• Question: why dod you think there might be a link between cannabis and psychosis??

    Asked by dino123aoife to Suzi on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by kaboom2.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @dino123aoife
      Thanks for the question. The reason I thought there might be a link between cannabis and psychosis is because some evidence collected by scientists seemed to point to a link between the 2. People with psychosis were more likely to smoke cannabis.

      The reason we’re not sure what this means if quite complicated. Firstly, cannabis use is quite common, but psychosis is very rare, so they’re hard things to compare to each other. Also, some evidence has also suggested that they are NOT related. A study found that cannabis use increased a lot in the last 30 years, but there hasn’t been the same increase in the number of people with psychosis. So this made people question some of the other results. Some people have also suggested that maybe it’s the other way round, so people with psychosis find that smoking cannabis can help to make their psychosis less unpleasant, so they are more likely to smoke it AFTER they become ill.

      I am using a slightly different method to look at the question, and hope I can add something to the confusion which there is at the moment, and hopefully help to find out what’s correct!

      Hope this answers your question, feel free to ask more 🙂

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