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Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

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111–120 of 330 posts

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#111

I don’t know what I read, but someone said weed before all of the legalization in the last ten years was 5% THC. The stuff being sold in dispensaries now is 80-95% THC. Weed went commercial and so did the potency. Corporate America got a hold of the industry for pure profits.

Slow your roll. Anecdotal information.

You can purchase concentrates which are oils or resins at high THC percentages. These are manufactured from plant material to concentrate it not unlike making orange juice concentrate.

The theoretical physical limit of THC development in the plant is around 30%. You cannot find flower that will test much higher than that - if that.

Yes it’s more potent than it was due to - drumroll - modern agricultural practices.

This kind of misinformation parroting is really no bueno.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#112

Headline used here on HN is editorialized and misleading.

Orig headline: Cannabis Use Disorder and Subsequent Risk of Psychotic and Nonpsychotic Unipolar Depression and Bipolar Disorder

Headline used here: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

Specifically, what makes the latter - an Editorialized and Misleading version of the former?

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#113

I don’t know what I read, but someone said weed before all of the legalization in the last ten years was 5% THC. The stuff being sold in dispensaries now is 80-95% THC. Weed went commercial and so did the potency. Corporate America got a hold of the industry for pure profits.

I downvoted this because you’re making a interesting claim but it’s frankly irresponsible to not even try to source it.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#114

Just my personal take, wouldn’t seek to push others to adopt it. Smoking weed hurts your ability to think and learn. If you have responsibilities to children or shareholders etc you shouldn’t be doing it. If you don’t and it doesn’t hurt others who are relying on you have at it, but still sparingly as not to be abusing your body and mind.

If you also abstain from alcohol for the same reason then I applaud you. Alcohol has NO safe level of consumption. Unlike cannabis. If you say this while consuming other drugs that are harsher and less safe then you should do some self reflection on your prejudices.

Are you implying there are levels of cannabis use that are zero risk?

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#115

[flagged]

> why certain substances were banned in the first place

You obviously have no idea why cannabis was banned in the US.

It wasn't banned because of harm to individuals or to society. It certainly can do those things, but there was no scientific basis for the original ban.

It was banned because of a massive propaganda campaign by Harry Anslinger, who fabricated evidence that cannabis was a drug of immigrants, non-White Americans, and criminals. Anslinger was incredibly racist and had no respect for science or the truth.

He once said, "Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men." If you think we're "rediscovering why [marijuana was] banned in the first place," you could not be more wrong.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#116
post #46

Cannabis should be legalized and regulated. Period. People that want to partake ofc should have safe access to it. That doesn't means and has never meant it is a harmless thing, like some groups portray it to be. "it's just a naturally ocurring plant!" Education, more information and less zealotry help on both sides of the discusstion. It's not the devil's lettuce they had people think with 60s propaganda, but it's n…

A lot of naturally occurring plants are harmful, castor beans or foxglove for example.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#117

A few months ago, we had a support group going at my clinic, with several patients with various diagnoses which are not directly discussed. We also had a presentation on sleep hygiene by a visiting psychiatrist. One of the newer support group members was openly promoting his love of smoking a joint and a cigarette and chilling out in the morning, and the psychiatrist said "cool, you do you!" Then the next week, the c…

It could also be the psychiatrist realizes it's bad but, being in a group probably filled with bad habits, has to pick which battles to fight.

> has to pick which battles to fight.

One can also pick how to battle. A hostile zero tolerance edict wasn't necessary to anything.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#118
post #96

I can't see the full study methodology without an account. That said… The challenge with running studies ethically is that you can't split your test groups into two groups and somehow induce cannabis use disorder and see if major depression, bipolar, etc results from it. Rather, you can see if the people who naturally develop the disorder also have those problems. The flaw in this reasoning is that people who develop…

Obviously this is not a real argument against what you said, but the same thing happened with smoking. The tobacco companies said that there might be some set of factors that both caused lung disease, and caused smoking. As opposed to the alternate hypothesis that smoking caused lung disease. As is generally thought now, umbrellas do not cause rain but smoking does cause lung disease. Cannabis is federally illegal in…

> Obviously this is not a real argument against what you said, but the same thing happened with smoking.

They showed the link between smoking and cancer with a mountain of empirical evidence, including tests on mice. https://www.mskcc.org/news/how-do-cigarettes-cause-cancer

> Cannabis is federally illegal in the United States

Nobody cares anymore.

> I'd highly advise you to consider only the known benefits of using cannabis

Sugar has no health benefits and causes way more deaths. If you want to really change the world for the better, I suggest a war on ice cream.

> Treat any form of smoking, including smoking cannabis, with high suspicion, as it involves inhaling large concentrations of combustion products.

Finally, we agree: consume edibles.

Re: Cannabis use disorder and subsequent risk of depression and bipolar disorder

#120
post #56

Obviously people with mental discomfort are more likely to seek comfort in mind altering substances. That said, as someone who is bipolar, has bipolar friends and has used cannabis for a significant portion of my half-century on Earth, cannabis usage is proportional to mood instability in myself and my friends. I have taken extensive breaks and noticed I am much more mentally resilient and less emotionally labile whe…

> Obviously people with mental discomfort are more likely to seek comfort in mind altering substances. This can be true at the same time that cannabis use disorder increases the likelihood of mental illness is true. These are not mutually exclusive.

Yes. I believe I said as much in the second half of my comment.
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