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Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Pot and mental health
(CNN) -- Researchers say new findings about marijuana show clear links between its heavy use and serious mental health problems. For more on the new study, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent, joined anchor Bill Hemmer on Friday's American Morning. HEMMER: Let's talk about pot -- what are they saying? GUPTA: First of all, marijuana use in this country is common -- approximately 12 million people in 2001 used marijuana. High school statistics, I think, are some of the most alarming -- 20.1 percent of eighth graders, that number doubles by the time you get to 10th graders, 40 percent of 10th graders say they've used it at least once in the month before they were asked, about 42 percent of seniors. THC is the active chemical in marijuana. This is a chemical that gets in the brain and binds to certain receptors. Those receptors, once expressed have the cellular reactions that cause all of the things associated with a high -- pleasure, difficulties with memory, difficulties with concentration, uncoordinated movements. There are some benefits to marijuana use. It can make cancer chemotherapy patients hungrier -- also in HIV and AIDS patients. But the three studies you are talking about talk specifically about schizophrenia and depression, and the fact that marijuana use earlier in life actually may lead to an increased -- 30 percent increase -- in schizophrenia later in life. They actually looked at 50,000 Swedish military people, and they went back and looked at their histories and found those people who are more likely to use marijuana, both in terms of frequency and amount, are more likely to have the symptoms of schizophrenia. HEMMER: What is the impact on the brain long-term? GUPTA: Well, they talk specifically about the receptors and the THC sort-of interacting. We know it causes all these short-term effects, the ones we just listed. What is it doing to the brain long-term? Schizophrenia is a very complicated diagnosis. You get all sorts of symptoms -- hearing voices, disorganized speech, withdrawal, paranoia, for example. That's a very complicated picture within the brain. The fact that this THC can actually cause these things is just becoming known now. HEMMER: Take it a little deeper on depression, though. GUPTA: Depression, also a very big diagnosis -- roughly 18.8 million in this country have it. Again, they looked this time at 1,600 high school students and followed them over about seven years. This is in Australia, not in the United States. But they actually found that all of these boys and girls, particularly girls, were more vulnerable to the symptoms of depression later on in life again if they were frequent or even daily marijuana users. Trying to piece together exactly the mechanism of how this THC causes these sorts of symptoms is a little more complicated, but that's what they're finding out. HEMMER: You mentioned the benefits that some of the studies talk about. There are major significant movements in this country to get marijuana legalized for medicinal use or other reasons. GUPTA: There are major movements. There is organization called NORML -- National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. They have gained a lot of press lately about some of the medicinal uses. And marijuana can offer some of those things, especially when it comes to reducing nausea and vomiting, not advocating that necessarily myself. I think there are other ways to do that besides marijuana. There are a lot of short-term effects which may be hard to get around.
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