Well, Caliban, I don't know where you got that lung cancer stat, considering it goes against pretty much every scientific study ever done. Please post a link. Here are the results from the largest study trying to link marijuana to lung cancer in history, as published in several major newspapers and scientific journals:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01729.htmlStudy Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection
The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."
As an on-again, off-again cigarette smoker for 20 years, and social drinker (alcohol, unlike marijuana, is a known, proven carcinogen), I might very well develop lung cancer. But it would be deliberate disinformation, with malintent, if anyone tried to blame it on marijuana, considering my regular use of two known cancer-causing agents, and exposure to radioactivity as a child.
Here's some info from Wikipedia about how alcohol is a carcinogen:
Alcohol is associated with an increased risk of a number of cancers.[2] 3.6% of all cancer cases and 3.5% of cancer deaths worldwide are attributable to alcohol drinking.[3] Breast cancer in women is linked with alcohol intake.[4] Alcohol also increases the risk of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx and larynx,[5] colorectal cancer,[6][7] liver cancer,[8] stomach[9] and ovaries.[10]
...
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (Centre International de Recherche sur le Cancer) of the World Health Organization has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen. Its evaluation states, "There is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of alcoholic beverages in humans. …Alcoholic beverages are carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)."[12]
And as for marijuana causing schizophrenia? Well, I know one diagnosed schizophrenic - visions, voices, the whole bit - and she did smoke marijuana, but only three or four times, and after she had been diagnosed. I know scores of stoners, and none of them has been diagnosed as schizophrenic. If there is one common psychological paradigm we fall into, it is a rejection of cultural norms that some people classify as eccentric or crazy. For instance, fashion. Many non-stoners will go into debt to stay in fashion throughout their 20s and 30s, because they see commercials and buy new clothing before their old clothing wears out. This is percieved as normal, and is socially acceptable. Most stoners I know are more likely to keep their out-of-style boot-cut jeans until they are torn up, before buying the more stylish skinny jeans, or whatever comes next. This is seen as antisocial, and odd.
But is it? I mean, I have a pair of rubber boots, too, and I sometimes wear them hiking, because I don't own hiking boots and in rainy season, the jungle gets really muddy, too muddy for my sneakers. I'm not going to spend US$150 on new boots, which would be more fashionable (but less effective, frankly). Marijuana costs US$10 per ounce; one ounce lasts me about two weeks, so that would be giving up seven months worth of weed just so people think I'm socially acceptable!
But, yes, I've been accused of being crazy, and since I am stoned, all the time [rolls another joint, noting it is 5am], I suppose you could call it cannabis psychosis. Regardless, I think at least some of this informal diagnosis is more likely to be the result of three things:
1. Being high. I smoke weed all day, every day, because I am an addict. People who don't know I'm high probably think I act weird, even crazy. Seriously, if you didn't know I was a stoner, and you read my posts here, wouldn't you think I was an absolute nutcase? OK, maybe I am, but it might be because I am high all the damned time.
2. DTs. One thing in the "marijuana is harmless" literature that I do disagree with, emphatically, is that marijuana is non-addictive. Sure, it's not intensely addictive in the way alcohol or cigarettes are. If you put an alcoholic in one jail cell, and a stoner in the other, the alcoholic is going to have a much more severe reaction, and may need medical help. The thing is, this reaction is recognized as normal, not "crazy," even though the shaking, screaming obscenities, sweating, and moaning incoherently for several days would seem crazy if you didn't know that alcohol was addictive and those were the standard withdrawal symptoms.
The stoner, on the other hand, is going to be irritable, have difficulty sleeping, and display symptoms I have heard described in actual literature as "bipolar," "manic-depressive," and "chemically depressed." These last about three weeks. These, I believe, are standard withdrawal symptoms, and should be expected from any marijuana addict who has her drug taken away. But it's not! Alcoholics get special treatment and pity, we get ridicule and accusations of insanity. There isn't even a medical description for marijuana withdrawal. Regardeless, what you call marijuana psychosis displayed the first three weeks in jail can and should be attributed to our version of delerium tremors. Also, since marijuana is illegal, we can't just go down to the 7-11 and buy some, like alcoholics can. So at any given moment, we might be suffering from DTs due to a lack of access.
3. Self medication. Like alcohol, cigarettes, and most other drugs, people use marijuana to self-medicate for a number of psychological problems. So perhaps a person is more likely to be nutty to begin with, and turn to drugs.