|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Cannabis mental health risks 'must be taught'
David Batty The Guardian
Wednesday 07 Jan 2004 Young people urgently need better information on the risks cannabis poses to mental health, according to drugs charities. The call to ministers came three weeks before the government is set to downgrade cannabis from a class B to a class C drug and came after Professor Robin Murray, head of general psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, warned its use was now the "number one problem" facing mental health services. Professor Murray told the Times that inner-city psychiatric services were reaching crisis point with up to 80% of new cases of schizophrenia involving a history of cannabis use. He said that four studies published in the last two years found that teenagers who used cannabis were up to seven times more likely to develop a psychotic mental illness such as schizophrenia or manic depression. While the consultant psychiatrist did not oppose reclassification of cannabis, he said the government should do far more to warn people of the possible downside of taking the drug. The Home Office has commissioned Mentor Foundation UK, a drug use prevention charity, to produce a million leaflets on the health risks of cannabis to be distributed across the country from January 29. But the charity's chief executive, Eric Carlin said far more needed to be done. He said: "We need far more preventative services to delay young people from experimenting with drugs until they are able to make informed choices. "The evidence would seem to support a link between cannabis use and mental health problems, but what exactly the link is unclear. It seems more likely that cannabis use is a trigger rather than a direct cause of psychosis, but we need more research to establish that." But an expert on the treatment of patients with mental health and drug problems at the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health contested claims that downgrading cannabis would lead to far more cases of psychotic illness. Tabitha Lewis, the charity's practice development and training officer in dual diagnosis, said that despite a few studies that indicated cannabis posed some risk to mental health, the evidence was by no means conclusive. She said: "I don't understand how reducing the penalty for using cannabis has any impact on how psychotic it could make you. Nor am I convinced that downgrading the drug will lead to far more people using it. "What is the alternative to reclassification? Are we really seeking to criminalise our patients? I doubt that staff report all their cannabis smoking patients to the police and I doubt the police would respond if they did. "We need more robust research if we are to adequately inform young people of the risks." Danny Kushlick, director of the Transform Drugs Policy Institute, said that if cannabis did increase the likelihood of some young people experiencing mental health problems, then the government should legalise the drug. He said: "Cannabis should be sold through licensed outlets with purity listings, health warnings and safer use messages. "All the evidence shows that the legal status of drugs does little or nothing to influence levels of use. This research should not discourage policy makers from exploring alternatives to criminalisation. "We should be looking to legally regulate and control the supply of drugs precisely because they are dangerous, not because they are relatively safe for the majority of users." It will still be an offence from January 29 to possess, cultivate or supply cannabis, but the maximum sentence for possession will fall from five to two years.
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!