Truth Will Out

30 July 2007



Lancet Pot Study Appears to be Bad Science or Bad Journalism

The British medical journal The Lancet published a study on Friday that suggests even infrequent use of marijuana could increase the chance of serious mental illness by 40%. If true, this would be a major change in medical knowledge, and it would have to be addressed legally. However, a careful reading of the report shows that the researchers’ headline claim vanishes in the articles details. It seems there is a case of bad science or bad journalism at work here.

As ever, this journal doesn’t approve of drug use, whether that means heroin, marijuana, alcohol or nicotine (indeed, the jury here is out on caffeine). The issue is whether legal sanctions against their use diminish or increase the social harm they cause. The Kensington Review notes the rise of drug lords, perpetual civil war in parts of the world where narcotics are harvested, and the filling of prisons with nonviolent individuals and concludes that prohibition causes more harm across all of society than the drugs themselves. However, evidence to the contrary cannot be dismissed, and this study could have been such.

“The available evidence now suggests that cannabis is not as harmless as many people think,” said Dr. Stanley Zammit of Cardiff University, one of the study’s authors. Unfortunately, he also told the AP, that the study couldn’t make a causal link between marijuana use and mental illness. Other factors could be involved “like their tendency to use other drugs or certain personality traits, that could be causing the psychoses.” Well, good science would isolate all variables but the use of the drug, and then study the evidence. By definition, the inability to make that causal link suggests the study was flawed from the beginning.

Nevertheless, the media have had a field day with headlines like the AP’s “Pot may hike risk of psychosis, research finds,” or Reuters’ “Smoking marijuana ups risk of schizophrenia – study,” or Bloomberg’s, “Smoking Pot Makes People More Prone to Psychosis.” None of these is accurate. A better headline would read, “Study Finds No Causal Link Between Pot And Psychosis,” but that is a different message.

A more interesting piece of the story was buried at the end of the AP article, “Two of the authors of the study were invited experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Cannabis Review in 2005. Several authors reported being paid to attend drug company-sponsored meetings related to marijuana, and one received consulting fees from companies that make antipsychotic medications.” One can draw one’s own conclusions, but doubtful evidence makes for doubtful policy.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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