[scotian]

I was talking to a friend today about doing drugs and the topic of drug psychosis came up, we both have friends who became mentally ill after smoking weed and I remembered this documentary I watched on the CBC a few years ago called "The Downside of High". Basically the movie followed the story of some teenagers in BC, Canada who used marijuana regularly then one day just snapped and ended up in mental hospitals.

I know a couple of guys who experienced this, they smoked pot regularly in their teenage years then one day went all funny and started acting all weird and saying the strangest shit. They would get all emotional and paranoid, eventually their parents got them into a hospital and they had to undergo therapy and counselling.

From the CBC article, "Teenagers who start smoking marijuana before the age of sixteen are four times more likely to become schizophrenic. That's the startling conclusion of some of the world's top schizophrenia experts, whose research is featured in the new documentary The Downside of High. The scientists' groundbreaking work on the connection between marijuana and mental illness also reveals that, for all young adults, smoking marijuana nearly doubles the risk of developing recurring psychosis, paranoia and hallucinations - the hallmarks of schizophrenia.

Ben was first introduced to marijuana while at a high school in BC. His increasingly psychotic behaviour led to a year-long hospitalization.
The Downside of High, directed and written by Bruce Mohun, tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe - along with their doctors - that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. All three spent months in hospital psychiatric wards, and still wage a battle with their illness. Today's super-potent pot may be a big part of the problem. Modern growing techniques have dramatically increased the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - ramping up the threat to the developing teenage brain.

But there's an intriguing twist to the story: in the process of cultivating more potent strains of pot, growers have also been breeding out a little-known ingredient called cannabidiol that seems to buffer the effects of THC. So today's high-octane pot actually contains a double-whammy - more psychosis-producing THC, and less of the protective CBD or cannabidiol.

Tyler was 14 years old when he first started experiencing psychotic episodes.
For many people, smoking marijuana is not a big deal - it is, after all, the most widely-used illegal drug in the world. The Downside of High provides a scientific perspective on some of the little-known and little discussed risks of marijuana, particularly for teenagers."

Link to article: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureof...ideofhigh/

Link to video: (it wasn't working but may be because I'm in Asia) http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The...398511775/

Link to youtube preview video:

I'm not trying to scare people away from smoking weed, I do once in awhile, just wanted to see if any other guys out there had friends who went through the same thing. Its a shitty experience watching a close friend go through something like this.

[Samseau]

Yeah, people shouldn't be allowed to smoke relish till they're 18+. I think this is a good policy for all drugs. People need to finish developing first.

That said, I had a bunch of friends in HS who smoked every day, and I have no idea what happened to any of them. They just dropped off the face of the earth.

[scotian]

(05-04-2013 10:29 AM)Samseau Wrote:  

Yeah, people shouldn't be allowed to smoke relish till they're 18+. I think this is a good policy for all drugs. People need to finish developing first.

That said, I had a bunch of friends in HS who smoked every day, and I have no idea what happened to any of them. They just dropped off the face of the earth.

They're probably still in living in momma's basement playing video games and eating twinkies.

[JayD]

I have a friend who is high everyday. As he wakes up he rips one and continues throughout the day. Its quite sad to be honest as he relies on drugs so heavily to influence his decisions on what he wants to do in life - he lives in a different reality. He has been smoking since he was 14-15. I'm not sure if he's at that stage of psychosis but I do see glimpses of it when he can't get his next hit, it's like he's a different person. No idea how to get through to him.

[Kickb]

I swear this weed turned me into a schizo one night. I kept having thoughts that I got a girl pregnant and I heard a baby crying while I was trying to fall asleep. But none of my neighbors have a baby.

[InternationPlayboy]

It can go both ways. I know people who smoke all day and are mad successful and I know others who are worthless. It just depends on how you let drugs effect you and your dependency on them. I smoke here and there. I'll go through phases where I won't smoke, like now, I haven't smoked for almost two months. Then I'll start smoking again, but maybe once every three days. Then sometimes I'll go a couple weeks or months where I'll smoke once a day or more. But I make sure that I don't have anything important to do. You just have to be responsible about it. I used to be a rugged stoner, smoke all day-every day. To tell you the truth it set me back. I got great grades when I was younger, then when I got into high school and started smoking, I just stopped giving a shit about school. I wasn't responsible about it, but I've learned to be, and now when I smoke I don't notice it effecting me negatively in any way. I'll usually do it after a long day of work when I'm at home watching a movie or surfing through the interweb. Shit, where I live it's legal though, so it's pretty widely accepted to use.

