Washington, DC: An editorial to be published in this week’s issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns of an association between the heavy use of marijuana and schizophrenia and depression. The editorial, which admits that marijuana’s potential role or non-role in precipitating either condition remains yet unresolved, accompanies three separate studies examining the issue and is expected to renew debates regarding marijuana’s potential health risks.
While not commenting on the methodology of the new studies, NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre noted that pot’s potential, though marginal, risk in patient populations already predisposed to certain psychiatric disorders should in no way justify arresting and jailing responsible adult marijuana smokers, or deny doctor’s from prescribing it to other types of seriously ill patients. “Any risk presented by marijuana smoking falls within the ambit of choice we permit the individual in a free society,” he said. “We do not suggest that marijuana is totally harmless. No drugs are, including those that are legal. Clearly, however, marijuana’s relative risk to the user and society in no way supports criminal prohibition or the continued arrest of more than 700,000 Americans on marijuana charges every year.”
St. Pierre also noted that previous scientific reviews regarding marijuana’s impact on health, including a 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM), have played down links between marijuana use and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. “Daily cigarette smoking among adolescent boys is more strongly associated with psychiatric disorders than is any use of illicit substances,” the IOM concluded.
In addition, some researchers believe that marijuana may actually play a role in treating schizophrenia. For example, a 1999 study by scientists at the University of California at Irvine speculated that the body may produce higher levels of the THC-like chemical anandamide to combat the effects of schizophrenia.
“Arguably, this research is in it’s infancy,” St. Pierre concluded. “However, epidemiological evidence gleaned from thousands of years of marijuana smoking indicates that if there is a risk associated with the use of marijuana and these ailments, then that risk is exceptionally small.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. The BMJ series will appear in the November 23 issue.