Marijuana pt 2

On August 1 a study was published in England that shows an increase for Psychosis among older adults who have smoked marijuana at any age. And it seems that the more you smoked, the greater the risk. They were very careful to eliminate “confounding factors” that would otherwise explain the differences. It comes Well it’s very early in my column’s life span to start retracting my statements but I feel like this is worth mentioning. I was on the fence about the biology of marijuana use in my previous writing, more worried about the legal consequences. I have spent too many hours on the phone trying to find a rehab program for an eighty-year-old man who has court ordered treatment but won’t be able to handle the rigors of a program designed for thirty year olds.
down to this… if you smoke grass you are more vulnerable later in life to getting thought disorders, delusions and hallucinations. You might know someone who has a fixed belief in something that doesn’t fit in the culture and no one else can make sense of. Jealous ideas, people stealing unimportant items and returning them, being monitored by neighbors for unknown reasons or because one is secretly very special, these are delusions. If someone sees, hears or feels something that isn’t there, it’s an hallucination.
The treatments available for psychosis are still a little rough. The older medications will sometimes produce symptoms that look like Parkinson’s Disease, the newer ones often cause weight gain and metabolic syndrome leading to diabetes. These side effects are nearly always preferred to suffering with the symptoms, but they are still unpleasant. My opinion on medical marijuana is shifting. I think the science would suggest using marijuana for a serious, potentially life threatening condition like appetite disturbance and chemotherapy would be worth the risk. The chance it might prevent Alzheimer’s Disease is not worth the risk. Getting high to watch cartoons is definitely not worth the risk. The bottom line would still be the same as my previous writing. It’s a bad idea to drive to bingo with 200 pounds of smoke in the trunk of your car.