Cannabis Increases Chances of Psychosis

So says the almighty news source CNN. Now I am not saying CNN would lie, or that they are even wrong, what I am going to say however is that CNN is an American news station reporting an UK report. Both countries have a history of anti-drug sentiment, and US media tends to sensationalize news as much as possible. That being said I wouldn’t want to be called a hypocrite for not letting the facts speak for themselves, so lets examine the actual article shall we.

According to the article marijuana users have a 40% increased chance of developing schizophrenia, however at the same time the article said that they could not prove that the plant itself caused this increased risk, the study openly admits that it is possible that people with schizophrenic tendencies might just be at an increased likelihood of becoming marijuana users. The article then goes on to quote someone, who had nothing to do with the study, saying, “Experts are now agreed on the connection between cannabis and psychoses. What we need now is for 14-year-olds to know it.” How in gods name can they say experts are agreed when the study itself shows nothing?

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think studies like this should stop, I think they should find out if Cannabis causes any mental problems, however they should do real studies and not just reprise old data. Has the modern worlds researchers gotten so lazy that they can’t gather data on their own and rather use old data and try to find new information. Study the effects of THC on users, the actual effects not statistical numbers. Find a bio-chemical effect that causes schizophrenia. Too many of these studies come out each year showing nothing of consequence. Statistics can be used to prove any thing you want if you massage the data enough. I had a teacher once emphasize to the class how incredibly useful mathematical proof was, and how completely unreliable they are as well. This teacher told the class of us of student of his (I will not vouch that this is a real story, just that he told it) that proved without a doubt that three holed lined paper was a message from Alpha Centauri, I believe it went something along the line of if you count the number of blue lines and multiply it by twice the length of the paper (i.e. the total length of the two red lines) and multiply it again by three (the number of holes) you got the exact distance between our solar system and Alpha Centauri. Massage numbers enough and you will find a result that is favorable to your cause.