Los Angeles County HIV Mental Health Task Force

 The association between marijuana and schizophrenia is historically fraught. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists thought that smoking weed could trigger psychosis in just about anyone. Today, these findings are more nuanced, but researchers still think that cannabis can trigger schizophrenia in people who are predisposed to the disease — meaning those with family histories of the disorder. Yet, in the last decade, some scientists have actually started to look at the effect in reverse. The resulting studies suggest that the neurobiology underlying schizophrenia might also put people affected by the disorder at increased risk for smoking pot. But these results haven’t garnered nearly as much attention as studies suggesting the opposite. >>> MORE