Asking because my family history of mental health isn’t super great.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    I mean, it’s a thing. You can look it up and find documentation on it. It’s in the DSM-5, the main diagnostic tome for mental health. Here’s an overview in a reputable source. It’s listed as cannabis induced psychosis though.

    It isn’t exactly a super common thing relative to total population, and there’s a good bit of debate about exactly how much of it is purely an affect in people already prone to psychosis or schizophrenia, and how much is causative. However, I’ve never seen any research into whether it’s 100% about the weed, or if it’s related to other things that are in the weed, and/or if it would be set off by anything that tweaked dopamine in a similar way.

    There are other drugs known to trigger psychosis and schizophrenia, and they don’t necessarily work the exact same way. So there’s a good chance that if you don’t have an unusually high chance to end up there, that you won’t, no matter how much you smoke. But there’s just not enough data to be certain.

    What is certain is that it isn’t just scaremongering. It may be used to try and scaremonger, but that’s a different thing.

    The numbers I’ve seen are low enough that you might go decades in ER work and never see it because it isn’t instant. You won’t really know if it’s CIP until a patient history has been taken, other tests run, etc. So the comments talking about ER veterans not having seen it are irrelevant. They wouldn’t be in on the diagnosis. Now, someone in a psych unit might have a useful anecdote about never having seen it during their career. But it’s also not an all day every day thing.

    It’s a relatively infrequent event. Even in a big city, you might see a hundred cases a year that can be definitely diagnosed, and it won’t all be at the same hospital.

    However, if anyone working in an ER says they’ve never seen anyone in for any cannabis related issues, they’re either lying, or didn’t work there long. People get greened out, or get a bad trip, or get stuff that’s laced often enough that you’ll see it if you even do part time in an ER. It won’t be every day, or even every week (or it didn’t used to), but the rate of such occurrence is increasing as legalization spreads access and the willingness to both seek help and be honest. That’s a fact you can look up, you don’t have to trust anyone.

    Cannabis is a plant with around a dozen potent psychoactive components. That’s why people use it. To assume that everyone is going to react the same to them, in varying proportions, at betting varying levels is just stupid. You can have something as mild as aspirin, perfectly controlled during manufacture for potency, and still have the occasional weird response.

    Doesn’t matter how you take it in, you can’t accurately predict your response until you’ve taken it in the first time, and even then you’d need more use to really call it accurate. Then you can still run into weird shit, or laced shit, or shit that’s just way stronger than you’re used to.

    Me? I have unpleasant reactions to the stuff, so I don’t use it. I wish I could because it can do great things for people. If I had a history psychosis or schizophrenia in my family, I wouldn’t even stay around where it’s being smoked or used in a way it could get into my system. Just not worth it, because it can happen, and it is most definitely a real thing, no matter how poorly researched it is currently.