Mildred's owner - I believe that for a majority of people smoking the "herb" is a "relatively safe" anxiolytic. Now, that being said, marijuana is not for everyone.

Cannabis psychosis is real, and probably affects a greater number of people than are seen at the Emergency Department of a hospital. Some people do become delusional after smoking pot; sometimes the pot is laced with another drug (eg. PCP, GBH, LSD etc. - EIEIO) and some cases of cannabis psychosis may be attributed to these chemicals.

Also, cannabis has been called a "trigger" for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Many people who had a predisposition to these major disorder blamed the onset of the disorder on marijuana use. This may be true in some cases, but in the others the psychotic break would have eventually occurred regardless of cannabis use, but most people need a reason why "they" were afflicted and cannabis is a good scapegoat.

Now does apathy lead to pot smoking, or does pot smoking cause apathy; I think it's a bit of both. As for memory problems - ...... erm, ..... uh, ...... I forgot what I was going to say ..... oh, yeah - as for the memory problem associated with pot smoking, it is the short-term memory (or working memory) that is affected the most (most likely due to the fact that the person is stoned at the time of the memory problems).

It also should be noted that marijuana can cause a "hangover effect" (as seen with some sleeping pills) where the person who "lit-up" the night before, is dragging their but the next morning. The reasons for this morning lethargy range from the relatively long half-life of THC (ie. still sorta stoned) to a depressant effect being caused by other chemicals (and their metabolytes) that are also inhaled with the THC.

I know that this is rambling (as it should be with this topic), but it comes down to marijuana is a psychoactive compound that causes time distortion, somnolence (tiredness, butt dragging), and incoordination. Marijuana is a CNS-depressant (CNS = central nervous system) and appetite stimulant that is additive to the depressant effects of other medications that have CNS-depressant activity, and counters the effects of medications with stimulant activity.

There are so many different chemicals inhaled with the psychoactive ones, that one cannot be absolutely sure that marijuana does not affect the activity of medications used for psychiatric disorders; but from the number of people who do mix the two very few end up with any serious long-term problems. The cannabis psychosis and triggering of psychotic disorders do occur, though.

I hope that this wishy-washy answer is okay. - Cam