Rocky Road

Hmmm. Check out the Crisis & Trauma institute and the work they do. http://www.ctrinstitute.com

What would MADD say?

I do agree with harm reduction.

Substance abuse is a major ill to society, it ruins peoples lives. And these people just don't go away, these lowlives as you call them. They still need to be fed, clothed, and housed. Many mentally ill end up homeless and desperate because they have fallen through the cracks. Jails, mental health wards and recovery treatment centres are meant to help people to make better choices. What about the link to crime? You think drugs and crime don't go hand in hand? FYI pot is illegal in most countries around the world, some tolerate it because it is simply more efficient [cost-effective] to do so. You do not want to smoke weed in places like Saudi Arabia, China, Korea, Iran, Russia, etc...because the liberal values just aren't there. You think Holland is liking the Pot tourism they have in with all their cafes. No. It is frowned upon. If Canada legalizes it we would suddenly attract major international attention for being so radical in our policy making. It is a pipe dream!!! Delusional!

Ok!! Now we are getting somewhere. Good luck getting it legalized, it will never happen. Medicinal cannabis may be ok for people with glaucoma, AIDS, terminal cancer, polio, and severe pain.

http://www.anishinaabe.ca/bgc/index.php/2006/02/03/drawing-similarities-between-first-nations-and-muslims/ MORE SYMPATHY TO TERRORISTS.

What about sobriety? Don't you see the virtue in being sober. I think part of the being high is an overzealous attitude and a confidence in that mindset that is ill informed. Look at Marc Emery, the "Prince of pot" ...where did Pot activism get him? In jail in the US for several years making purses for the privatized prison system in the US. I bet ya he is thinking twice about all that hot air he was blowing about weed and overgrowing the government

Whoa. Sounds to me like you suffer from the prejudice that alot of people have to the mentally ill. STIGMA is a huge problem, and as much as you want to discredit those people that get ill from marijuana they still deserve compassion and care. You speak of the common place usage of the drug, well, that is part of the problem, people think it is safe, and it is not. http://www.ontario.c...ts.asp?cID=2795 When someone appears to be different than us, we may view him or her in a negative stereotyped manner. People who have identities that society values negatively are said to be stigmatized. Stigma is a reality for people with a mental illness, and they report that how others judge them is one of their greatest barriers to a complete and satisfying life. Society feels uncomfortable about mental illness. It is not seen like other illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Due to inaccuracies and misunderstandings, people have been led to believe that an individual with a mental illness has a weak character or is inevitably dangerous. Mental illness can be called the invisible illness. Often, the only way to know whether someone has been diagnosed with a mental illness is if they tell you. The majority of the public is unaware of how many mentally ill people they know and encounter every day. One in five people in Ontario will experience a mental illness at some point in his or her lifetime. Mental illness affects people of all ages, in all kinds of jobs and at all educational levels. What are the effects of stigma? If you became physically ill, you would go to a doctor. Once you got better you would expect to get on with life as usual. Life, however, does not always fit back into place for people diagnosed with a mental illness. Everyone has the right to fully participate in his or her community, but individuals struggling to overcome a mental illness can find themselves facing a constant series of rejections and exclusions. Due to stigma, the typical reaction encountered by someone with a mental illness (and his or her family members) is fear and rejection. Some have been denied adequate housing, loans, health insurance and jobs due to their history of mental illness. Due to the stigma associated with the illness, many people have found that they lose their self-esteem and have difficulty making friends. The stigma attached to mental illness is so pervasive that people who suspect that they might be mentally ill are unwilling to seek help for fear of what others may think. Spouses may be reluctant to define their partners as mentally ill, while families may delay seeking help for their child because of their fears and shame. Why does stigma surround mental illness? We all have an idea of what someone with a mental illness is like, but most of our views and interpretations have been distorted through strongly held social beliefs. The media, as a reflection of society, has done much to sustain a distorted view of mental illness. Television or movie characters who are aggressive, dangerous and unpredictable can have their behaviour attributed to a mental illness. Mental illness also has not received the sensitive media coverage that other illnesses have been given. We are surrounded by stereotypes, popular movies talk about killers who are “psychos,” and there is news coverage of mental illness only when it is related to violence. We also often hear the casual use of terms like “lunatic” or “crazy,” along with jokes about the mentally ill. These representations and the use of discriminatory language distort the public’s view and reinforce inaccuracies about mental illness. How do we erase stigma? We can battle stigma when we have facts. We all have times when we feel depressed, get unreasonably angry or over-excited. We even have periods when we think that everything and everybody is out to get us and that we can’t cope. For someone with a mental illness these feelings become enveloping and overwhelming. There is no particular way to develop a mental illness. For some people, it occurs due to genetic factors in their family. Other causes may relate to environment stressors such as experiences of severe child abuse, war, torture, poverty, loss, isolation, neglect or abandonment. Mental illnesses can also occur in combination with substance abuse. No matter how people develop mental illness, there is usually some form of support available which will help them to improve their health and lead a productive life. The support of family, friends and employers is also critical.

Yes.

Causation/correlation ...that's a fine line, and why are you so adamantly defending the safety of smoking cannabis? Anyway you cut it, it is a hard sell because the effect of smoking is to cause psychoactive effects on the brain. Whether "good" or "bad".

