Kevin Drum takes a run at a recent story in WSJ about how to make data tell a story that might not be true.
Hmmm. This shows cannabis ER visits as a share of all ER visits. That’s a bit of an odd statistic. More to the point, though, it shows a sudden 75% increase over the space of two months at the start of the pandemic and then nothing since then.
If this is what the story is based on, I could spin it a few different ways. Maybe a lot of people stopped going to the ER for more minor issues when COVID hit, and stayed away? Maybe people feel more comfortable going to the ER (or using cannabis) as it becomes more broadly legalized, and going to the hospital because of that? Maybe doctors are being persuaded by drug companies to make more ‘cannabis-induced disorder’ diagnoses for some reason? When people get in barfights and wind up in the ER, does that get reported that as an ‘alcohol-induced disorder’? Maybe a PR company has an angle that isn’t apparent yet, and is working to place stories to lay the groundwork? Or a combination of these?
A quick read of the WSJ story seems to tell us that cannabis can cause mental illness:
Even one psychotic episode following cannabis use was associated with a 47% chance of a person developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, a 2017 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed. The risk was highest for people 16-to-25-years-old and higher than for substances including amphetamines, hallucinogens, opioids and alcohol.
The prevalence of substance abuse is higher among persons with mental illness than in the general population (1). The reasons for this are unclear, but many possible links have been proposed. A common hypothesis is that psychiatric patients use substances of abuse as a way of self-medicating. It has also been suggested that the use of cannabis can speed up the process of developing schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals and that there may be a dose-response association (2–5). Less is known about the link between the use of other substances of abuse and the development of schizophrenia or other psychiatric diagnoses.
At any rate, I don’t really care about cannabis-induced psychosis statistics, but I hate it when reputable outlets declare something as true when the data doesn’t at all support it. I know reporters are working harder for less money than ever. I don’t think this is evidence of any widespread ‘media bias’ (though if any mainstream outlet is likely to take the ‘weed makes you crazy’ stance, WSJ is a pretty good candidate).