[JimNortonFan]

I have never smoked dope so I had no idea what it was all about. I roomed with this guy and he smoked every day starting at 4 in the afternoon and going until midnight. On weekends he woke up around 10 and smoked until midnight. (People tell me that's a lot.) Balding, fat, 0 game white knight omega. P4P, tried online sex personals. Finally got a girlfriend he met through playing Dungeons and Dragons. She's a solid 5 with big breasts, virgin before she met him. She gets tired of him smoking all weekend long and gives him an ultimatum. Me or the dope. He picks the dope and goes back to incel when he was doing her every night. She gets wistful for his dick (he swore he was 9 inches) and they do FWB. She keeps trying to get him to give up the dope and be with her. He picks the dope.

He swore she was addicted to his alleged 9 inches and at the time I believed him. Now I think he was inadvertently running addiction game. She wanted to feel superior to the dope but he wouldn't let her so she wanted him.

This dude gave up the best woman he ever had and probably ever would have a shot at for dope. So it is addictive.

[Cincinnatus]

I fully believe marijuana can cause psychosis, especially in those whose brains haven't fully developed, or those who are already susceptible to psychological disorders. I think such psychosis is probably caused by day-in, day-out use of marijuana, where the brain never has the opportunity to be sober. Being high all the time is living in an altered reality.

I've always told myself and others that it's cool to put the stuff down for a little while. Being sober is a trip when you're getting high all the time. And when complete sobriety stresses you out, you can always light up again.

[MidniteSpecial]

Marijuana opens up your higher chakras (which is why people get stupid creative) and blocks your lower chakras (which are responsible for motivation and doing things).

Some people have such a high drive and motivation to begin with that they seem to not be affected by weed. But they are. Weed is a plant that robs its host of nutrients. This is why you get so hungry after the high. You have to refill those stores. Once in a while is cool but if you're constantly in restore mode it can takes its toll.

It all comes down to how strong your frame is.

I blazed for over ten years every single day. It became my normal. I stil worked out and banged girls but I wasn't my best self. I was content. I was in denial. I got tired of being tired all the time.

While blazed my game was pretty weak.

I would come home late at night all high thinking aliens were in the woods and shit.

The paranoia is real.

I think government knows this as well an that's why they are more open to legalizing weed now. They won't mind a lazy, easily controlled paranoid public one bit.

Your boy who went crazy from weed needs a serious detox. 7 day fast and all that. Saunas and meditation. I believe in the power of the mind and that he can get back to his old self.

Some people are addicted to being miserable though.

[Caligula]

Know two guys who got cannabis induced psychosis when we were growing up. Not pretty. One just dropped off the face of the earth not sure what happened to him. The other would walk around unshaven at 18 or 19 years old rambling. He was painfully shy and shuffled around looking at his shoes, mumbling whenever you tried to have a conversation. He was a normal kid before this happened, began smoking heavily at 15 or 16 and then snapped at some point.

Met another guy who had experienced psychosis but got over it. He described the it as being terrifying: all the environmental stimuli (background sounds, things moving in your field of vision, physical sensations) were coming through in an unfiltered way. Normally the brain filters out stimuli that you don't need to pay attention to. In his psychosis state it all came through unfiltered in an overwhelming way that made it hard to function. He was convinced he'd never get better but got better after getting treatment.

Young people should be kept off it. It's a big difference between smoking some mellow shit that was grown outdoors and some heavily bred for strength stuff from a hydroponic operation somewhere.

It's one reason I've mostly steered clear of weed. It's of course very rare I have friends who have smoked daily for over a decade with few ill effects but having seen the possible extreme case first hand is scary.

[R Smoov]

I could talk lots of things about this subject, I'll keep it a little brief. This ain't no Narcotics Anonymous shit.

