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Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

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Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#121

Frequent mouse button clicks increase software hangs in desktop environments, study finds. (MJ is an ancient medicine, it can't and won't cause any disease; proper use is a remedy for many)

It can’t and won’t cause any disease? I’m on the side of MJ as medicine and for recreational use, but we really should pretend that because something is an ancient medicine that it’s somehow incapable of causing harm.

Ingesting excessive amount of anything can cause harm. It's easier to die from water overconsumption or random allergic reaction than MJ. Spreading fear, misinformation or promoting prohibition is not humane. MJ is overall safer than alcohol.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#122
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTA: "For example, in Denmark, the incidence of schizophrenia steadily increased from 2000 to 2012 (Kühl, Laursen, Thorup, & Nordentoft, Reference Kühl, Laursen, Thorup and Nordentoft2016), and the schizophrenia population attributable risk fraction (PARF) for CUD increased three- to fourfold over the past two decades, parallel to increases in THC concentration (Hjorthøj, Posselt, & Nordentoft, Reference Hjorthøj, Po…

> The explanation "increased THC content causes more schizophrenia" is clearly more plausible than "more schizophrenia causes increased THC content". My understanding is that the ratio of THC to CBD is significant; CBD seems to protect against some of the more alarming effects of THC.

For a bit of anecdata, I have anxiety, and sometimes THC can exacerbate the condition (but usually helps to lower my anxiety, which is one of the reasons I still use it). If I feel anxiety coming on, I will often take a CBD gummy to help "level" out the effects of the THC. The potency of cannabis, and the "norm" of commercialization delivering greater highs, has definitely effected my anxiety. In the 1990s, when THC levels were lower, I never had anxiety from cannabis use.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#124
post #3

I like the idea of capping THC potency (delta-9), what we have now isn't what we the general public aimed to legalize this is just competition keeping up with consumer demand the consequences should fall on the vendors and growers on a licensing perspective, just like alcohol or food vending

I think more important than that is capping the THC/CBD ratio. The first time I took an edible it was pure THC, and even at 15mg it almost gave me a panic attack. For a long time I was baffled that anyone could actually enjoy marijuana, until I tried something with three times as much CBD as THC, and then I got the same enjoyable experience as others seem to. Which makes sense: biologically, THC is the psychosis agon…

I will actually rip a 5mg THC gummy in half, and then divide the half into thirds and take a third over time. This has helped to reduce my anxiety significantly. If I start to feel anxiety, I will actually eat a pure CBD gummy to counteract some of the effects of a THC strain that causes me anxiety.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#125

You have these cells in your brain called Microglia. They are responsible for cleaning up neurons and plaques and other weird proteins. These Microglia are activated by the firing neurons which release 2-AG and AEA (Anadamide). AEA binds to the CB1 receptor in these Microglia. 2-AG binds to CB2. THC binds to CB1. CBD binds to CB2. Autistic adults have significantly low blood serum levels of AEA. Autistic people’s neu…

FAAH inhibitors sound like a good idea .

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#126
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With high-potency strains you can't titrate effectively. "One puff" is a highly variable amount and you can't take 1.3 puffs. Not to mention that there's a minimum amount you have to put in a bowl, and if you don't smoke it, it gets stale and unpleasant. It's like having 85% ABV wine and pouring it into a wine glass and then what? Just take 1.3 sips and pour it back into the bottle?

Pack a smaller bowl. This really isn't difficult. You can VERY easily modulate how much plant matter you put into the bowl and even with very high test strains, you can easily take a smaller puff and wait longer between lighting up. This isn't hard.

At the amounts I'm talking about, with the heavier strains, you can't pack a smaller bowl. What am I supposed to do, pick out a little crumb and put it in there? It won't even be a deterministic amount. That's exactly the problem I'm referring to.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more important than that is capping the THC/CBD ratio. The first time I took an edible it was pure THC, and even at 15mg it almost gave me a panic attack. For a long time I was baffled that anyone could actually enjoy marijuana, until I tried something with three times as much CBD as THC, and then I got the same enjoyable experience as others seem to. Which makes sense: biologically, THC is the psychosis agon…

15mg is pretty high (LOL) to start. I take edibles daily, mostly as a sleep aid but occasionally recreationally, and have been at it for a couple years, and my tolerance has crept up a bit in that time (damnit), and I'm a big dude, and still, 15mg is like the top of what I ever take. 15mg gets me really high. 8-12mg is where I try to stay most of the time, and that used to be ~5mg. You don't have to eat the whole edi…

The full spectrum definitely gives entirely different effects. The first time I took an edible, I split a 75mg gummy with a friend, and had a great time out in the woods. The second time, I took 15mg of almost pure THC gummies, and felt like I was going to have a complete meltdown (while still being out in nature, similar environment with the same friend).

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#128
post #40
post #5

I really recommend people interested in Schizophrenia to read the book “Hidden Valley Road”. I saw it recommended in a HN comment previously. The book follows an American family who gave birth to 12 children, 6 of whom were later diagnosed with schizophrenia in their teens. It’s interesting because the book gives lots of insight into the historical to modern research on the condition. In the past psychologists though…

Genetic cause is often what is claimed of things that are not very well understood at all. Myopia being one of them for instance. (it's actually often an adaptation process that is actually found to be reversible) Wrt SZ, not only is it very badly understood but a lot of the symptoms can be attributed to biochemical disorders and that does not necessarily imply a genetic predisposition at all. Caffeine can induce psy…

> Then again, who knows what lies in people heads too? Perhaps that the thoughts they hear are real and some people just can't process it properly which drive them to do strange things. We discount people's experience but there are so little ways to non-intrusively explore people's internal state. A true scientist wouldn't discount that possibility too.

One of my best friends was schizophrenic and he described the experience as being in the back of the car with someone else driving. A literal observer to his own life. That kind of scared me because I have strong internal dialogues with myself, especially if I'm in conflict over something. He assured me it's nothing like thinking or hearing your own voice; these voices are in fact someone else and the state of your mind makes the experience feel real.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#129
post #81
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, it's surprising to me that I've met many people who claim that edibles are terrible/terrifying. They often don't know how much they took and if they do it's usually way too much for the first time. I suspect it's a combination of bad design (a single gummy being >=10mg) and the fact that most people just don't read and comprehend the labels.

Many people's experience with edibles - especially if it was before legalization - is from homemade stuff, where both the amounts and their distribution throughout the food can be very imprecise.

That’s a good point. Though most of the people I’ve talked to about edibles are young people in California. So I suspect their experiences have been with legal edibles bought at dispensaries.

Re: Heavy marijuana use increases schizophrenia in men, study finds

#130
post #74

Study is probably crap. An association between cannabis use and schizophrenia says nothing about which way the arrow of causation flows. It could very well be that cannabis use causes schizophrenia, or it could be that people feeling early signs of schizophrenia are more likely to use cannabis. There is no way to tell from this kind of study. Science is hard.

" Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. " " Avoid generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It's not shallow at all, and the above comment teaches more than the wild speculation and anecdotes many of the other top-level comments have.
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