this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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Meanwhile, at Oktoberfest...
Source
Cannabis bad doesn't mean alcohol good
No, but here he is trotting out the line about Schizophrenia, which is a real risk, but is dwarfed in its societal impact by the downsides of alcohol. I don't expect he's said anything at all publicly about the impacts of that though, which would suggest that he's the talking head that the German press always contact for a negative comment about cannabis every time it hits the news. Especially as this is reported by Die Welt which is an Axel Springer publication.
The link between cannabis and schizophrenia is also supper dubious at best.
Its for the most part based on statistics that a large number of people who go to the ER and are there diagnosed with psychosis have used cannabis.
Schizophrenia is a genetic condition characterized by frequent psychosis. And a significant number of this group experiments with cannabis before onset of schizophrenic symptoms, which often only arise in late puberty/ young-adult age.
There are theories that cannabis may trigger schizophrenia in people that have the genetic sensibility to it. Assuming it would otherwise have stayed dorment (for longer)
But 3 pieces of information are ignored.
First people diagnosed with schizophrenia that did not use cannabis before onset of symptoms share the exact same statistically tendency to start using cannabis later in life as the group that did before, leading to theories of self medication and there is proof of anti-psychotic properties of some cannabinoids.
20% of the general population smokes (nicotine), 80% of the schizophrenic population smokes, its such a well known fact that its a common movie trope. Yet not a single theory about how nicotine effects psychosis exist. Because remember only rare people with a genetic sensibility can develop psychosis and psychotic paranoia is a fear tactic
Psychosis and schizophrenia are not well understood in general, there part of the neurodivergent spectrum which is a modern idea in its scientific infancy, More and more we do understand that the main driver of psychosis (and every person can be pushed into experiencing a psychosis) is extreme levels stress.
I know some other things extreme is related with:
addiction to substance abuse of any kind, every time you crave = stress
the troubles a (young) person may have that leads to them frequently using drugs to begin with.
The statistics do make sense but relation simply isn’t causation and its shameful that politicians can just misinterpret science like this.
Yes, I suppose what I ought to have said is that for people with an already elevated risk of developing schizophrenia cannabis could be the trigger. Thank you for this well written summary though.
Funnily (well, not really, but what can we do but laugh), the other cited source, businesses insider, is also an Axel Springer publication. As is Politico, Morning Brew, and some other stuff.
So they aren't just a German problem anymore, they're now everyone's problem.
Like we do any better without Springer in the Anglosphere. If it's not Murdoch metastasising everywhere it's one of the Bannon/Koch Foundation appendages.
Yeah. I've gotten so tired of checking all the sources in algorithmic news feeds that I went back to an rss feed of news agencies, and trusted papers. Media landscape kinda sucks.
That's not even the argument which was being made if that's what you're implying.
Their argument is simply: why is alcohol legal if it's much more harmful?
But... alcohol should be legal, no? Despite the harm it causes, prohibition simply does not work.
Cannabis can also cause harm (albeit less harm than alcohol) but should also still be legal. And other drugs like fentanyl (arguably) cause more harm than alcohol...but should also be legal.
Prohibition is literally never a realistic solution to any drug or drug problems. Not a single country has ever had success.
okay but the statement he made fits into a societal context such that the overall message being sent by a group of people that have Oktoberfest but make cannabis illegal is absolutely "cannabis bad, alcohol good".
Well I'm already stupid and psychotic so no harm done
Probably not as selectively stupid as Thomas Fischbach.
Overuse of cannabis can cause something called cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. You have severe nausea, uncontrolled vomiting, and stomach cramping. It's caused by your nervous system, so people who have it tend to sit in a hot shower for a long time when they don't get relief from anti-nausea meds. Luckily, it clears up pretty quick with a shot of haloperidol, and as long as you cut back you can continue to partake.
It doesn't affect everybody and usually you have to smoke a lot over a long period of time, but I didn't know about it before and I think people should be aware.
Happy smoking, frients
Of course the counter argument to legalisation was published in "Die Welt", the right leaning newspaper from the Springer media group. The group which also publishes the Bild Zeitung which plays a big role in the rise of the far right in Germany and has a history of reckless opinion journalism which even lead to the shooting of a member of the student uprising in the past (Rudy Dutschke if you want to look it up). Fuck everything Springer.
I read the translation of Stefan Aust's book on the Baader-Meinhof and he covers the Rudy Dutschke shooting and also the bit where a Springer editorial praised Savak for beating up students protesting the Shah's visit to Germany. Called them something like 'Jubilant Iranians' if I recall correctly.