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Core Topics => In the Media => Topic started by: Wildcat on March 23, 2016, 01:48:27 AM

Title: Are You an AX murderer? Blame it on the pot you smoke(d)
Post by: Wildcat on March 23, 2016, 01:48:27 AM

LOL- could not disagree more with what is stated in this study, based on my own personal experience of two decades of recreational cannabis use. I call complete and utter bullshit on this study, and suggest that somewhere in the phase of data analogy someone dropped the ball. In fact, maybe multiples balls. I have no idea of the hows of that happening, but the "whys" seems more than obvious, considering the direction many in the western world would like cannabis acceptance by enlightened society to take on the entire subject.

 I am  disappointed that a magazine touting the quality reputation of Psychology Today would rise to such a new low and publish such BS. So I've chosen to share this important "study," since many of us will be hearing about this latest nonsense propaganda sometime in the near future from people who want to believe any and all negative theories or studies they hear about on marijuana.

The war on drugs continues--even on well-established, long-accepted-as-harmless substances, such as weed......



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New research published online in advance of print in the journal Psychological Medicine, concludes that continued use of cannabis causes violent behavior as a direct result of changes in brain function that are caused by smoking weed over many years.

Researchers have long debated a possible link between use of marijuana and violent crime. In contrast to alcohol, meth, and many other illegal drugs, the mellowing effects of cannabis seem unsuited to promoting violent behavior. However, ample previous research has linked marijuana use to increased violent behavior. The sticky problem in such studies are the many confounding factors involved in interpreting this correlation.

It is very difficult to determine whether any statistical correlation between marijuana use and violent behavior are causally linked, or instead the two are associated through some other factor, such as socioeconomic status, personality traits, or many other variables that are related to the propensity to use marijuana. Moreover, the causal relation between smoking pot and violent behavior could be in exactly the opposite direction. That is, individuals who are involved in violence or who commit criminal offenses may also be people who are more open to using marijuana.

After all, marijuana is an illegal substance in most places, so people with antisocial personality traits and those with tendencies toward lawlessness may be the type of individuals inclined to be more open to obtaining and using the illegal substance. Not so, conclude neuroscientist Tabea Schoeler at Kings College London, and her colleagues, "Together, the results of the present study provide support for a causal relationship between exposure to cannabis and subsequent violent outcomes across a major part of the lifespan." Let's examine the evidence provided by this new study.

What makes this new study more compelling than previous studies is that the researchers followed the same individuals for over 50 years from a young age to adulthood. This is precisely what one needs to solve the chicken or egg riddle with respect to cannabis and violence: just look and see which one happens first.

These subjects were in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, comprised of 411 boys who were born around 1953 and living in working-class urban neighborhoods of London. 97% of them were Caucasian and all of them were raised in two-parent households.

 The researchers took into consideration other factors, including antisocial traits as assessed by the Antisocial Personality Scale, alcohol use, other drug use, cigarette smoking, mental illnesses, and family history.

Hers's what they found: Most of the participants never used cannabis and they were never reported to have violent behavior. 38% of the participants did try cannabis at least once in their life. Most of them experimented with cannabis in their teens, but then stopped using it. However, 20% of the boys who started using pot by age 18 continued to use it through middle age (32-48 years).

One fifth of those who were pot smokers (22%) reported violent behavior that began after beginning to use cannabis, whereas only 0.3% reported violence before using weed. Continued use of cannabis over the life-time of the study was the strongest predictor of violent convictions, even when the other factors that contribute to violent behavior were considered in the statistical analysis.

In conclusion, the results show that continued cannabis use is associated with a 7-fold greater odds for subsequent commission of violent crimes. This level of risk is similar to the increased risk of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes over a similar duration (40 years). The authors suggest that impairments in neurological circuits controlling behavior may underlie impulsive, violent behavior, as a result of cannabis altering the normal neural functioning in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and author. His experimental research focuses on the cellular mechanisms that regulate nervous system development and learning according to functional activity. This includes both the involvement of neurons and non-neuronal cells (glia) in brain function and plasticity. He is Adjunct Professor at the Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park.



By Dr. R. Douglas Fields - Psychology Today/March 20, 2016
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog
Title: Re: Are You an AX murderer? Blame it on the pot you smoke(d)
Post by: 10kites on March 23, 2016, 05:01:05 AM
They must be high.
Title: Re: Are You an AX murderer? Blame it on the pot you smoke(d)
Post by: Opiophelia on March 23, 2016, 08:06:32 AM
I can already see many things wrong with that study and I haven't even read the actual study analysis yet. Do you happen to have the author and official title of the study? I'd like to read the whole thing instead of just the abstract.
Title: Re: Are You an AX murderer? Blame it on the pot you smoke(d)
Post by: Z on March 23, 2016, 08:32:23 AM
Seems reasonable.

I read your first sentence as, "after two decades of recreational cannibalism."  I actually had to reread it twice to realize what you actually wrote.
Title: Re: Are You an AX murderer? Blame it on the pot you smoke(d)
Post by: MoeMentim on March 23, 2016, 10:17:49 PM
That article makes me want to put down this joint and punch them in the face.

I offer this as evidence that marijuana causes sarcasm.
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