- Liberal attitudes to cannabis are putting millions of
young people's mental health at risk, senior doctors have warned.
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- The Royal College of General Practitioners said that
acceptance of the drug and greater availability of stronger forms of it
were leading to rising rates of depression, psychosis and schizophrenia.
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- Dr Clare Gerada, of the college's drugs misuse unit,
said: "Health warnings are falling on deaf ears, drowned out by the
cries of powerful liberal pro-legalisation groups."
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- Dr Gerada was speaking before a meeting of the college
this week to discuss the health threat posed by the drug. Her attack comes
a year after the drug was downgraded from Class B to Class C. People caught
with cannabis are let off with a warning and the drug is confiscated.
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- "With cannabis more popular than tobacco and higher
potencies more widely available than before, it is time we looked again
at the health risks," said Dr Gerada.
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- "There is clear evidence that high levels of use,
especially among teenagers who are physically and mentally still developing,
carries with it the increased risk of psychosis and respiratory conditions
such as asthma."
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- The Conservatives have pledged to return cannabis to
Class B status. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "The
next Conservative government will reflect this by reversing Labour's decision
to downgrade it."
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- Almost a third of 16- to 24-year-old men used cannabis
in 2003, according to the latest Department of Health figures. In November,
figures from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
showed that two in five British 15-year-olds had tried cannabis ñ
the highest rate in Europe.
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- More worrying, Dr Gerada said, was the increase in super-strong
versions of the drug, known as skunk. "The truth is, genetically modified
forms of the drug are the norm," she said. The aim of the meeting
is to give a voice to the thousands of GPs struggling to cope with the
side-effects ñ often mental illnesses - of cannabis users.
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- Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health
charity Sane, said: "The Government has sent out a mixed message that
cannabis is not as harmful as other drugs and yet for some people it is
as harmful as crack cocaine or heroin.
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- "Unlike cannabis, heroin does not affect the chemical
messenger systems linked to schizophrenia."
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- A recent report in the British Medical Journal revealed
that smoking cannabis once or twice a week almost doubled the risk of developing
psychotic symptoms later in life. Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatry
at King's College London, said that since the 1980s doctors had begun to
see a link between psychotic symptoms and cannabis.
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- Iain Shearer, 34, an archaeologist from south London
who recently stopped smoking cannabis, said: "I smoked a lot, particularly
skunk, and was getting worried about what it was doing to me.
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- "It affected my concentration, made me depressed,
affected my short-term memory. There were times when I got really paranoid
about friendships and relationships. It was horrible."
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- A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "The Government's
message is that all controlled drugs, including cannabis, are harmful and
that no one should take them."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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- http://telegraph.co.uk/news/
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