CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 88

“The doctor told him to leave it [marijuana] alone. He has instead [stopped visiting] the clinic and won’t take his medication. So I have left him to the choice he has made.” Substance abuse officer at the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA), Shirley Platt, said marijuana, or ganja as it is commonly called, and other drugs can trigger, as well as, exacerbate the symptoms of schizophrenia. “I find that when they use ganja, any underlying mental illness is highlighted; it makes it stronger.” She disclosed that some individuals use drugs because they have mental illness or the drugs bring on the mental illness. Drugs act as both a trigger and an aggravator. Platt told CARIMAC Times that medical studies have found that the manifestation of schizophrenia in many patients is linked to drug use. “It is documented. It is presumed that they are treating their illness with drugs. According to them, the drugs make the illness less stressful and I have had them tell me that.” She recounted the experience of a young man affected by the illness. “He told me that he hears voices in his head… and when he smokes ganja, he doesn’t hear the voices as bad. He still hears them but not as bad. He uses it to treat himself; self-medication. The medical community calls it self-medication when somebody uses illegal or unprescribed drugs to help their condition,” she said. She cautioned that marijuana is unlike other drugs. “Most drugs have one action. They are either depressants [slow down brain activity] or stimulants [increase brain activity] or hallucinogens [alter what is seen/heard]. Marijuana can do any of these. It can make things worse, but it can also make things seem better. It is about perception. But it cannot cure mental illness.” Platt noted that, while ganja is known as a painkiller and has been popularised as such i n Jamaican culture, it is well-documented that it exacerbates schizophrenia. “They will tell you that it can relieve their symptoms, but I have found that people who use drugs can’t accurately tell you about the effects of the drug because it masks itself,” she concluded. Meanwhile, Rose, explained that although men and women are affected by schizophrenia in the same manner, symptoms start earlier in men than women. The condition has occurred in “slightly” more men than women. However, the onset of symptoms is uncommon in people younger than 10 years old and those older than 40 years. Dr. Afzal Javed, consultant psychiatrist at Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust at Nuneaton and clinical associate teacher at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, found Schizophrenia in men may take a chronic course and be more severe but with typical symptoms. For women, however, negative rather than depressive symptoms are likely. 84