Forget temporary loss of perception, smoking marijuana could now lead to full-blown schizophrenia, says researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway.
The scientists compared two groups of people with schizophrenia and found that those who had a history of marijuana use could more easily complete difficult cognitive tasks than those who didn’t.
These results supposedly demonstrate that exposure to marijuana could cause schizophrenia in people who were not preconditioned to develop it.
Formerly, studies have been conducted which yield the opposite opinion: that marijuana use can help to reduce the effects of schizophrenia.
Comments below the study suggest that the results may have shone marijuana in a negative light in an attempt to push pharmaceutical drugs. Other commenters assert that the findings are unrelated because the rate of psychosis in society has not increased along with the use of marijuana.
Either way, these findings represent a potential damaging consequence from a drug that is often regarded as having no long-term effects.
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Mollie Paige writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter @MolliePB
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