Oxford University had posted a News Post titled : “How cannabis causes paranoia”.

Clearly a poorly designed study or one designed to give a negative impression of Cannabis. The study was not about the normal use of Cannabis. It was a study where participants were injected with THC. In the Real World, no one does that.

First of all, they injected THC directly into the veins of participants. IN the Real World, Cannabis users “Do Not” consume Cannabis in that manner. They were only testing THC and not Cannabis. THC is a chemical found in Cannabis, but there are also other chemicals in the Cannabis Plant.

When you smoke or eat Cannabis, it takes time to consume the Joint or Muffin. It takes time for the THC (and other chemicals) to get into the bloodstream. The brain is slowly affected.

When you inject THC, (which “no one” does in the real world) your brain gets hit by the psychoactive chemical THC all at once. There are other Cannabinoids and other chemicals in Cannabis when smoked or eaten. Those other chemicals work with the THC. This test does not represent Cannabis. It represents Injecting THC.

Clearly this was a poorly designed Research Study.

I have never heard of people becoming Paranoid after smoking a joint. Getting the Giggles and laughing at stupid stuff – yes. Getting the Munchies and having a group order Pizza to be delivered – yes. Paranoia – nada.

A clear example is concerts. If you step off to the sidelines and look up you will see a haze of smoke rising from the audience. They are smoking Cannabis – it also has a specific fragrance. I remember Maple Leaf Gardens – same thing rising above the Audience. If large numbers of people were all experiencing Paranoia, they would be running for the exits (or at least a large number would). That has never happened. I have attended and photographed a heck of a lot of concerts and have never seen a mass exit of the audience after they smoked their Cannabis. They all seemed to dance and have fun and enjoyed the music.

Coachella, A recent outdoor concert in the California had an area where free Cannabis was available (to eat and smoke) to those with VIP tickets. Not one single person ran out of that area, because the Cannabis supposedly, as per the failed Oxford study, caused Paranoia.

The other rather interesting thing about that Oxford study is that 30% of the Placebo group “also experienced Paranoia” after being injected with Placebo.

Seems to me that participants lacked Trust in what was being injected into their arms. 50% of those injected with THC experienced Paranoid thoughts. 30% of the participants who were injected with a Placebo also experienced Paranoid thoughts. This is not a normal type of result for a Placebo Group. Interesting how the report of the study did not go into why the 30% of those injected with Placebo had experienced Paranoid thoughts…

I’ll give an example to clarify. Say you wanted to do a study of the effects of drinking two glasses of Red Cabernet Wine each day with your supper. Clearly injecting the equivalent amount of alcohol found in two glasses of Red Wine (12% Alcohol by volume) directly into study participants veins would have a totally different effect than drinking two glasses of wine with supper. No one would design such a sham of study and proclaim the results show the negative effect of drinking two glasses of Red Wine with your supper. Yet this is what was done in the above noted Oxford Study. They injected THC and their News Post was then titled “How Cannabis Causes Paranoia”. They only tested THC (the psychoactive cannabinoid found in Cannabis). They “did not test” using Cannabis. The THC was injected directly into the bloodstream of the participants. No Cannabis was ingested or smoked by the participant. Actually “no Cannabis was ever used” by the Oxford study participants.

That study was funded by the National Health Dept. Medical use of Cannabis is banned by the National Dept of Health. If one wants future Research Funding, does one rock the boat?

Click on this link to visit the University of Oxford website to read their News post titled “How Cannabis Causes Paranoia”.

Here is the URL incase the link has issues: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-07-16-how-cannabis-causes-paranoia

They could also have called the article
“How injecting Placebo causes Paranoia.“

Posted by Vincent Banial