Cannabis is usually smoked with tobacco
and as such regular users are at increased risk of a wide
range of ailments linked to smoking including an increased
risk of various forms of cancer, and heart disease. The
bottom line is that the human lungs aren't supposed to take
in hot and combusted materials, so hot-knives are never
going to be healthy!
Is there a link to
mental illness?
The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs
said there were major difficulties establishing a
cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis use
and the development of psychotic illnesses, such as
schizophrenia. It said the majority of young
cannabis users did not develop psychotic illness,
and those that did were likely to have predisposing
factors, which may be genetic. It concluded that in
the population as a whole, it was most likely that
cannabis played only a "modest role" in the
development of psychotic conditions.
Predisposition
Many experts believe that use of the drug can
worsen symptoms in someone who already has
schizophrenia, or manic depression associated with
psychotic symptoms.
There is also a body of evidence beginning to
emerge that long-term use of cannabis in early
teenage years puts an individual most at risk,
however sceptics say those who are affected have
already demonstrated a predisposition to problems.
A British Medical Journal study in 2004 concluded
that while cannabis use moderately increased the
risk of psychotic symptoms in young people, it had a
much stronger effect in those who had already had
mental health-related problems.
