Cannabis Users Have More Mental Health Problems

[TRANCE]

arbitrary

[Kingdoc]

Cannabis Users Have More Mental Problems

According to a study by the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, cannabis users are twice as likely to suffer mental health problems as those that don't use it.

Around 4% of people aged between 15 and 65 admitted to smoking cannabis between 2007 and 2009. A quarter of these smoked daily. Around 28% of the women who used cannabis had mental disorders, against 14% of non-smokers. 20% of men suffered problems against nearly 10% of non-smokers.

There was no difference in physical health.

English

Dutch

More arguments! pfff,This isnt proven one way or the other & most of there evidence has long since been discounted by the scientific community.

[Cisco]

So are cannabis users more likely to have mental health problems, or are people with mental health problems more likely to use cannabis?

Think this is a great point

[sh@dy]

, given that only 4% of the
populace are dope smokers.

oh `rly?

[echc1]

and what are the percentages for drinkers with mental health probs.....coffee drinkers with mental health probs,tobacco smokers.....fact is the prob is there somewhere before usage........face it,people are nuts!

[steven]

and what are the percentages for drinkers with mental health probs.....coffee drinkers with mental health probs,tobacco smokers.....fact is the prob is there somewhere before usage........face it,people are nuts!

Excellent point, as soon as I started reading this it got me thinking as I do suffer anxiety at times, normally when im put in a situation that I don't want to be in, like having to do public speaking, presentations with work... But then I read about people with mental health issues smoking cannabis and thought, well I started smoking when 17 and have been smoking for 23yr and I didn't have any mental health problems at 17 but have they developed because of how I feel at work, well anyone I speak to who does this type of work say it's only natural to feel like that and they don't smoke... So that got me thinking about the last post... I drink approximately 12 coffees a day and know when I don't get coffee I get bad headaches... When I run out of tobacco I become irritable and have to drive to the town and buy some or drive 20mes and get it half price from someone I know!

So id say coffee is the worst because if how I feel when I don't have it!!

[Cal X]

Who knows how thorough this study was. There is a link between people with Mental Health issues and the use of substances. Perhaps as Ash333 pointed out, the people who showed signs of mental instability may have had the problem before they started using Cannabis! And, how are they defining Mental Health problems? Are they basing there conclusions on how someone answers a list of questions or are they looking at Medical records that indicate an actual diagnoses of a Mental Health impairment. It would be nice to know more about this and other research on the subject, if there is any, before drawing any conclusions.

[templeball]

I think the core issue is the definition of mental health issues and then it goes from there.

For example in college we studied why such a hugely disproportionate amount of afro-caribean men are sectioned compared to any other ethnic group. The answer was the way mental health issues are classified in the western mental health model. In other words behaviour which is considered abnormal in the UK is considered perfectly normal and natural in some caribbean cultures (like talking to oneself in the extreme etc, my favourite past-time), thus far too many men (many more men than women) had through the 60's/70's/80's been unfairly labelled as 'with mental issues' and sectioned when in their own country they wouldnt be. Does that make sense? So before we even start taking the survey to heart you have to ask whose definition of Mental health issues were used, and so on. The majority of the men who were sectioned also reported 'substance use', which translates to weed, which again is a perfectly normal part of aftro-caribean culture lucky gits and once again behaviour displayed by a potty old stoner smokinh his spliff wouldnt result in a strait jacket in jamaica but gets lumped into far reaching statistics in the west about how afro-caribean men are more prone to substance use and schizophrenia etc, which is nonsense when you look at it from a cultural-centric perspective....

Id also argue that it is very hard to be a conscious free thinking man or woman with experience of alternative lifetsyles and maybe contrary world/spiritual values and be a 'head' and live in the modern consumer world and not show to a clinical detached observer signs of supposed mental health issues, jesus this is a fucked up world to traverse through aint it, and it ain easy trying to a decent human being, parent, worker and stoner, its quite a challenge..

[roker]

Good post Templeball...I agree wholeheartedly!

[wonkybookcase]

I'm moved to use a bastardised Marx brothers quote:

I would not want to be a part of any society that thinks I'm sane.