Ha.

http://www.na.org/ Recovery is possible.

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/expertadvice/problems/alcoholanddrugs/cannabis.aspx Mental health problems There is growing evidence that people with serious mental illness, including depression and psychosis, are more likely to use cannabis or have used it for long periods of time in the past. Regular use of the drug has appeared to double the risk of developing a psychotic episode or long-term schizophrenia. However, does cannabis cause depression and schizophrenia or do people with these disorders use it as a medication? Over the past few years, research has strongly suggested that there is a clear link between early cannabis use and later mental health problems in those with a genetic vulnerability - and that there is a particular issue with the use of cannabis by adolescents. Depression A study following 1600 Australian school-children, aged 14 to 15 for seven years, found that while children who use cannabis regularly have a significantly higher risk of depression, the opposite was not the case - children who already suffered from depression were not more likely than anyone else to use cannabis. However, adolescents who used cannabis daily were five times more likely to develop depression and anxiety in later life. Schizophrenia Three major studies followed large numbers of people over several years, and showed that those people who use cannabis have a higher than average risk of developing schizophrenia. If you start smoking it before the age of 15, you are 4 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder by the time you are 26. They found no evidence of self-medication. It seemed that, the more cannabis someone used, the more likely they were to develop symptoms. Why should teenagers be particularly vulnerable to the use of cannabis? No one knows for certain, but it may be something to do with brain development. The brain is still developing in the teenage years – up to the age of around 20, in fact. A massive process of ‘neural pruning’ is going on. This is rather like streamlining a tangled jumble of circuits so they can work more effectively. Any experience, or substance, that affects this process has the potential to produce long-term psychological effects. Recent research in Europe, and in the UK, has suggested that people who have a family background of mental illness – and so probably have a genetic vulnerability anyway - are more likely to develop schizophrenia if they use cannabis as well. Is there such a thing as ‘cannabis psychosis’? Recent research in Denmark suggests that yes, there is. It is a short-lived psychotic disorder that seems to be brought on by cannabis use but which subsides fairly quickly once the individual has stopped using it. It's quite unusual though – in the whole of Denmark they found only around 100 new cases per year. However, they also found that: Three quarters had a different psychotic disorder diagnosed within the next year. Nearly half still had a psychotic disorder 3 years later. So, it also seems probable that nearly half of those diagnosed as having cannabis psychosis are actually showing the first signs of a more long-lasting psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia. It may be this group of people who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, and so should probably avoid it in the future.

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1170232/?site_locale=en_GB Cambridge!!!

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/marijuana-abuse/there-link-between-marijuana-use-mental-illness "Research in the past decade has focused on whether marijuana use actually causes other mental illnesses. The strongest evidence to date suggests a link between cannabis use and psychosis.9 For example, a series of large prospective studies that followed a group of people over time showed a relationship between marijuana use and later development of psychosis. Marijuana use also worsens the course of illness in patients with schizophrenia and can produce a brief psychotic reaction in some users that fades as the drug wears off. The amount of drug used, the age at first use, and genetic vulnerability can all influence this relationship."

http://www.schizophr...=430268 Here is a thread of schizophrenics discussing the subject. I work in Mental Health, I see it all the time. Cannabis is a dangerous drug that leads to paranoia, delusions, and psychosis.

http://therealaboriginalcanadianfoodguide.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/the-colonial-problem-part-one/ found this blog. Have a look.

http://www.schizophrenia.com/index.php Schizophrenia Support Page for people suffering from Schizophrenia.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20050321/default_3.htm ABC Messing with Heads, new research on the link between mental illness and cannabis use.

http://www.youthspace.haringey.gov.uk/home/health/young_peoples_health_stories/did_weed_cause_my_psychosis.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205447/Cannabis-causes-mental-illness.html "Cannabis use is now the biggest single cause of serious mental disorders in the UK, a leading expert warned yesterday. Up to 80 per cent of new patients at many units have a history of smoking the drug, said consultant psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray"

http://www.cbc.ca/do...downsideofhigh/ The Downside of High, by David Suzuki "Nature of Things" THC is an antagonist for mental health and leads to psychotic symptoms in heavy users. The pot grown these days has been grown to genetically mutate the THC content.

http://sikhactivist.net/silent-no-more-a-sikh-response-to-the-idle-no-more-movement/ Silent No More: A Sikh Response to the Idle No More Movement Written By: Santbir Singh "I try to imagine the government coming to my house one morning and taking my five year old daughter and eight year old son away to a boarding school hundreds of kilometres away. I try to imagine that at this school, my children’s hair will be cut, their dastars and kakkars will be removed and they will be forcibly baptized as Christians. I try to imagine that they will be beaten for speaking Panjabi, reading Bani or trying to maintain their religious and cultural traditions. I try to imagine that even their basic health needs will not be looked after and they may well die from treatable infections and diseases. And then, I must admit, I am not able to imagine the rest; I can not bear to imagine them being abused, assaulted, beaten and raped."

Yes Cannabis does cause schizophrenia and mental illness, young people are naive to the dangers of this drug. We are way too tolerant of its use in society.

http://sikhactivist.net/silent-no-more-a-sikh-response-to-the-idle-no-more-movement/ Silent No More: A Sikh Response to the Idle No More Movement