Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jan 2005
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2005
Contact:  http://www.scotsman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/406
Author: Lyndsay Moss

CANNABIS PSYCHOSIS LINK INQUIRY CALLS

CAMPAIGNERS today called for MPs to launch an inquiry into the links between
cannabis use and mental illness.

Charity Rethink made the call a year after the Home Office officially
reclassified cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug.

They said the Commons health committee should look into how the drug affects
mental health after a series of studies linked it to psychosis and other
problems.

The British Lung Foundation (BLF) also warned of the links between smoking
cannabis and severe lung damage.

Cliff Prior, Rethink chief executive, said: "The Government should
concentrate on the real and specific mental health dangers, not general
warnings that no-one takes seriously."

The charity said the number of people who use drugs and have mental illness
has increased by 60 per cent in five years.

Mr Prior said reclassification sent out a "confusing message".

He said: "There is a strongly-held view that cannabis is risk-free,
reflected in the rates of its use among young people.

"Cannabis is not risk free. We have known for years that using cannabis
makes the symptoms of schizophrenia far worse in people who already have the
illness.

"There is a growing body of evidence showing that cannabis can trigger
schizophrenia in people already at risk - and probably even in people who
should only be low risk," Mr Prior said.

MP Doug Naysmith, a member of the Health Committee, backed Rethink's call
for an inquiry.

Yesterday, figures from the Home Office showed that arrests for cannabis
possession had fallen by a third in the year since the drug was downgraded.

The move to re-classify the drug from Class B to Class C had saved police in
England and Wales an estimated 199,000 hours of work, the Home Office said.

Cannabis is now ranked alongside anabolic steroids and some prescription
anti-depressants. Its possession is generally not an arrestable offence.

But Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the BLF, said the organisation
wanted to remind the public about the potential respiratory health
implications of smoking cannabis.
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