As a psyc nurse too I have to support IL4 and Spudchucka.
It gets very wearying to always be confronted with the norml and teenage rebel libertarian type propaganda re "its not really harmful" "its victimless".
The hippy generation has done a good job of putting positive spin on dope and that itself has caused a lot of damage.
In quite a few years working in acute psyc wards I can tell everyone here that perhaps over half of all seriously ill people admitted are admitted solely because they have been smoking!!! Strange but true.
Yes we could save very many health dollars at roughly $800 or more a night in hospital (cut the mental health budget in half I'd guesstimate) if there was some way to stop thousands of people with mental health issues from smoking as it is the leading cause of 'reviolving door' acute patients.
Handover reports usually go something like this
"Mr A was admitted today due to exacerbation of schizophrenia with command auditory hallucinations related to use of mj in contravention to the conditions of his treatment order - he was doing well until he began smoking again"
"Ms C was admitted today due to a manic episode running round naked as she tried to seduce her sons teacher pursuant to a 3 day history of mj use'
"So and so tried to ?commit suicide or ?fly off a building thinking he was superman as a result of a drug related psychosis triggered his partner says by... yes, you guessed it"
"Now this is really an intriguing case - no marijuana was involved...."
True cases I have direct experience of
A manic depressive (mood swings from elation to depressed in a cycle over months) whose about 2 month history of heavy smoking led to a wacky psychosis which caused him at about 25 while high plus "high" to rape two grannies he stalked killing one. He had a weird deviate personality anyway but the dope removed his inhibitions, tipped the balance and increased his nuttiness no end.
Not one but 2 schizophrenic mothers whose smoking shifted the balance from just having a tenuos grip on reality and right vs wrong to losing that fully.
One horrifically murdered her baby believing it was the devil. Was very very sorry when the cannabis out of system and boosted psyc drugs corrected the madness it had exacerbated.
Another mum left hospital with her schizophrenia well in control but took up the pot. Within 3 weeks had murdered her 9 year old daughter due to weird beliefs as a result of the dope counteracting her medicine.
There are many parents I know that will tell you that addiction to weed directly caused their late teens or twenty something kids to suicide by screwing up their heads. They make submissions every time this issue is before parliament.
I believe pot may also have featured in a case of murder/cannibalism.
40% of Northlanders to die in road crashes have recently used dope. Thru my job I know of many more innocent victims of drivers stoned JUST on marijuana.
The damage this drug causes is significant - particularly in the mental health area, even if it's little known.
Tell the family members that psych patients murder after a few days on weed (thanks Spudchucka) that it was harmless.
And the really awful thing is that if they fear their stoned schizo kid and try to get them committed psyc wards often will not admit someone who is stoned "because we can't really assess what is really going on - ie if this is mental illness truly rather than just transitory intoxication".
Marijuana is an absolute evil for some people and there is no knowing for who.
We all have no less than 700 neurotransmitter chemicals in our brains resposible for the smooth flow of thinking and emotional regulation. Dope upsets vital pathways in some people extremely.
Reefer madness is a US term for it I think and that understates. You canoften tell a patient who has been smoking buy their word salad ie scrambled thinking flow is evident from their sentences being disjointed in meaning and their paragraphs too.
Associations can loosen in 'normal' smokers but this is greatly exaggerated in psyc patients. So you will hear sentences like
"Green grass outside but who will cut the hair and scissors will cut off the french ladies head because a gillette razor is red with blood - his hair is red over there that guy in the white coat. I remember that means something bad so assuming the sign of the times is in exterior paint wants he to kill me..."
When you can't think straight you get anxious and can easily jump to the wrong conclusions ='s paranoia (as result of psychotic thought processes).
Nb. Not all para schizos have scrambly thoughts at times but many will.
On the good side it is clearly fairly benign for and enjoyed by some people whose brain chemistry is not on the wobbly easily imbalanced side.
I imagine that far greater numbers sit in between it being an evil for them and just a harmless recreation. From my observations the majority of users are dependent or addicted and their life is the worse for it in many areas eg antisocial, domestics, unmotivated, get fat, bad taste in casual sex as with alcohol, don't develop good stress coping skills etc.
I approve medical use for some types of pain and particularly MS and strokes.
Have nursed HIV patients here with dope that a Dr used to score and deliver for them.
Have been a live in nurse for a dying MS patient 40 years of age in a council flat in London. One of his most important basic cares was for me to regularly hold the joint to his mouth for pain relief. The nursing agency that hired me checked first that this would fit with my professional ethics. I agreed.
This drug worked best for this patient and he did not want to have clouded consciousness on heavier drugs. The fumes in the unventilated room stunk and I think that was a very 'relaxing' environment which made time pass even tho I hate smoking myself and don't. Passive smoking is much more tolerable.
Don't believe in gateway theory. It is what it is - chocolate for some, rat poison for others.
Ridiculous Police resources are poured in to it - megabiucks if y'all check norml website out and hundreds of thjousands of Police hours when women getting murdered can't even get help a 111. Those same resources could be used to reduce violent crime and the road toll and do early intervention with 'at risk' kids.
To my mind prohibition enforcement efforts are not justifiable. Thats messing with some peoples and whole communities incomes who will turn to nastier income streams if squeezed out as another said.
Decriminalise is my word on it - not a poll option. That wouuld also make medical use risk free for patients. Drs and nurses. But for god sakes keep it out of mental health patients hands. No such illness is helped by it regardless of what the Green nuts who wrote 'mental health use' into that med-pot bill are claiming. It is the arch enemy of mental health. An ingredient for chaos.
They have obviously been listening to paranoid schizos and don't realise that yes they say they like it "to reduce anxiety" but hey it also turns them into paranoid deluded certifiable often violent monsters (yet they forget this)!
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Originally Posted by onearmedbandit
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