Pubdate: Fri, 30 Oct 2009
Source: Burton Mail (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Staffordshire Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5027
Author: Katie Bowler

CANNABIS MESSAGE WRONG - NOREEN

THE FOUNDER of Burton Addiction Centre  (BAC) has hit out at the
"mixed signals" from a  professor on a drugs advisory group who
claimed  cannabis did not cause major health issues.

Professor David Nutt, of the Advisory Council on the  Misuse of Drugs
(ACMD), has been widely reported in the  media as saying that smoking
the class B substance  created only a "relatively small risk" of
psychotic  illness, while those who supported downgrading ecstasy 
from a class A to a class B drug had "won the  intellectual argument".

He accused former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of  "devaluing"
scientific research. In 2004, cannabis went  from class B to C but was
upgraded again by Ms Smith in  2008.

However, BAC founder Noreen Oliver (pictured), who has  received an
MBE for her work helping addicts, slammed  the comments, saying
cannabis was a highly addictive  drug which led to 'harder' substances.

She said: "It isn't just about mental health. I have  worked with
thousands of drug users and they all say  cannabis is an entry drug.
We did research and from our  records it showed that 99.9 per cent of
the time  cannabis leads on to stronger drugs.

"When the tolerance feelings go up, you have to keep  increasing the
drug or alcohol to keep up with them,  then people will look for
something stronger to give  them a harder hit.

"There is evidence cannabis affects mental health and  we haven't had
research on what today's stronger skunk  effect will have on people in
the future.

"I don't know why Professor Nutt is sending out mixed  signals to an
already hard-hit country with drug and  alcohol misuse.

"We should be looking at why people feel they want to  feel like this
and look at what's missing.

"I would say to Professor Nutt 'come and talk to our  users and look
at the effects it has had on them their  families and the community'.
We need to look at the  problem -- not send out signals to kids who
might think  'it's only going to harm me a little'."

Speaking to the Mail last year, Keron Fletcher,  consultant addictions
psychiatrist for South  Staffordshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust,
said  mental health problems had increased even in first-time 
cannabis users.

He said: "We need to send a clear signal that cannabis  is dangerous
because, by making it more acceptable,  more people will smoke it.

"But we do have a bigger problem with alcohol, which  causes 20,000
deaths a year, than cannabis.

"It's very difficult to say which drugs should be  upgraded or
downgraded but I'd warn against any use of  them."
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr