Illicit Drugs and Schizophrenia

Today I'm going to talk about the prevalence of illicit drug use among schizophrenics. Most people think that drugs like marijuana, amphetamines, heroin, etc. will undoubtedly cause schizophrenia, or any other mental illness. And while it's true that drug use is high amongst the mentally ill, psychiatrists still do not know if the mental illness leads to the drugs, or the drugs lead to the psychiatric hospital. I suspect it's a little from column A and a little from column B.
     And in many cases illicit drugs are actually beneficial to schizophrenics. In my many admissions to psychiatric hospitals over the years I have met a lot of my fellow schizophrenics who smoked marijuana in order to quell the voices in their head. And these voices needed to be subdued, spending all their time making derogatory remarks about them, interspersed with loud, persistent screaming. The nurses too, in these hospitals, recognised the health benefits of marijuana for some of their patients and turned somewhat of a blind eye to their indulgence whilst in hospital.
     But by far the worst drug for any of the mentally ill is the cigarette. About sixty percent to eighty percent of those mentally ill smoke cigarettes (http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-7-cessation/7-12-smoking-and-mental-health/), in Australia.but, again, psychiatrists are unsure as to why there is such a large prevalence. Whatever the reason(s), about fifty percent of many long time smokers die from their addiction
( http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/putting-a-number-to-smokings-toll/), whereas there have been no recorded deaths from marijuana use, a very common drug used among the mentally ill. Although, having said that, recent German research claims to have identified the first two such deaths; these findings have been seriously questioned however (http://time.com/10372/marijuana-deaths-german-study/).
     Aberrant Selected has many stories involving the mentally ill using and abusing drugs and, as in real life, portrays it as a love-hate relationship. I certainly do not glorify the drug use in the book but have tried to show that they have their place amongst some of society's most fragile. Let's hope that eventually cigarettes are outlawed and thus increase the survival rate of these delicately poised minds.