All I'm gonna say is, get high when you're on vacation. If you're at school or something just stick to drinking. I got high and did acid and shit, and it kinda fucked me up. Got sent to rehab for 42 days and such. None of that shit was fun. Now I gotta wait for 2 weeks so I can talk to the dean to see if I can get reinstated.

Do NOT get as high as Rosca to the point where you're PMing Emech scared because you're afraid of your college. Or shooting toy guns at the dean.

[lurker]

...or kids who have undiagnosed schizophrenia issues turn to mood-altering drugs like marijuana at an early age. But that can't be it, right? Must be the weed's fault.

[InternationPlayboy]

(05-04-2013 12:45 PM)JimNortonFan Wrote:  

I have never smoked dope so I had no idea what it was all about. I roomed with this guy and he smoked every day starting at 4 in the afternoon and going until midnight. On weekends he woke up around 10 and smoked until midnight. (People tell me that's a lot.) Balding, fat, 0 game white knight omega. P4P, tried online sex personals. Finally got a girlfriend he met through playing Dungeons and Dragons. She's a solid 5 with big breasts, virgin before she met him. She gets tired of him smoking all weekend long and gives him an ultimatum. Me or the dope. He picks the dope and goes back to incel when he was doing her every night. She gets wistful for his dick (he swore he was 9 inches) and they do FWB. She keeps trying to get him to give up the dope and be with her. He picks the dope.

He swore she was addicted to his alleged 9 inches and at the time I believed him. Now I think he was inadvertently running addiction game. She wanted to feel superior to the dope but he wouldn't let her so she wanted him.

This dude gave up the best woman he ever had and probably ever would have a shot at for dope. So it is addictive.

This is pretty pathetic. I don't know what's worse, him meeting a girl through D&D or him not being able to stop smoking.

As far as the addiction goes, it really depends on personality. I can smoke every day for 3 months straight and then quit cold turkey no problem and not even think twice about smoking. I don't have a very addictive personality. Some people though, I would agree are addicted to pot, I'm not one of them though.

[J DOE]

I used ot do a lot of LSD and I remember on 2 particular LSD trips experiencing psychosis and literally going completely crazy for about a week before I could logically reason myself out of it. I couldn't really see how marijuana could bring psychosis about, but one of my childhood friends who was diagnosed with schizophrenia around 2 years ago isn't allowed to smoke weed anymore. I think all psychedelics have the potential to make you lose your mind under the right circumstances.

[Gator_McKlusky]

I'm crazy productive on weed. It works like ADD medicine for me. My apartment is spotless and I can paint/sculpt/draw and create for hours. Then again, even dead sober I'm constantly moving and doing things. I didn't start smoking until my early 20's and now it is just about an every day thing. In that time, I've managed to graduate cum laude from law school, bag girls and have some amazing life experiences. Some people crack a beer after work, I smoke a bowl. Occasionally take a few weeks to sober up and air out.

I find weed great for day game. I love smoking up, taking the dog for a walk and chatting girls up. It makes "old person rambling" amazingly easy.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I've never tried weed at all, and I've never tried a cigarette either, nor have I ever been drunk. I'm basically an

[InternationPlayboy]

(05-04-2013 05:06 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I've never tried weed at all, and I've never tried a cigarette either, nor have I ever been drunk. I'm basically an

Really?

[Hades]

Schizophrenia has no known cure but it's likely related to (on a world scale) society's shift to agriculture. It's pretty well known that a ketogenic diet can eliminate audio/visual hallucinations in schizophrenics. Still though, weed will worsen it.
source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652467/

Quote:

Over the course of 12 months, C.D. has continued the low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet and has had no recurrence of her auditory or visual hallucinations. She has also continued to lose weight (body weight 131.4 kilograms) and experience improvements in her energy level. She acknowledged having 2–3 isolated episodes of dietary non-compliance that lasted several days, where she ate pasta, bread, and cakes around the winter holidays; however she had no recurrence of her hallucinations.

[The Beast1]

I'm 23, make 60k a year in IT, go to the gym every day, live in a top 10 DMA market, and have 33 notches on my belt.

