Charity calls for cannabis study

Cannabis use can affect people predisposed to mental illness
A mental health charity has called for a government inquiry into the effects that cannabis has on users.
Rethink wants the Commons Health Select Committee to launch an investigation "to help establish the facts about the link between cannabis and psychosis".

It comes a year after the government reclassified cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug.

Rethink said the reclassification had sent a "confusing message" to young people that cannabis is risk free.

'Far worse'

Cannabis was reclassified so that police could target hard drugs.

Rethink said there had been a 60% increase in people who smoked drugs and had mental health problems in the last five years.

We have known for years that using cannabis makes the symptoms of schizophrenia far worse

Cliff Prior
Mental health charity Rethink

Most medical experts agree that smoking cannabis in itself does not cause mental illness, but that people who are predisposed to psychosis are much more likely to develop symptoms if they use the drug regularly.

"Cannabis is not risk free," Rethink chief executive Cliff Prior said.

"We have known for years that using cannabis makes the symptoms of schizophrenia far worse in people who already have the illness."

Calling for further research, Mr Prior said the government should "concentrate on the real and specific mental health dangers, not general warnings that no-one takes seriously".

Arrests decrease

Home Office figures released on Friday showed that arrests for possession of cannabis fell by a third in the first year of its reclassification.

Based on the feedback from the 26 police forces, there were an estimated 43,750 arrests in the last 12 months compared with 68,625 in the previous year.

In response to the figures, drug education charity DrugScope called for more debate on drug education and prevention, particularly in schools.

"We need to move on from the debate on cannabis reclassification to concentrating on practical responses to drug use and harm," said chief executive Martin Barnes.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We have no objection to the health select committee looking into this.

"However we are in the process of commissioning an expert review of all the academic and clinical evidence of the link between cannabis use and mental health, particularly schizophrenia.

"There is medical clinical evidence now that there is an important causal factor between cannabis use and schizophrenia, not the only factor, but an important causal factor. That is the common consensus among the medical fraternity."

IT's like everything, used in moderation it is probably ok. Like alcohol if you take too much it will cause damage. I have mentioned already a murder case where the accussed was found guilty. He was 14 years old and was dealing in cannabis. The defence lodged that the brutal killling was probably a direct link to the fact that he was a heavy cannabis user and that had probably smoked a lot prior to murdering his girlfriend.

I know that it is used in medical purposes and has proved a life-saver for these people, but as I have said it must be used in moderation and controlled properly.

Control your habits...lest they control you.....

I think this pretty much applies to all that is "bad for us"....

booze, ciggies, sweets, fatty foods, chocolate......

I will give up tobacco long before I give up the weed!

There isn't really an option for my views on the poll.

Truth is, I don't know how I feel about cannabis. I don't strongly object to anyone smoking it if they want to, and I was, in my distant youth, a bit of a dopehead myself, so I understand the attractions.

I stopped smoking it because I found that I was almost needing it. And as I was a student at the time, it was a bit too bluddy expensive to become a necessity. But also, it bothered me a bit that it was "getting" to me in that way. People argue that it is non-addictive, but my experience would support the fact that it possibly is addictive.

When pitched against alcohol I think cannabis comapres favourably. Its mellow. You don't hear of people beating their partners or getting into fights in a "cannabis fuelled rage" in the way you do with alchohol. And its not dangerous in the way that other Class A drugs are. So that's good.

But, I'm not sure enough is known about the long term affects of cannabis. Various research seems to point towards the fact that long term cannabis use affects memory, shortens lifespan and dulls concentration and none of that is good.

Put simply, I wouldn't regard a dopeuser in the same way as an alcholic or a herion addict. But, I probably wouldn't want my own kids to be habitual users.

The only drug I have ever taken is alcohol, I wayed up the pro's and con's of the illegal drugs and decided they weren't for me.

I do think if cannabis can help in the treatment of some conditions that these people should be allowed to take it without fear of any retribution.

If there is evidence that cannabis can make mental illness worse or more likely, I don't think it should not be legalised. As having had experience of seeing a loved one suffer from a serious mental illness, it is not something I would wish on my worse enemy.