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A review of the medical literature shows cannabis use is linked to psychotic illness and the more cannabis, the higher the risk. The doubts about whether cannabis use really does increase the risk of psychotic illness have probably been laid to rest by an international review of the available evidence. Psychosis is a thinking disorder where a person is grossly delusional - experiencing thoughts which don't reflect reality. The reason for the debate about cannabis is that people who use it are sometimes already at risk of psychosis and could be taking the drug to help their illness - reverse causation - where the propensity to psychosis causes the cannabis use. Anyway a review and analysis of 35 studies which have followed groups of young people for several years or studied whole populations has tried to eliminate alternative explanations for the link between psychosis and cannabis use. They found that the evidence does indeed support the assertion that cannabis use is linked to psychotic illness directly and the more cannabis, the higher the risk. The average risk increase with any use is about 40 per cent but it can go as high as a quadrupling with heavy consumption. The effects on depression and anxiety though were less certain. Because no-one is going to actually do a double blind trial of giving young people cannabis and seeing what happens, this is likely to be the last word. Cannabis isn't as harmless as the 60s generation would have had us believe.
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