Maybe not even worse.

This is looking at what fraction of schizophrenia cases had significant cannabis use.

If more people use cannabis, there will be more of these cases, even if there's no causal link.

Cannabis misuse appears linked to a larger share of schizophrenia cases as I understand it.

Implying causality there is often misplaced. I’ve noticed some people smoke more after things start to fall apart from issues they have no control over, just as others binge eat when stressed.

It’s not a helpful coping mechanism, but there’s a reason double blind studies are considered so important. Untangling complex mechanisms especially when they have feedback in both directions is inherently difficult.

> My anecdotal experience has been that pretty much everyone knows a friend or a friend of a friend who smoked too much pot and had their life go off the rails

Sadly, I’m seeing a new trend of people taking too many psychedelics and going off the rails.

The way they’re being pushed as cure-alls for depression is getting scary.

One of my friends developed severe problems after following the microdosing trend. It developed slowly over a long period of time, but he thought he was okay because he was following one of those protocols from one of the biggest microdosing experts.

Pot is one of those things that makes things worse if they're already going badly.

Like alcohol or opiates will make your good life bad if you fuck too hard with them.

Pot, in my experience, won't really ruin your life unless you're already on that path.

My thing is that it's mostly harmless, but the problem with it is that young people can become complacent with it. It won't necessarily ruin your life, but you'll be content to sit and veg your life away. So not bad, but not good.

I don't think I do. I do know a lot who have fucked their lives with alcohol and opiates though.

Drinking too much coffee or even water can kill you. Too much sugar can kill you (albeit not too quickly). Obsessive eating or shopping can derail your life pretty quickly. Obsessive use of social media can induce depression. Some people kill themselves because of what they read or see in social media.

So it's not the legalization at fault, it's people who are overdosing any stuff that's available to them. Casual smoking a weed once a week won't harm you that much.

While I also have anecdotal experience that suggests early-life cannabis abuse can lead to short-term memory loss, I have not seen any evidence that it leads to much else. I would imagine that people with a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia would only not have it by chance, and that altering their brain with pretty much anything can risk upsetting that balance. Doesn't matter if it's weed, LSD, opioids... SSRIs, stimulants...

I agree it can cause those effects but it always seemed to me that the weed is just causing sleep deprivation which eventually leads to psychosis. IME it's not much different from alcohol in that way, they both disturb REM sleep so you end up deprived with daily use. It's just more apparent with weed because you don't get the hangover effects, so it's easy to overuse.

It is incredible that the slightest increase in any cancer associated with alcohol is immediately trumpeted, but no matter how much research shows marijuana has dangers, the stoners always brush it off.

Just accept the risks and live your life. Nothing is without risk. Drink your beer and smoke your joint, why bother living if you aren’t going to enjoy yourself

Nearly all are all symptoms of depression, delusions with manic depression. Nearly all are symptoms of being stoned too.

It's unlikely you were experiencing schizophrenia unless you were actually hearing voices, thinking that you were a "Targeted Invididual", things like that.

Every human brain is different, some smoke a lot of pot and develop serious mental issues— others smoke a ton for years and you don’t notice any change.

The problem imo with this kinds of studies is that people can’t take the nuance and rather see it as “weed = bad” or some other binary outcome.

Imo all drugs have a potential to be dangerous — all adults should have free agency what they do with their bodies.

Sure cannabis, alcohol or mushrooms are dangerous, but I would argue a society that makes their use completely illegal without nuance is not a free society

That was my experience also. I would smoke with my stoner friends, and it didn't seem to do much. I would think maybe I wasn't inhaling enough or something but then I would look in the mirror and my eyes were blood red.

I think it's just an expectations thing. I was doing max doses of acid for a long time before I ever used marijuana, and that ain't "some slight dissociation". On acid, you would watch the houses across the street stand up, join hands, and dance around in circles. Pot just didn't move the needle.

I knew a few people when I was young (20s) that "pot does nothing" to them. Then one day they took a toke from a joint going round and were totally munged.

I've seen it a few times, and I have no idea why it's like that for some people.

Sounds like a dosage situation. A lot of the tincture stuff just isn’t all that strong.

Effect wise - I mostly notice it in sensation of time. Two hours feels like four. And it’s not smooth flow of time - almost skips occasionally.

People have this strange concept that weed is supposed to make you see rainbows and stuff lol. I'd say your experience is about normal.

It just made me feel 0 anxiety, but I thought the experience was not good enough to justify breaking the law

Your brain is not receptive. This could be a worse, however. If you have schizophrenia within the family, you might be at risk. The doctor strongly recommended I do not take any cannabis because there is a risk it triggers a psychosis episode. I wouldn’t see cannabis having no effect as good news as that’s not representative of the average experience.

This sounds snarky but you just didn't do enough.

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Are acid flashbacks real? I thought that was an urban myth.. I've never had one and I don't think I've ever encountered someone who has. It seems like one of those drug war era scare tactics or viral rumours.