Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jul 2000
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Author: Eddie Lennon

WHY SMOKERS SHOULD FEAR THE REEFER

Have we become too liberal and complacent about the possible effects of 
cannabis?

Go to any house party these days and, more likely than not, somebody will 
be smoking a joint. Cannabis resin (aka "pot" and "hash"), along with its 
dried plant version "grass", is now the most widely used illegal substance 
in Ireland.

The popularity of cannabis as a trendy recreational drug has made it almost 
as socially acceptable as alcohol, largely because its use has been 
overshadowed by ecstasy and other "hard" drugs.

And it has its fair share of advocates. American actor Woody Harrelson last 
week brought his campaign to legalise cannabis to Ireland. The Texan actor, 
known for his controversial role in Natural Born Killers, was speaking at 
the Galway Film Fleadh. Mr Harrelson has narrated Grass, a documentary 
chronicling 50 years of US government anti-cannabis policy, which is being 
shown at the fleadh. The actor didn't choose to be a campaigner for 
legalising cannabis, he said. "It chose me because my friends went to jail 
over it. That's when I started speaking about it."

Cannabis's mellow allure is easy enough to understand. It gives you a 
gentle "high", making you mildly euphoric, pleasantly relaxed and rather 
giggly. It can also make you more talkative, and more sensitive to the 
feelings of others.

But are we becoming a bit blase about this so-called "soft drug" do we 
really know what we're dealing with when somebody passes us a joint?

Rolande Anderson, a Dublin-based addiction counsellor, believes we're 
definitely too complacent about the risks of cannabis. "For example, 
there's a risk of depression with heavy use. I believe that, together with 
alcohol, cannabis can cause the death of young people as a result of 
depression."

The vast majority who use cannabis won't get depressed but there is a 
significant risk. "Though the jury's still out on its long term effects, 
the effect on people's personality greatly worries me. One of the big 
dangers when people take cannabis is that their inhibitions are lowered and 
they take more, or don't know what they're taking.

"I'm dealing with loads of situations where young people get into serious 
trouble with cannabis problems with the law, relationships, and lowering of 
inhibitions in every way.

"Parents are up the wall and are losing touch with their kids because they 
don't have the knowledge to deal with the problem," he adds.

Despite what people say, there is a risk of addiction. "People say you 
can't get physically addicted to cannabis. But that's irrelevant to the 
person who's psychologically addicted."

About 10pc of users become dependent on cannabis. He agrees that the media 
hype about ecstasy has trivialised the potential dangers of cannabis. "I 
also think some of the terms people use, like `recreational use', can muddy 
the waters as well. I'm not saying people don't use cannabis recreationally 
but in talking like that you're not stressing the possible dangers of 
cannabis."

Anderson does not agree with DrugScope, the British institute for the study 
of drugs and dependence, who say "the consensus is that moderate, long-term 
use of cannabis does not cause any lasting damage to your physical or 
mental health."

"That's irresponsible. It's like saying anyone can drink alcohol without 
any problems."

Dr Eamon Keenan, consultant psychiatrist in substance misuse, works with 
drug addicts. He also believes the risks of cannabis are seriously 
underestimated now that there's a certain amount of social acceptance of it.

"Any recent debates about cannabis haven't been about its dangers, but 
about whether it should be legalised. There's clear evidence that cannabis 
causes subtle impairment of memory and brain function, especially when 
taken with alcohol. Whether this is temporary or not hasn't been clearly 
shown."

However, he believes that "amotivational syndrome" is more a feature of 
chronic cannabis use than just occasional use. He adds: "People with a 
history of serious mental illness are more likely to suffer a relapse of 
psychotic behaviour."

It also seems some people have an innate weakness to mental illness and 
there's no way of knowing who they are. For them, using cannabis may be 
extremely dangerous in unmasking mental illness. Dr Keenan disagrees that 
moderate long term use is harmless.

"It's the same argument people have used for years about cigarettes. You 
can't know who will have problems. The evidence suggests cannabis causes 
chronic bronchitis more so than cigarettes do." He says cannabis also 
brings an increased risk of cancer and leukaemia in children in the womb.
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