UK Drug Policy--Part 1

A spot-on breakdown of the increased British press and "studies" surrounding the correlation between mental illness and marijuana use, by Paul Armentano (NORML) and Mitch Earleywine over at the Huffington Post.

According to the Associated Press and other news sources, a new study in the British medical journal The Lancet reports that smoking cannabis ­- even occasionally ­- can increase one's risk of becoming psychotic. It sounds alarming at first, but a closer look at the evidence reveals that there's less here than the headlines imply.

First, there is no new study. The paper published in The Lancet is a meta-analysis --a summary of seven studies that previously appeared in other journals, including some that were published decades ago. Second, the touted association between cannabis and mental illness is small--about the same size as the link between head injury and psychosis. Finally, despite what some new sources suggest, this association is hardly proof of a cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis and psychosis. So why the sudden fuss?

Yeah, why the sudden fuss? I'll give it my best shot.

Continued below.....