CANNABIS STUDY

THE Christchurch health and development study that found that daily users
of cannabis had rates of psychotic symptoms that were 1.6 to 1.8 times
higher than for non-users needs to be considered in context.

Without knowing the figures, it seems certain that daily users of other
tranquillisers have a much higher rate of psychotic symptoms. Using this
logic, one could say that anti-psychotics cause schizophrenia. There is
simply no attempt being made to separate cause and effect here. These
figures could easily be a measure of cannabis effectiveness as an
anti-psychotic. After all, no-one is saying that cannabis causes pain or
glaucoma, but if prejudice ran that way it could easily be confirmed by
measuring the rate of these illnesses in daily smokers.

George Henderson

Northeast Valley