RE: Schizophrenia, drugs link?

[anakirob]

Before I make my point I would like to say

DISCLAIMER
I do not advocate the use of recreational drugs in this forum
I am just stating an opinion

On the link between amphetamine/cannabis and schizophrenia, I believe it is the disease which causes the substance abuse, not the substance which causes the disease.

Just had to get that off my chest.  :-?

[anakirob]

@cecilia: you are the only person posted to this thread who seems to get the point I was trying to make. (and you probably didn't even read the original post :lol: )

Shizophrenia, we all seem to agree, is a chemical imbalance in the brain. This imbalance is distressing to a sufferer of this disease, and when pharmaceutical medicine cannot help, many seek alternative medication (or maybe just too paranoid to see a doc.).

When the substance is Alcohol, nobody minds too much because it's legal. When it's heroine / opium, nobody notices because this is an anti-psycotic. But when it's weed, everybody gets upset, because this is, although illegal in most countries, a popular recreational drug and (ignorant + bigoted) cops / teachers / parents tend to need as much ammunition as they can get in an anti-marijuana argument.

Unfortunatley, the link between mental illness and cannabis CANNOT be explored objectivley in any country where it is illegal / prohibited (even holland). This is a sad fact. Some doctors have tried, all have stumbled over the same hurdles.

Even if weed does make you psycho, Marijuana is in my opinion far less harmful than alcohol. I have seen many a drunk get violent or sleazy and generally do things which they would not do normally. I have never yet seen someone do crazy stuff because they are stoned (they can rant a bit though).

Oh, and everybody who said something like "I DON'T TAKE DRUGS" in this thread...

...Everything you put into your body affects your neural chemistry. Every time you eat food, your body makes endorphins (babies can be given a little sugar as a mild analgesic), this is especially true for some foods such as chocholate, cheese, red meat. Maltrexone (i think it's called) the drug which blocks the endorphine receptors can cure a chocholate addict as much as it can cure a "smack-head". Processed sugar is a stimulant more powerful than amphetamine, but most of us are addicted to this at an early age, so we don't notice. So therefore. YOU DO TAKE MIND ALTERING DRUGS EVERY DAY! Just not the illegal ones.

[anakirob]

I'll be as semantic as I please. If you don't like it, don't take the bait.

Smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease!
Eating causes bowel cancer and heart disease! A low calorie diet has been found to increase an individuals life expectancy considerably.
(OK, so you don't get energy from tobacco smoke, but my point is still valid)
Exercise is addictive and can cause any number of injuries!

Everything you do to/with your body causes wear and tear. If you want do do something which is totally not bad for your body, you would go into cryosleep and never awaken.

I was just reading another thread on overpopulation, if everybody smoked, then this would not be such a problem as we would all die a little sooner :lol:. If I had to choose between happy and healthy (although these often go together anyway), I would choose happy, even if I do choke on my own lung tumor when I laugh with joy.

But of course I'm not advocating that you smoke anything.

P.S.
C.R.A.P. Trying to get around the amiga.org auto-censor are we? :lol:

[anakirob]

@T-BONE!

Nobody cares about alcohol or opiates? Opiates are antipsychotics? People get more upset about weed than heroin?? Where the heck do you live?

If you would take another look at my post I DID NOT SAY "Nobody cares about opiates." I said nobody notices [the link between the disease and the substance abuse] because it's anti-psychotic. And yes. Opium (morphine, heroine, etc.) ARE TOO anti-psych! Look it up if you do not believe me.
BTW...
I live in Australia (Tasmania), where most people speak english as their native language. If only you knew how to read it properly we would not have such poor communications :-P .
[Yankees don't speak proper English (but they like to believe they do), they speak American-English]

[anakirob]

Woah, It seems I touched a nerve with this topic. Anyway, I have done a bit of research (and still doing more). And it seems that medicinal usage of THC-25 is not such a ridiculous idea.

Possible medicinal uses for Tetrahydracanibonol Delta 29 (THC-29:the main psychoactive molecule in buds) include:

Anti-psychotic!? - just as opiates which bind to endorphine receptors block pain, THC-29 can block psychoses by binding to the (anawhatever) receptors.

Anti-Depressant - this works in much the same way (it would seem to me that depression must be a kind of psychoses).

Appetite stimulant - but I think surely anorexics would be harder to fool than that.

Muscle relaxant - to anyone familiar with the drug, this is obvious.

Sleep aid - after the initial high wears off, THC-29 makes one drowsy. Indeed, an addict will find it difficult to sleep without it.

Analgesic - although THC-29 does not block pain signals like opiaum / paracetemol / ibupropen. It does reduce the wavelength of the pain impulse considerably, and in a way which no other drug known to man (at this point in time) can.

Besides, what's so bad about taking a substance for recreational purposes anyway? I drink coffee every morning, and rarely does a day go by when I don't consume at least 50g of chocholate.