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UK: Charities welcome cannabis review

BBC Online

Saturday 19 Mar 2005

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Mental health and drug charities have welcomed moves to reassess the class
C rating of cannabis.

The drug was downgraded from class B in 2004, but Home Secretary Charles
Clarke has ordered a review after new studies linking its use to mental
illness.

Charity Sane said cannabis use "could trigger a journey of life-long
disintegration" and it was "relieved".

DrugScope also supported the move, but warned a review must be
scientifically based and not politically motivated.

Schizophrenia link

A recent study by New Zealand scientists suggested smoking cannabis
virtually doubled the risk of developing mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia.

Paul Corry, of charity Rethink Severe Mental Illness, said Mr Clarke's
order for a reassessment was a "victory" for those with mental illness.

"At last the government has woken up to the risk they have been running of
a drug induced mental health crisis," he said.

"There is mounting evidence that cannabis dramatically increases the risk
of developing schizophrenia in people where there is a family history of
the illness, and significantly increases the risk even where there is no
family history."

Mr Corry called on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - which
recommended cannabis be downgraded and has been asked to review its
position by Mr Clarke - not to rest on its "flawed" previous advice but to
listen to affected individuals and families.

He added that the Department of Health should launch a campaign to show
that cannabis was not "a risk free drug".

"We want people to have the clearest possible understanding of the link
between long-term and early age use of cannabis and schizophrenia," he said.

'Disintegration'

The head of mental health charity Sane, Marjorie Wallace, said the
organisation had campaigned for over 18 years to highlight the dangers of
cannabis.

"Far from being a relatively harmless recreational drug, for vulnerable
teenagers the innocent spliff, or chilling out, could trigger a journey of
life-long disintegration," she said.

The chief executive of drugs charity DrugScope, Martin Barnes, said:
"DrugScope supported the reclassification at the time but if new evidence
emerges to show that cannabis is more harmful than thought, this needs to
be considered.

"It is right that the classification of cannabis, as with all drugs, is
closely monitored on an ongoing basis.

"But we must ensure that such monitoring takes place on a rigorously
scientific basis and is not motivated by political factors."

 

 

 

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