ADDICTION ALERT, now called RISE, operates a daytime telephone lifeline service, and data gathered between January 2003 and April 2005 demonstrate the following:

In 2003, a total of 216 calls were received from family members, mostly concerning their relatives' ganja abuse. Of this number, 71 of them were described as having symptoms associated with what is commonly referred to as 'ganja-induced psychosis', that is, exhibiting symptoms such as hearing voices, talking to themselves, hallucinating, seeing things that aren't there, personality change, staring into space, isolating (oneself) or becoming aggressive. Of these 71 persons, 67 were males. Approximately 39 of 71 cases were under age 25, including 12 teenagers.

[continues 449 words]