As part of my job, I have been treating victims of cannabis use for decades (not an exaggeration). As a young resident, I saw schizophrenics, but back then, in the 1980s, I still didn't understand the link between the two. I remember that when I was a resident, there was a young man who suffered from psychotic episodes. He was hospitalized on the psychiatric unit at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, and would sometimes leave the open unit to get high.
Back then, I didn't attach any importance to it. I still didn't understand how much damage he was doing to himself. The psychiatric textbooks in those days did not ascribe any damage to cannabis.
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An editorial published in the British medical journal The Lancet in 1995 stated that smoking cannabis does not cause harm. A dozen years later, in an editorial published in 2007, The Lancet reversed its position and stated that there was a growing body of proof that smoking cannabis was related to the emergence of psychosis. Despite that apology, the damage had been done. Generations of doctors believed that cannabis was not a harmful drug. Many smokers followed suit, holding onto the first article, and claiming that it was a harmless habit.
While about 90% of cannabis users don't suffer any significant harm, much like most drinkers don't sustain harm from alcohol, I see on a daily basis the terrible suffering of the 10% who do.
It's not only the most serious cases, the schizophrenics and bipolar patients who began their mental illness journey thanks to cannabis. They are extreme cases. Every day, I see "minor" harm: people who because of cannabis began to suffer from derealization/depersonalization disorder, depression, and various anxiety disorders. People whom were offered cannabis to help them calm down, but it opened up Pandora's Box. People who cannot be convinced that cannabis use only hurts them, because they follow the pro-legalization media propaganda.
Every one of these is a patient who is suffering, each one has to fight a stubborn battle against the drug that dragged them into eternal suffering. On the advisory sites I run, some even report irreversible damage after one use, but that makes almost no impression on the media. Most reporters glorify this drug as a miracle medicine, and even the nonsense that it can be used to treat cancer is echoed in the media.
Over and over, all those reporters and drug users anger me with their praise of this dangerous drug. As a psychiatrist, I see the result, the victims who were tempted to use this addictive drug because of them.
Instead of passing a law that allows cannabis use, we should have passed a law that would allow use to sue anyone who suggests using it and causes harm.
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