Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jan 2005
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Jo Revill, Health Editor, The Observer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

CALL FOR STUDY ON REGULAR POT USE

A mental health charity has called for a government inquiry into the 
psychological effects of cannabis 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', particularly 
schizophrenia.

A year after the government downgraded it from a Class B drug to Class C, 
mental health experts have growing concerns about its impact on young 
people. Rethink said the reclassification had sent a 'confusing message' to 
them that cannabis is risk-free. There has been a 60 per cent rise in 
people who smoked drugs and had mental health problems in the last five years.

Most medical experts agree smoking cannabis in itself does not cause mental 
illness, but say people who are predisposed to psychosis are much more 
likely to develop symptoms with regular use.

'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.' The 
government should 'concentrate on the real and specific mental health 
dangers, not general warnings that no one takes seriously'.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the charity Sane, wants the reclassification 
reversed. 'The fact that Britain has become the cannabis capital of Europe 
is an indictment of the way professionals and governments have ignored 
years of mounting evidence that the innocent spliff in the playground, or 
chilling out, could trigger a journey of life-long disintegration,' she said.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'We are commissioning an expert 
review of all the evidence of the link between cannabis use and mental 
health, particularly schizophrenia.'
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager