The New Zealand Herald reported March 2 that researchers from Canterbury University led by David Fergusson looked at long-term health data and concluded that daily users were between 1.6 and 1.8 times more likely to experience psychotic symptoms than nonusers.

"These are not huge increases in risk and nor should they be, because cannabis is by no means the only thing that will determine if you suffer these symptoms," Fergusson said. Occasional use of marijuana likely would not cause similar problems, researchers added.

Fergusson said that previous studied have also shown a link between marijuana use and psychosis, but questions remained about whether the symptoms were related to other drug use or if people with psychotic problems were more likely to smoke marijuana. The new study controlled for those factors and still found an elevated risk, Fergusson said.

The research was published in the March 2005 issue of the journal Addiction.

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