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E-mail sent in by Dr Jim.
Subject: I'm a doctor and you're wrong about pot
- for one, it shrinks the brain
From Medscape Medical
News > Psychiatry
Smoking Pot Shrinks the Brain
Fran Lowry
Authors and Disclosures
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Note: I rate this article as pure
horseshit.
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November 11, 2011 — Marijuana use can
lead to a loss of brain volume in
individuals who are at risk of
developing schizophrenia, new research shows.
"It is now accepted by most psychiatrists that smoking cannabis
increases an individual's risk
of psychosis, and more specifically schizophrenia," lead author Killian
A. Welch, MD, from the
University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, United Kingdom, told
Medscape Medical News.
However, the risk associated with using the drug does not seem to be
equally distributed across the population, Dr. Welch added.
"People with a family history of schizophrenia are particularly
vulnerable to the
psychotomimetic effects of the drug, and are likely at particular
elevated risk of
developing schizophrenia if they use cannabis," he said. "Still, it has
remained
unclear how cannabis affects the brain to result in this increased
risk."
Well, sure - nobody said people
with mental problems should smoke pot.
It's a psycho-active drug and if your psyche has problems, pot should
be avoided.
Highly Significant Volume Reduction
and amygdala-hippocampal complex over time in 57 people aged between 16 and 25 years
who were well but who had a strong family history of schizophrenia.
Again, people with a history of mental problems shouldn't smoke pot.
Aren't we debating the 99% who don't have mental problems?
Two years later, each person returned for another scan and were also asked about
their use of illicit drugs, including marijuana, as well as their use of alcohol and tobacco
in the period between the scans.
and highly significant on the right (F = 7.66; P = .008). However, no loss of thalamic volume
was noted in those who did not use marijuana during the 2-year period.
I have a question:
What is the effect of a daily bottle of Jack Daniels on the thalamus?
Assuming the effect is negative, should whiskey be illegal in America?
After controlling for the use of these other drugs, the results remained significant.
risk of schizophrenia is resulting in their brain developing in a different way from the way
it develops if they do not use the drug," Dr. Welch noted.
with volume loss in a critical brain structure. By far the most likely explanation for this is that it is
the cannabis exposure which is causing these abnormalities of brain development," he said.
station for the brain, he added. "Given this role in interconnecting diverse brain regions, anything
that affects its structure, and consequently, one assumes, its function, would be expected to have
widespread and potentially devastating consequences."
So, if drinking vodka was deemed "harmful to patients with a family history of schizophrenia,"
would these doctors lobby for the prohibition of alcohol?
Blinking lights can cause seizures in people with a family history of epilepsy.
Should we move to ban blinking lights?
if one has no such family history. However, "it seems safe to say that if you do have such a background
you should be particularly wary of the drug," he said.
Nobody is debating "safe."
All drugs can kill, even aspirin.
Hell, water and electricity and forks can kill - do we ban everything?
We are debating the relative harm pot does when compared to more dangerous
drugs that are legal and sold in the United States such as liquor and cigarettes.
To use fancy doctor-talk, it's contraindicated.
It's like saying you can board an aircraft with a knife with a foot-long blade,
but we don't allow knives with four inch blades or smaller.
Obviously, the foot-long blade has the potential to do much more damage,
just as booze and cigarettes are much more dangerous than pot.
of Medicine and Dentistry in New York, told Medscape Medical News that the study by Dr. Welch
and colleagues adds something useful to what is already known on the subject.
and the use of marijuana in currently unaffected people who are at a high risk of developing
schizophrenia due to family history," Dr. Bidlack said.
But that's not the debate we're having.
The thalamus has a high level of cannabinoid receptors, which bind the active ingredient in marijuana
and may contribute to the decrease in the volume of the thalamus," she explained.
of schizophrenia in this high-risk group, she said.
This is like debating whether school bus drivers should be allowed to drink on the job.
Nobody is suggesting that - so why would we waste time with that debate?
We can't allow those with mental problems to dictate the availability and legality of recreational drugs.
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