Alarmist rubbish

According to this article someone who smokes marijuana daily over long periods has a whopping 200% increased chance of developing schizophrenia!!! What is not mentioned is the general risk of schizophrenia, a paltry 1%. Of course, certain factors do increase the risk;

1) An identical twin of someone with schizophrenia has a 40-50% chance.
2) A child whose parent had schizophrenia has a 10% chance.
3) Schizophrenia is more common among those living in cities, born in winter and in the northern hemisphere. So I guess it's pretty common in Ottawa and Oslo.
4)Complications during birth can also increase a person's chances of developing the condition.
5)Loss of a parent
6) Like most other ailments, it is more prevalent among the lower socioeconomic classes. Though whether schizophrenia is a cause or effect of this is unclear as sometimes sufferers do move down the pecking order.

Well, there you go. Don't believe all the numbers you read. Unless your identical twin and a parent has schizophrenia AND you lost a parent AND you were born in Ottowa in December AND smoke marijuana every day.

50% + 10% + ? + ? + 200% = ???

Otherwise, you have a 1% plus 40% of 1% chance of developing schizophrenia. Or you double your chances (remember, base chance of 1%) if you are a chronic. You'll probably be hit by chain lightning or gored by a wild boar first.

On a side note, Albert Hoffman died last week. He was the chemist that first created LSD-25, or acid. He was a regular user (for scientific purposes obviously) and he lived to 102!

RIP