Marijuana and Schizophrenia

Smoking pot apparently causes similar brain changes as schizophrenia and hastens the onset of the disease in those who are otherwise susceptible. I have often dismissed such research in the past as drug war propaganda, but this is pretty solid stuff done in the fairly liberal socialist democracy of Denmark. Perhaps most disturbing was this passage:

A second study by researchers at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York looked at the brains of teenagers, comparing some who were heavy cannabis users with schizophrenic patients and healthy adolescents.

The team used a sophisticated scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) which measures the motion of water molecules in the brain which can indicate microscopic abnormalities.

They found similar abnormalities in an area of the brain linked to high level linguistic and auditory skill in cannabis users and those with schizophrenia.

They focused on the arcuate fasciculus, a bundle of fibres connecting the Broca's area in the left frontal lobe and the Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe.

The abnormalities were not seen in healthy teenagers.

Dr Mazar Ashtari, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine who led the study, said: "Because this language/auditory pathway continues to develop during adolescence, it is most susceptible to the neurotoxins introduced into the body through marijuana use."

This means even if one has no familial tendency to develop schizophrenia, chronic pot smoking may cause schizoid like changes in the brain.

Some users of marijuana and other psychedelic (or entheogenic) substances like to think they have opened the doors of perception through their indulgence and that those who don't partake just have blinders on. I will grant this may be true for occasional use of mind altering substances like pot and mushrooms in an ideal set and setting (as advocated by Timothy Leary back in his serious research days). However, mounting evidence suggests chronic daily use disturbs the mind of almost all users, particularly those who became habituated in their teens. If you resist this idea, then how do you reconcile the fact that the brain structure of a daily lifelong marijuana user probably looks more like someone with psychosis than it does like that of an enlightened sage. Just because a little of something may be desirable under certain conditions doesn't mean a lot all the time is even more beneficial.