The harmful effects of cannabis and its role as a gateway illicit drug have been confirmed in a large study published last week. It looked at the frequency of cannabis use before the age of 17, and seven developmental outcomes up to age 30. The Antipodean researchers found that those who are daily cannabis users are over 60 per cent less likely to complete secondary school or to complete a degree compared to those who have never used the drug.

Published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, the authors also found that daily users of cannabis during adolescence are seven times more likely to attempt suicide, and are eight times as likely to use other illicit drugs in later life.

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New Research That Links Cannabis With Depression and Suicide in Teens Is Nothing Short of Alarming

One of the more idiotic statements made by Bill Clinton throughout his career was that as a student he smoked cannabis, but didn't inhale. That statement sprang to mind during the week when the results of a study on cannabis use in the student generation, were published in the medical journal The Lancet.

But at least, despite his somewhat ambivalent moral attitude, ex-President Clinton's progress in life was not impeded. Others in his own age group and younger may not have been so lucky: The Lancet research found that young people who smoke cannabis daily in their teen years are 18 times more likely to become dependent on the drug than those who have never smoked it. They are also eight times more likely to use other illicit drugs than those who never smoked cannabis.

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More than half of young Irish people think cannabis should be regulated, according to a new EU survey.

The Eurobarometer survey was carried out by telephone for the European Commission between June 3rd and 23rd. There were 500 Irish participants among 13,130 interviewees across Europe.

It focused on young Europeans and dealt with levels of drug use, perceived risk of certain substances, as well as opinions on regulating drugs and dealing with drug problems in society.

The survey found some 56 per cent of young Irish people believe cannabis should be regulated, an increase of 15 per cent since the last survey in 2011.

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Use Of Methadone In Mountjoy Criticised By Prisons Oversight Group

Prisons are still struggling to tackle drug and staffing problems, according to the latest round of prison visit reports released by the Department of Justice today.

One of the reports, which were compiled by prison visiting committees for various detention centres across the State, expressed severe reservations over the introduction of methadone into Mountjoy Prison's low security Training Unit.

Committee members voiced concerns over the highly-addictive nature of the drug, which is used to wean addicts off opiates such as heroin, but acknowledged some successes of the fledgling system introduced earlier this summer.

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THREE years ago, the UN Global Commission on Drug Policy announced that the world had lost the long war against illegal drugs. Its 22 eminent members concluded that there remained only one feasible response: legalise the trade.

The evidence they had studied was overwhelming. The fight had resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in turf wars and in ever-increasing power and wealth for the criminal syndicates. Tens of millions were incarcerated, often in prisons where dangerous drugs were as easily available as on the outside.

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A CITY-CENTRE phone-box turned drug den is to be removed after a four-year campaign.

Four Eircom phone-boxes, at 19-20 South Great George's Street, which were being used for injecting heroin, have been listed for removal by Dublin City Council (DCC).

"It became a ghetto. They were constantly being used for taking drugs, hiding drugs and dealing drugs," said independent councillor Mannix Flynn.

Mr Flynn had been campaigning for their removal for four years after he became inundated with complaints from local businesses and residents, who had become afraid of the area.

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Sir, - Further to Simon Carswell's "The highs and lows of legalised marijuana" (July 12th), which examined the legal status of the drug in the US, it is clear that the days when politicians could get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidise violent drug cartels and open a gateway to the harder drugs they sell, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure.

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Decriminalised in Brooklyn and Legal in Washington State, the Drug Has Had a Big Week in the US

Buying marijuana in the United States for recreational (read: fun) purposes may be legal in two American states now but for some it is far from acceptable, as security guard Mike Boyer learned to his cost.

Boyer (30), from Spokane in Washington, stood in line for almost 20 hours waiting to become the first customer on "Green Tuesday" to buy recreational marijuana in one of 334 retail dispensaries licensed to sell grass. The shops opened this week two years after voters in the Pacific northwest state voted to approve its sale.

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The outgoing Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White has removed legal impediments to the use of medicinal cannabis .

In one of his final acts in the Department of Health before moving to his new role as Communications Minister, Mr White signed regulations enabling the sale of products that alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Approval for their use in Ireland was dependent on changes to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations under legislation controlling supply and possession.

It will pave the way for the sale of drugs such as Sativex, with extracts from the the cannabis plant.

There are also changes to methadone prescriptions, requiring handwritten details of patients and details of dosage.

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Regulations to allow for the prescribing of medicinal cannabis are to be finalised within the next week. The regulations will permit the prescribing of cannabis-based medicines to relieve muscle spasm symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis.

Minister of State for Health Alex White said he was hopeful he would be able to sign the regulations before the end of the week.

An application to allow Sativex, which contains extracts from the leaf and flower of the cannabis plant, to be sold in the Irish market has been received by the Irish Medicines Board.

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Sir, - It may not be popular, but it needs to be said - the sentencing of Pat Scanlan to 15 years in prison for importing 4.8kg of cannabis is monstrous ("Restaurateur jailed for 15 years for importing cannabis", Home News, May 21st).

