Originally posted by FMF
As a matter of interest, do you know if smoking cannabis can cause mental illness in someone with good mental health?
Not really. (By this I mean I'm uncertain).
The way I explain it, is to think of a drinking glass with a hairline crack. Most glasses can tolerate a firm slam to the table, but the glass with the crack is likely to shatter. - Cannabis can work this way on the mind of a person with a 'mental health weakness,' even if undiagnosed. (A 'hairline crack' if you like in their brain). Where most people can smoke cannabis with no obvious long term effect, and even enjoy the sensation of racing thoughts and the like, somebody with a mental health illness may find that those feelings of racing thoughts and paranoia do not dissipate, even when the cannabis is out of their system. In other words the 'glass has been shattered' and there is no putting it back together again. Trauma is often the catalyst to mental health deterioration, and for some sufferers, cannabis was such a catalyst. - This is also the reason I squirm when I hear people proudly announce cannabis has never caused anyone's death. - I have personally known people who have taken their own lives due to a mental health relapse caused unequivocally by a return to smoking cannabis.
However, as for a glass with no 'hairline crack,' could a slam to the table still cause it to shatter? Could cannabis cause mental illness in someone with good mental health? - I fear the answer might be yes, but could not substantiate that opinion.