Don't many psychotic and schizophrenic people self-medicate with cannabis?
Where do you live? Because growing up in the Netherlands I can say all the negative side-effects were very clearly explained to us in high school, without stigmatizing it.
EDIT: it is a sincere question - obviously the Netherlands is in a kind of special position here. And my experience is from the late 90s, so who knows how things have changed since then too.
This goes back to the root comment in this thread that people see this issue as very black and white.
The lightest strain in a coffee-shop was pretty strong.
But with that said, yes, we do. I even know someone who had it, and they quit using weed after that. It's kind of treated like the complicated thing that it is: genetics and existing mental and physical health are all risk factors, and as a teenager there is the still-developing brain to consider (just like with alcohol). You basically have to decide for yourself if all of that seems worth it.
I've never seen this attitude in the wild. In fact, most heavy cannabis users I know express a desire to use less.
I wonder where you are from. If not from USA, you've been misinformed. If from USA, stop assuming you're the frontrunner of anything please.
It's good actually, because it's the young mostly, and we're out of jobs in my country... more jobs for me!
Not to mention that it is almost always mixed in with a little tobacco which is a smell I can do without.
(Note: I don't have a horse in this race- I don't use marijuana because I don't like the effects, but I'll be the last person to act like it's some demon plant out to hurt capitalism's productivity.)
On a more serious note, cynicism is one way to fail to cope properly with reality, not something that gets you far and high in life. But hey, more jobs for us positive folks compared to bitter sad cynics!
I don't smoke a lot, though. Just a hit every few hours, enough to give me a buzz. If I get too stoned to do anything, that defeats the purpose for me. Weed is a tool, weed is for work. If I want to just have fun, I'll drink.
It does, however, contribute to psychotic episodes sometimes. But it's never the only contributing factor, it's usually in combination with too much isolation and/or not eating/sleeping properly. If I feel like my thoughts are starting to get more and more unorganized, I generally take that as a sign I need to get out of my apartment and go see my friends. My psychotic episodes are pretty benign, though, all that really happens is my thoughts get too rapid fire and disorganized for me to do anything but sit there in a stupor because I can't get it together enough to execute tasks. They're over when I wake up the next morning. (I will also say, they were pretty frightening before I realized what they were just because it's frightening to feel like you've lost control of your own brain like that.)