That would be not a myth, but a lie, surely?

The alarmists are always telling us that drug use has mushroomed over the past 20 years. Home Office research suggests that 4 million (or so) adults have used cannabis (the News Of The World suggests there are 3.5 million regular users) which is approximately 1/10th of the entire adult population. If one studied the numbers of recorded schizophrenic sufferers one might expect some quite significant jump in the schizophrenia rates corresponding to the jump in cannabis usage. Indeed research in to that very issue has been done (using 8 cohorts spanning 40 years) which found no link [Testing hypotheses about the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis by Degenhardt L, Hall W, Lynskey M.]

Also in 1968, the Wootton Report, a Home Office investigation into the effects of cannabis, concluded: “There is no evidence that this activity is causing violent crime or aggression, anti-social behaviour, or is producing in otherwise normal people conditions of dependence or psychosis requiring medical treatment.”.

However the problem space is muddied somewhat as many people who suffer from pre- or mild schizophrenia tend to self-medicate by smoking cannabis before coming into contact with the mental health service. Which many studies of people presenting with schizophrenia fail to take into account.

Being a UCL (and RFUCMS) boy through and through, I’ve taken to pronouncing it “Nazi” instead of their way (gnat-ski). It does a good job of winding up my tab friends, especially if you place the “bio” in front, conjuring up images of cruel and twisted experimentation, which they are guilty of anyway.

Very culturally aware. But it doesn’t make the practice any less stupid. In South Africa you’ll find the even more bizarre practice of mixing Mandrax (Methaqualone) with cannabis. Presumably completely wipes out the effects of THC sought by normal cannabis users.

“it’s pretty common throught europe to mix cannabis with tobbaco”

I’d hope that the sensible people in The Netherlands are not quite so silly.

A practice you will see in the US is sprinkling some crushed resin onto leaf.

“Could be leaf cannabis is so common here in the States is that it’s a major (illegal) cash-crop ’round these parts”

To some extent yes. Although the British weather is not suitable for this plant it can be easily grown indoors with minimal equipment or skill. Growing top quality cannabis is not particularly difficult.

And resin is common in the US.

The modern weed is stronger myth is largely a result of comparing the poorest quality material of the 60s/70s with the best quality of today, and deliberately so. It is just a myth.

Anyone who thinks they can spend three years acting like a daft punt in East Anglia, waltz out with some poxy first in ‘natural sciences” , then expect to be taken seriously has clearly taken leave of their senses.

Neuroscience? Colud be anything, from psychology to medicine to biochemistry

BMS? All the ones i know it’s just a brew of biology, molecular biology, physiology, genetics, biochemistry.

Dunno about ‘excuse’ but there you go. Also not sure when ‘used to be’ is – whenever it is that people used to smoke all-weed joints. I’ve never come across it in 15ish years, but I’ve heard american folk talk about it. To be perfectly honest, I see smoking a pure-weed joint as in the same league of endurance as necking a bottle of vodka in one go – not very pleasant, and liable to end in tears. But not impossible for a hardened drinker…

Any science with “science” it its title isn’t one.

Disccuss.

Certainly don’t agree with this bit.

Neuroscience? Biomedical Science? Bioscience?

If only this year, I think you just conclude that journalism works at random. Fox News Web site, for instance, seemed to have picked up the American Thoracic Society, 2006, version of the story, straight from WebMD I think. Now would they do so without referring toda previous story of their own… well, why not I guess, no one takes this very seriously.

At the same time, in the other week’s rerun of “[u]Have I Got News For You[/u]“, Danny Kelly (I think) claimed to have seen a headline on Fox News TV that went like “Fox News confirms Pope John Paul II is dead”, implying very specific diligence. (I don’t mean that they went in and finished him off.)

Disccuss.

we could keep an entire department going here.

Any subject with “studies” in its title isn’t worth studying
Any science with “science” it its title isn’t one.

Disccuss.

I’d think most decent sized UK towns (certainly, all the ones I’ve lived in) would have a shop or two selling pipes etc; there’s also lots of stuff on e-bay/the web nowadays. Not sure if there’s still harrassment – but if there is it’s not terribly effective

OOooh! I want one! I don’t have any qualifications, but I’ve read twelve books!