannabis is one of the most lucrative types of business
Depending on quality, street prices for marijuana in North America vary from $50 to $400 per ounce. Priceofweed.com says that in Ontario high quality cannabis costs $217.71 per once, and medium quality – $203.04. According to Wikipedia, cannabis is number one or two crop in many states including California, New York and Florida, averaging $3,000 per pound ($6,600/kg) and generating $36 billion market.
Cronos, a Canadian marijuana producer, started trading on the NASDAQ in February, 2018. Aurora Cannabis, another Canadian marijuana producer, is among a few companies that recently have signed the deals to supply medical marijuana to Shoppers Drug Mart.
“Much ado” about marijuana in mass media is, in fact, a free advertising campaign for cannabis use and produce.
Do you want to make the rich richer and pay your own money for destroying your health?
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-scope-marijuana-use-in-united-states
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/marijuana
- https://www.medicinenet.com/marijuana/article.htm#what_are_the_physical_effects_of_abusing_marijuana
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid#Endocannabinoids
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2689518/
- http://www.schres-journal.com/article/S0920-9964(15)00063-8/fulltext
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797438/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia
- http://www.schizophrenia.com/research/cannabis.htm
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/36942.php
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317170.php
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170426124305.htm
- https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/cannabis-marijuana
- http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/C22A31B6C742DFE5CA25767E00122541/$File/m684.pdf
- https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/report-marijuana-users-risk-schizophrenia-drug-helps-pain-n706196
