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Jesus Christ, so many ignorant people in this thread trying to question the scientific data with nothing but their own fee-fees about the politics of cannabis legality and capitalism. So much for this being a science forum.
Cannabis use was more common among: ... Youth on Medicaid or living in more deprived neighborhoods
Regular reminder that correlation =/= causation. Living a more stressful life due to poverty makes both mental illness and adolescent cannabis use more common.
That said there is a credible biological pathway to cannabis use having a causal role:
THC acts on CB1 receptors, which are highly expressed in the adolescent brain and play a key role in emotional regulation, motivation, and cognitive development.
However we still don't have definitive evidence of causation:
Q: Does this study prove cannabis causes mental illness? A: While causation can’t be definitively established, cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of developing psychiatric conditions
Additionally, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are both heritable conditions, and if a parent or grandparent has one of these diagnoses, the family is significantly more likely to also be experiencing poverty or other adverse events, which in turn makes it more likely that the predisposed child will develop the inherited condition.
That is exactly what I was wondering.
And it gets even more complex, because suppose you have these mental conditions - your threshold for taking medicine and / or drugs is probably lower.
So right now there's still a good chance causation can be inverse.
That said, very important to take these studies seriously. No one should care about being right, it will always be about getting it right.
Classic case of using cannabis as a scapegoat in a random study to "prove" how harmful it is. Tale as old as time.
"I don't like the result of this study so its random and wrong."
Lol. Lmao even. What was that about tales as old as time?
I lean toward that interpretation but am open to being wrong.
I work in mental health and was surprised by the amount of people in the field who believe marijuana is part of the problem, not just a symptom of it.
As someone that came out of a CSA victim position, most everyone I knew that was using in High School - the girls most of all - were dealing with similar issues.
Whether it was low-key sexual assault - being groped, or pressured to "put out" or even family friends or relatives, (in my own case it was "Uncle Touchy" in 1978, when I was 13.. He was 34, hairy, chicken-chested and gross and thought he was God's Gift to women..) in the late 70's / early 80's there was a lot of sexual abuse that was part of the landscape for girls "growing up".
Much of it came out of the social norms of the time - the fallout of the "swinging" 70's where it was all about sex. 24/7 sex, preferrably with 14 year olds, as that was the age in which the consensus was that there was something wrong with you if your cherry hadn't been popped.. Just a dreadful era, honestly.
The pot use was to numb the pain and forget what they'd gone through. I chose not to forget.. and got stoned anyhow.
Did the study account for confounding variables like ... capitalism?
Much easier to blame the individuals for their choices than to look at the system abusing them.
Not the news people want to hear. Seems like a pretty large study, too.
Yeah I'm sure the "cannabis is completely harmless" crowd will have normal reactions to this
I thought that this is just confirmation of other studies? We knew that it exacerbates underlying mental conditions, especially in those underage.
I don't think I have met the crowd you refer to.
But where is the study? Maybe this is my bad but I couldn’t actually find the paper that explains the methodology, nor could I find in which journal this is published and if this got peer reviewed?
I think it's the blue word that says "Study ." below the link.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2845356
Ah yeah thank you! Im used to stuff like SSRN where you can’t miss the link
Yes. Children should not use harder/recreational drugs
Study of age 13-17yo kids, but the thumbnail is of a 7 year old rip master, who’s monster bong loads are phatter than all those teens.
You made me think that it would be an absolute cosmic joke if we discovered that the effects of cannabis on children under 13 were, paradoxically, incredibly positive. Imagine all the privileged parents being like : "I'm making sure he's vaping THC all day, I want him to have opportunities!"
feeling good is illegal. nothing psychotic about that
This just confirms what psychiatrists already knew for a long time. Cannabis use accentuates the probability of mental illnesses.
More specifically, for someone who has a genetic predisposition to developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, cannabis use will make it more likely that you yourself will develop that condition. If you have someone in your family with schizophrenia or bipolar, you would do well to avoid cannabis use, especially as a teenager or young adult.
Thank you for making this remark, this is not new information.
Anecdotally speaking, this has been my experience as well. I would even go so far as to say the kids I know who smoked the most (or had that reputation) are the ones with the most/worst psychiatric issues as adults.
I have nothing against cannabis use and I do not judge people who use it, but I think parents who are too accepting / forgiving of their teenagers' use are doing them a disservice. Additionally, when I was a teen, kids were smoking actual, real weed. These days, kids are vaping and using what are essentially poorly tested/understood pharmaceuticals. I won't claim to be an expert in the topic, but I certainly think there's ample reason to be concerned about the effects of these things.
Counterpoint: I'm fuckin' chillin dude.
Amen to that. Had a downstairs neighbor that goes to a dispensary all the time and uses vapes. Tried some and it did fuck-all for me, other than give me a headache and make me feel queasy.
Shit's not right. I've got a tin with 40+ year old beans and at some point in the spring am going to see if I can germinate some of it and see what grows and if it's better.
NGL, what there is that I've tried in the past decade isn't impressive.
Quick release high and even quicker come down. What happened to the easy rise and long, slow return that gave you a lift for an entire afternoon?
Were living in basically the golden age of Cannabis. Just because some poor products are popular among certain populations doesn't mean that it's all crap. You can find literally any kind of seed you could ever imagine now.
Thank you.
Maybe someone can tell if this is peer reviewed and if this is actually published in a reputable journal and also what’s the agenda of the institutes funding this.
Lot to ask I guess but I have 0 clue about this field and don’t really know how seriously I should take this
It's the journal of the American Medical Association, it's a peer reviewed journal and it's as reputable as scientific journals come. the author affiliations are listed at the top of the article if you click the dropdown:
There's a real link between cannabis use and some mental illnesses, this isn't the first paper to make that connection. What that connection is and whether cannabis use among children is causing mental illness is still AFAIK an open question. There are, according to my psychiatrist, conflicting data on whether cannabis makes depression worse or better. It seems to help for me, so I continue to use it with their supervision and advice, but I also know people who quit cannabis and felt better as a result, so I think if you use it and have one of these illnesses, it's worth running your own trials to determine whether it's helping or hurting.
Hit the "article information" link and lots of that is spelled out there
It’s not. They disclose the conflict of interest and source of funding part but that doesn’t tell me who the funding sources are and what’s their agenda? I only have this question because I read the article information.
Also this doesn’t tell me anything about journal ranking, I don’t even know if this is a proper journal, let alone if it’s peer reviewed. If you drop a link to the Lancet it’s cool I know it, I’m still not going to abandon my critical thinking but I will give the benefit of the doubt.
It’s not so much that I necessarily think their findings are implausible or anything, it’s just that I want to discuss science in a scientific way in a science community, and those are normal things to ask.
I don't care because you don't care. I'm not interested in hearing all your thoughts on this subject when you can't be bothered to research on your own.
Great, another article that blames the young and poor for their misbehaving but completely ignores what caused those in the first place. Seems like sound and legitimate science done in good faith...
So Reefer Madness is true?
Got the muchies for a california cheeseburger.
God, that would be so cool.. A few tokes and I could madly play jazz piano..
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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