Finishing off the Sunday papers, I read about the potential link between mental illness and cannabis use.

From looking at my friends, I would say those that smoke regularly do seem to have a different way of seeing things, including paranoia, which seems to me to be a rather warped view of the world.

What do you think? Do the pros outweight the cons?? Anyone have any experience of this issue?

i am in a circle of friends of cannabis users so have first hand knowledge of the stuff. out of a group of 15 to 20 people there are only two who have ever reacted badly to cannabis, and that only with skunk because its too strong, but they can use charis and hash no problem. and that is only because they were using it far too excessively. actually my ex went a bit weird be he had mental issues before he started smoking and used to do four foot tall bongs aged 14. i myself love the stuff, if i have too much i get a bit lazy and pig out, but otherwise it is like an artistic key to my brain, i could spend hours and hours on end creating art that i might otherwise give up on soberly. i have made someof my best pieces of work while completely smashed. from what i found it only has real long term damadge on boys who start you young and do too much.

hmm...I'm not sure I think in some cases without a doubt ive had friends who went a bit funny, but i didnt know them before...I think if you have the specific defect within you that could allow you to become mentally ill then weed will definatly act as a trigger, but even if you dont it screws with your just general everyday function. I started smoking it when i was 17/18 and then was smoking pretty much everyday from 20 to nearly 22, I gave up a week before my 22nd birthday, so thats about 5 weeks now i havent had any.
i gave up becasue I'm a responsible adult with a respectful job, a good education, a very nice lifestyle and i dont need to ruin my memory and make myself just generally distant from everything else.....
So even if there are no proven links to mentall illness it still makes you different.

that cannabis can make mental problems worse where they already exist, which can be frightening if you didn't realise you had them in the first place.
But just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, is an after-work joint really any worse than an after work glass of wine for those who are balanced and healthy?
Give that the NHS is under immense strain cleaning up every weekend after alcohol-soaked nights on the town, should more money and effort not be being put into fighting binge drinking, which I would say was a far worse problem for the future of our society?
I know they are having something of a crack-down, but we need a real social shift here. Especially in universities, where Fresher's Week are almost always geared around alcohol and drinking to make friends. Obviously it is a social lubricant in a way that cannabis will never be, which rather pessimistically means it will always be more socially acceptable.
What do you reckon??

I lost a whole year of my life due to trying cannabis only once.

In May 2003 I was at uni up north and my friend made some hash cakes. I thought why not, I'll try anything once - I'd always been against drugs but thought being at uni, it would be ok, you can't knock it unless you've tried it etc. I was curious.

Anyway, I had rather a lot, went down to the union that evening and got really paranoid that my throat was closing up and I couldn't breath. I told my friends I felt bad, and had to go home, but ended up having a full blown panic attack on the way. It was the scariest experience I've ever had, I thought I was going to die.

I eventually made it back but the panic attacks lasted for several more hours. I was ok again the next day, but kept having panic attacks for no real reason which became more and more frequent until I was having at least one a day.

By this point, I was in what felt like a constant state of panic. I would shake, my heart would race and I was terrified of everything and anything. I dropped out of uni, left work etc, I could no longer live a normal life. That lasted for a year.

Before trying hash, I had never had a panic attack, although I admit I have always been a fairly anxious person. I'm finally back to rights now but would never touch it again after everything I went through.

I wanted to post, as I feel very strongly about this issue. Cannabis can cause real damage, and I think peopl are stupid to take it.

In my opinion, there is a definite link between cannabis and mental illness in people who are predisposed to mental illness.

I'm not being judgemental towards cannabis users at all....I indulge myself occassionally....but time and time again I've seen how cannabis can and does induce psychotic states.

It's like alcohol, while most people can drink without any ill effects on their mental state or personality, some people become completely different people (eg violent) and those people shouldn't drink at all.

I have also met people who believe that cannabis relieves symptoms of some diseasas, (pain, trouble sleeping/relaxing etc) and self-medicate. I'm not convinced, are they actually making things worse for themselves?

Again, I'm not saying that cannabis is harmful full stop, just maybe to those with a predisposition.

i work in a psychiatric unit and there is a strong definate link between mental illness and cannabis, about 90% of our patients have all been in contact with drugs, using cannabis first then moving on to try other drugs. my brother was admitted into a psychiatric unit about 3 years ago with drug induced psychosis. all centered around paranoia. when you are young and you smoke cannabis, your brain is still growing and by smoking cannabis it sort of short circuits it, you then need to mend the bits that are broken, its not an easy job, especially if someone carries on smoking it.

i also work in mental health, and i think the link between personal idiosynchrasies/drug reaction is so important-so many people think nothing bad will happen to them just because they have seen or heard of others using without adverse affect-even with prescribed drugs with so much testing you never can tell-sometimes the results are not what we expect...epilepsy medication that helped where every anti-psychotic failed...there are heaps of examples-but what it means is we dont really know how the brain will react to certain substances-and sometimes damage is permanent as you pointed out-wiring can be tricky....ive seen so many people who were in that "should never partake" category.