A wave a suspicious news stories and deceitful research articles is hitting Canada in this first year of #legaLIEsation. The CBC just published this horribly deceitful cover today about an equally deceitful research article. The research article claims there's an association between cannabis and depression, anxiety and suicidality. Although there was a correlation (association)...
Correlation DOES NOT necessarily equal causation!
The CBC coverage says "Teens' long-term cannabis use tied to higher depression risk" in the title, but at the end of the article admits
"One of the main limitations of the meta-analysis is the studies included can't be used to determine cause and effect in terms of whether cannabis use produces depression."
All studies begin with an assumption, and this is the first place that humans corrupt science, with biased assumptions. The study is way out of bounds to say that "the high prevalence of adolescents consuming cannabis [because of legalisation] generates a large number of young people who could develop depression and suicidality attributable to cannabis."
What's worse, is after carefully selecting studies to try to confirm their biased assumption, they present this mere association as established fact. You have to read the full article with some basic scientific or logical literacy, to not be fooled. It's even more tempting to believe the title without reading the article because it's endorsed by mainstream news.
The truth is many teens use cannabis to treat depression by stimulating brain cell production, and that's why there is an association, not because cannabis causes it. So many people think they are the masters of causation and think that another person's medicine is poison, and that they have the right to take it away from them (or at least advocate for it). The media is running with it.