I also smoke every day.

This is a classic example of correlation does not equal causation. For all we know, these people were most likely prone to these conditions as the symptoms don't even start appearing until early adulthood.

I had a bought of depression during my senior year of college. I smoked mad amounts of green and when i started feeling shitty and stuck, I stopped smoking, went on a detox break, and started taking SSRIs. The drugs didn't help much and made me dead inside. So I hit the self improvement binge hard. That pulled me out of a hole faster than any shrink or SSRIs did.

We can do the same thing for alcohol and blame it on conditions. We all have mental health crises, but it's how we surmount it that splits the men from the boys. The ones (like my younger brother classic omega male) use excuses for their shitty lives and mental health problems. A shrink can help you feel better, but you need to know how to take the step yourself.

My 2 cents.

[JimNortonFan]

Alkies
Potheads
Crackheads
Lotus Eaters

Stay away from:
Booze
Pot
Coke
Opiates

Everyone else has at it. Some people lose it over porn, gambling, or chocolate. Go figure.

[Screwston]

(05-04-2013 06:45 PM)frenchie Wrote:  

We can do the same thing for alcohol and blame it on conditions. We all have mental health crises, but it's how we surmount it that splits the men from the boys. The ones (like my younger brother classic omega male) use excuses for their shitty lives and mental health problems. A shrink can help you feel better, but you need to know how to take the step yourself.

Yeah, I agree. I'm sure I would be told to get on 5 different pills and see a psychiatrist because I talk to myself sometimes. I think sometimes people just have doors that are slightly open in their brain and smoking weed opens them up all the way. I don't know anyone who's gone crazy from getting high. I Have smoked with people who don't know how to chill and control themselves when stoned and you have to keep calming them down because they forget they're high. I've heard of people calling the cops or going to the hospital after smoking

Yes J Doe, you're right. I feel like you lose your mind or are in a different world/universe when you trip. Just gotta do everything in moderation.

[TheSlayer]

(05-04-2013 08:38 PM)houston Wrote:  

Yeah, I agree. I'm sure I would be told to get on 5 different pills and see a psychiatrist because I talk to myself sometimes. I think sometimes people just have doors that are slightly open in their brain and smoking weed opens them up all the way. I don't know anyone who's gone crazy from getting high. I Have smoked with people who don't know how to chill and control themselves when stoned and you have to keep calming them down because they forget they're high. I've heard of people calling the cops or going to the hospital after smoking

Yes J Doe, you're right. I feel like you lose your mind or are in a different world/universe when you trip. Just gotta do everything in moderation.

Yeah, I don't smoke weed often (very occasional) but have a few friends who smoke it every day and they are just fine. I don't even consider weed a "drug" to be honest. I have never heard anyone ODing on weed or anything like that. Agree with your assessment.

[Screwston]

All these new, potent strains are no joke. They last for hours and you have a foggy head all day if you smoke a decent amount. I gotta make sure I have nothing to do for a few hours if someone rolls some up.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

(05-04-2013 05:25 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 05:06 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I've never tried weed at all, and I've never tried a cigarette either, nor have I ever been drunk. I'm basically an

Really?

Honestly. No involved. Part of it is an aversion to addictions or not having control of my actions, I admit, but most of it is just total disinterest in what these things potentially bring. I just don't see how they could make me have fun or improve my life in any way.

p.s. I'm familiar with the smell of weed of course, I have no problem hanging out with people who smoke it

[InternationPlayboy]

(05-05-2013 01:59 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 05:25 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 05:06 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

I've never tried weed at all, and I've never tried a cigarette either, nor have I ever been drunk. I'm basically an

Really?

Honestly. No involved. Part of it is an aversion to addictions or not having control of my actions, I admit, but most of it is just total disinterest in what these things potentially bring. I just don't see how they could make me have fun or improve my life in any way.

p.s. I'm familiar with the smell of weed of course, I have no problem hanging out with people who smoke it

I respect that. It's very rare I meet an adult that hasn't been drunk. You've never been curious about it, just to test it out once? Either way, I have respect for it. I feel that especially alcohol would be a tough vice to stay away from.