The merits or otherwise of cannabis can be debated; what is absolutely certain is that its criminalisation has done nothing to diminish its popularity, and it has been freely available in Ireland for over 40 years. It has remained popular because people who use it know it is not in any way equivalent to heroin or other hard drugs. A sentence of 15 years is completely out of proportion to the crime committed, and in due course will come to be seen as barbarous. - Yours, etc,

Eoin Dillon, Ceannt Fort, Mount Brown, Dublin 8.

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A Notorious Drug Dealer Is One Of 12 Suspects For An Assault Which Saw A Detective Pistol-Whipped.

The criminal has been identified by gardai as a main suspect after a detective who was held at gunpoint was beaten unconscious by the assailant with a gun in a Dublin park.

The middle-aged detective, who is attached to Sundrive Road garda station, was knocked unconscious in the attack at Ravensdale Park in Kimmage on March 25.

While he is making a good recovery from his injuries, an intensive garda investigation into the incident is continuing.

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THESE days it's increasingly popular for politicians to admit to smoking cannabis in their youth, so why are we still criminalising young people for the same behaviour?

Last month, Barack Obama caused a stir when he said: "I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked ... I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."

Meanwhile, in this country, even conservative types like Leo Varadkar and Brian Cowen have admitted to smoking the odd spliff when they were in college. However, despite their own dalliances with drugs in the past, politicians demonstrate breathtaking hypocrisy in insisting on the continuation of a failed policy - the blanket criminalisation of cannabis use.

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A man who has had both his eyes removed due to glaucoma has handed himself in to gardai with a quantity of herbal cannabis in a protest designed to challenge the law regarding the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

Mark Fitzsimons (30) has been completely blind for the past five years and believes that by being prosecuted for possession he may be able to avail of free legal aid in order to test legislation.

On Thursday, with the help of his cane and carer, the Dundalk resident presented himself to gardai with a small quantity of the drug and requested he be charged with possession in order to secure a court appearance. Gardai confiscated the substance and issued him with a formal caution. Once a test confirms it is cannabis , Mr Fitzsimons will receive a summons to attend court.

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Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the specious comments made by Cllr. Peter Dempsey in your newspaper dated November 6, 2013 and his call for parents to complain about the proposals made in Leinster House by Deputy Luke Flanagan. As a concerned cannabis consumer myself, I find Cllr. Dempsey's view regarding cannabis to be nothing short of archaic, truth void and they belie his lack of knowledge regarding the true threats facing Irish society.

The basic premise of his argument is 'cannabis automatically leads people onto heroin' and given that this view is not supported by any medical or anecdotal evidence, I would like to ask Cllr. Dempsey how he came to form such opinions. If his claims regarding the number of people in Arklow's cemeteries who 'started out on cannabis' are based on fact, I would be happy to stand corrected should he choose to furnish us with the source of his information.

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Well, another day another debate about drugs. And, Ireland being Ireland, another debate about drugs that immediately descends into the kind of hallucinatory silliness you'd normally associate with a hit of particularly strong acid.

Luke Ming Flanagan's suggestion last week that this country legalise cannabis and save euro 300m in the process has been greeted with derision in some quarters and, let's be honest, that should hardly come as much of a surprise.

But the thing is - and I don't derive any great satisfaction from publicly admitting this - he is probably right, if even for the wrong reasons.

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HIGH-POTENCY cannabis is putting young people who use the drug heavily at risk of stroke, a leading specialist has told an inquest.

Consultant stroke physician Professor Joseph Harbison told Dublin Coroner's Court that doctors at St James's Hospital have seen "five or six cases" of young people having strokes following the use of herbal cannabis in the past three years. The strokes may be linked to the increased potency of cannabis available in Ireland over that period, he said.

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Sir, Joanne Hunt ("Is it time to legalise marijuana?", Health + Family, September 2nd) refers to a book with a dubious title, Marijuana is Safer: so why are we driving people to drink?

Most people are sensible enough to recognise the folly of the question and to realise that "We" are not forcing anyone to drink. People take alcohol and other drugs to alter their mood and perceptions, and with that comes the danger.

A study in the academic journal, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, demonstrated that a marijuana cigarette deposits four times the amount of tar in the human respiratory tract than a tobacco cigarette.

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If We Treat Recreational Drugs in the Same Way As Prescription Ones, We Might Be in a Better State, Says Julia Molony

SO MEDICAL marijuana will soon be added to your local GP's prescription slate. But don't all go rushing down asking for a couple of spliffs every time you've got a stomach ache.

The drug will be available for therapeutic purposes only, initially for treatment of spacisity in Multiple Sclerosis.

However, it has clinical applications for an array of ailments, including seizures and to improve cancer patients' tolerance for treatments such as chemotherapy.

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Doctors will be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis under regulations likely to be introduced this year.

It is also to become an offence to possess certain prescription drugs without authorisation. This is in an effort to address the spiralling problem of open dealing in benzodiazepines and other tranquilliser drugs.

Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White has issued consultation documents on his plans and is seeking submissions by the end of the month.

However, the proposals are likely to be welcomed by interested parties who have been seeking such changes for a number of years. They would also bring Ireland into line with other EU states and into compliance with obligations under a number of UN resolutions.

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