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UK: Mental health charity backs cannabis regrade
Redhill and Reigate Life
Tuesday 24 Jul 2007 A MENTAL health charity is backing the reclassification of cannabis. Chris Pascoe, South East manager for Rethink, said there was now an accepted link between use of the drug by high-risk groups and severe mental illness. She was speaking after Prime Minister Gordon Brown told MPs the UK strategy on drugs would be reviewed. The law downgrading cannabis to the level of less harmful drugs could be reversed. It could be moved back from class C to class B. When it was downgraded in 2004, it was moved from a class including amphetamines to one which covered anabolic steroids and Prozac. Any reclassification would mean higher penalties and more arrests of people found with the drug. Although Ms Pascoe is in favour of the change she said the experiences of Rethink members showed that reintroducing tougher criminal penalties for possession and use would do nothing to reduce use. She said: "What most people who have experienced the misery of developing mental illness from using cannabis want to see is a properly-funded health campaign, not harsher laws that end up criminalising people who have developed a health problem." Mike Blank, chief executive of Surrey Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service, which receives around 1,000 calls a year from people worried about a friend or family member's excessive cannabis smoking, agreed on links between cannabis and mental illness. He said: "The message needs to go out that if you have mental health problems or a history of it yourself or in your family you should think very seriously before you consider using cannabis." Reigate MP Crispin Blunt, who, unlike MPs who confessed to smoking the drug in the past, has never tried any illegal drugs, said: "What has become much clearer is that the cannabis half the Cabinet were smoking at university was not the same stuff people are smoking now. It has got stronger and, I understand, can be lethally carcinogenic as well as causing mental health problems." One man taking a different view is Winston Matthews, a Horley resident who stood for Parliament in the 2005 General Election as a Legalise Cannabis Alliance candidate. He said cannabis was the least harmful drug in classes B and C and, regardless of articles in the press, people knew it was not very bad for them. He said: "The downgrading in 2004 seemed to open the doors for people saying cannabis contributes to psychosis. If you are under 15 and take it, you may develop it but it is all speculative and they have still found no cause or link for what they call reefer madness." But Mr Matthews said the strength of cannabis in the 1970s and 1980s had never been recorded to be able to compare it with potent strains such as "skunk" available now. He said cannabis resin, or hashish, a solid substance made with parts of the cannabis plant and often baked in cookies or meals, could now be mixed with other substances like grit, plastic, soap or even ketamine, another recreational drug, to increase its weight and price. These were much more likely to cause harm to those ingesting them. He said: "If it was legalised and people were allowed to grow cannabis, it would keep them away from the black market, which provides money for things like terrorism and would keep them away from contamination." http://www.redhillandreigatelife.co.uk/
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