[Treetops]

Thought this interesting..

The results are considered particularly worrying as skunk now accounts for around 80 per cent of the street market in cannabis in the United Kingdom.

Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London made the discovery after studying admissions to hospital for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, paranoia and serious depression.

They found that the patients were seven times more likely to have smoked skunk than ordinary cannabis or hash – and that was on top of the increased risk associated with heavy use of the weaker variety of the drug.

"Our study is the first to demonstrate that the risk of psychosis is much greater among people who are frequent cannabis users, especially among those using skunk, rather than occasional users of traditional hash," said Dr Marta Di Forti.

"Unfortunately, skunk is displacing traditional cannabis preparations in many countries, and the availability of skunk on the UK "street market" has steadily increased over the past six years.

"Public education about the risks of heavy use of high potency cannabis is vital."

Around one per cent of the population in the UK suffer a psychotic illness including hallucinations, paranoia and schizophrenia at some point in their lives

Previous studies have established a direct link between cannabis and psychosis and it is generally thought regular use doubles your chances of developing mental health problems.

Teenage cannabis users are particularly susceptible and have been shown to be more likely to develop paranoid personalities, hallucinatations and even schizophrenia later in life.

While family history is the most significant reason for developing a mental illness, cannabis is thought to act as a trigger for the latent disease.

Scientists believe that the active ingredient THC – or Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol – is to blame for the effect.

Old fashioned hash or marijuana contains four per cent THC compared with up to 20 per cent in skunk, a hybrid form of the plant first developed in the Netherlands.

Today's skunk cannabis also contains virtually no traces of another chemical, called CBD (cannabidiol), which appears to counteract the damaging effects of THC in traditional varieties.

Dr Di Forti and her team, which published their results in the British Journal of Psychiatry, collected information from 280 people attending South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust suffering their first symptoms of psychosis.

They found the patients were twice as likely to have used cannabis for more than five years, and six times more likely to use it everyday than a control group of healthy individuals.

Moreover, among those who had used cannabis, patients with psychosis were almost seven times more likely to use skunk.

She said: "Psychosis was associated with more frequent and longer use of cannabis. Our most striking finding is that patients with a first episode of psychosis preferentially used high-potency cannabis preparations of the skunk variety."



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...c-disease.html

[Skip]

Talk about MISinformation! I don't know where to start with this article.

Hash at only 4% THC? Of course they're referring to soapbar, not hashish. That adulterated shit is more harmful than skunk will ever be. It forces ppl to smoke about 5xs more, and who knows what's in it! Smoking soapbar doesn't even get you high, so comparing it to anything is ridiculous.

BTW, there is NO such thing as "skunk" marijuana. It's not a technical term for anything, so unless they have a better definition of what they're talking about, this whole article is nothing but propaganda. Coming from the UK, this is more DEA financed B.S. (they pay for articles/studies like this).

Also, perhaps the real truth is that people with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, paranoia and serious depression purposely seek out marijuana as a therapeutic agent, whether they're aware of these symptoms or not. That's even more likely than the scenario posed by this propaganda piece. And they're seeking out the stronger stuff because they get better relief from their symptoms with it.

It's quite likely that they choose to use cannabis instead of getting shit-faced drunk as most Brits do who have these same symptoms and others. They are simply self-medicating with a healthier recreation drug than alcohol or addictive prescriptions.

While I'm often the first to admit that cannabis can make you paranoid, that's mostly a function of the repressive anti-cannabis LAWS, and not the drug itself.

[Jellyfish]

What Skip said.

Is it not that you still have in Britain haunted houses, Pagan worshippers what ever.It is the land of ghost stories!!!

Namaste

[johnathanvpr]

I dont think I could have said any better than Skip. Its all b/s, we know from the past that these kind of studys are funded by anti M/J, Rich, powerful punks who never look at the reason we all started using M/J in the first place- Im not knockin treetops, just an opinion.

[Pistil_Party09]

yeah how can they even say that "traditional hash" is only four %?
the countries that have been producing and exporting hash for centuries probably would tell you that potency has been relativaly the same...i thought good hash was like 35-65% THC?
every time ive gotten hash its like 3-5 hits and youre gone.
whats next, the cops here in the US telling the sheeple that 80% of cannabis is kush! beware! its ultra dangerous!
these prohibitionist assholes make my blood boil. grrrrr.

[thirdeye]

Is any of that skunk available?

[Rustylions]

Someone is paying a lot of money to be able to say
"oh but it wasn't as strong in my day" it seems.

[nnep]

This article is basically saying in so many words or less "Hey, there is pot that's pretty strong"

Thanks scientists! Not like this hasn't been around for decades! I will agree with one point, that young kids that are still developing into mature adults should not smoke pot.

[Lorenzo]

thanks skip!