Daily Mail article today:

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The Cannabis catastrophe
Rosie Boycott, The Daily Mail - 17 May, 05

AT THE end of the Nineties, when I was editor of the Independent on Sunday, I launched a campaign to decriminalise cannabis that became, perhaps, the most notorious and hotly debated newspaper campaign of the day.

My reasons for wanting a change in the law were straightforward. It didn't seem fair that occasional cannabis users were being branded criminals, while it was perfectly legal for heavy drinkers to cause untold damage to themselves, to their families and to society as a result of their habit.

More pertinently, I believed that if cannabis was legalised, it might stop young people from experimenting with harder, and infinitely more damaging, narcotics.

That may seem like perverse logic - after all, many anti-drugs campaigners claim that cannabis acts as a 'gateway' drug to cocaine and heroin.

But the way I saw it, if there was a gateway effect, it was because the dealer who sold you cannabis might try to sell you something harder. I believed that if you could take the sale of cannabis away from street dealers and into strictly controlled legal outlets, then we could break this vicious chain.

My campaign was pilloried by many sections of the Press, not least by this newspaper. But, ultimately, I suspect it served as a catalyst that eventually led to the reclassification of cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C - the same level as steroids - which Labour introduced in January 2004.

So why now, 15 months later, do I find myself wondering about cannabis all over again? Why do I have a lurking fear that cannabis users today are playing Russian roulette with their mental health? Why, too, has Tony Blair now hinted that he is looking again at the legislation and may yet reclassify cannabis as Class B?

It all began when I found myself sitting next to an old friend at a dinner party. He had supported my cannabis campaign, but he was now having second thoughts. The reason for his change of heart? Three teenagers he knew were suffering psychosis as a result of smoking an enhanced type of cannabis known as skunk.

Put simply, psychosis means suffering from delusions and hallucinations. And what was beyond doubt for these three boys was that skunk had caused a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in their personalities. They had become withdrawn, paranoid and suffered wild mood swings.

A couple of weeks later at a party, I had a similar conversation with another close friend, whom I will call Fiona.

Fiona's son, Craig, had also suffered psychosis as a result of smoking skunk and was in a bad way. Her graphic description of what had happened to her son chilled me to the core.

Craig is dyspraxic and as a consequence he's always been shy and somewhat anxious.

Dyspraxics have poor hand-eye coordination and find school difficult: sports are all but impossible and sufferers may end up isolated and often bullied as a result.

WHEN Craig first started smoking cannabis in his late teens it seemed to help him relax and make friends. Fiona hadn't worried.

Like me, she grew up in the late Sixties and always regarded the occasional puff of dope as harmless, something that made you mellow and giggly.

But that's not what was happening to Craig. 'I noticed that what he seemed to be smoking smelt different,' said Fiona. 'He was changing: he went into rages, he became incomprehensible and paranoid. He was convinced he was worthless. The skunk would help him sleep, but then he'd wake up and be desperate for more.' Craig's problems became more acute and he became an inpatient in a psychiatric clinic where he was under the care of Dr Mark Collins. Dr Collins has long been an expert in the field of drugs and addiction, but he has noticed a marked increase in the past five years of people suffering from cannabis psychosis.

Interestingly, his patients, and those of other doctors and therapists in his area of medicine, are always young men (Collins' last ten patients have all been male).

What was going on?

Disturbed by what Fiona had told me, I decided to investigate.

I began by going to meet Dr Collins and asking him about the new kind of psychosis.

'Cannabis psychosis mimics classic schizophrenia or a manic illness,' he explained. 'People develop paranoia, strange delusional beliefs, hallucinations.

They lose insight into what is going on. The worrying thing is that it doesn't go away when you stop using the drug. These patients stay ill for a long time.' Most, though not all, of Collins' patients had exhibited some schizophrenic or manic tendencies before they began smoking skunk. But crucially, he believes that in most cases their symptoms would have remained benign were it not for the heavy use of this new type of cannabis.

SO WHAT is it that had changed the relatively mild drug which so charmed my generation into today's monster?

The answer lies in the way that cannabis is now grown.

Thirty years ago the cannabis sold on our streets would have mostly been illegally imported from Morocco, Afghanistan or the Lebanon. It would have been grown naturally and came in varying strengths, but nothing overpowering.

Skunk, by contrast, is a superstrength variety of cannabis resulting from growing specially bred seeds 'hydroponically' - in special mixtures under artificial lights.

These intensive farming methods produce a drug which is utterly unlike the cannabis of the past. The key difference is the content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

The cannabis I used to smoke contained around 1 per cent THC. Skunk sold on London streets today has up to 30 times that amount. Dr Mark Collins likens this intensively farmed cannabis to some intensively farmed chickens.

'You feed them on steroids and chemicals and they become almost poisonous.

Cannabis that is intensively farmed, blasted with fertilisers, chemicals, artificial light and had its genes tinkered with, warps the natural plant into something wholly different.' Interestingly, Rastafarians, well known to smoke cannabis, will not touch skunk on the grounds that it has been grown by these artificial methods.

THC acts on the brain receptors and strong doses, used repeatedly over long periods, cause the brain to release huge floods of dopamine, a chemical which can unbalance a developing mind.

Recent research has shown that those who smoke skunk heavily have a four times higher risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, with the severity of the symptoms linked directly to the amount smoked.

Scientists now suspect that there may be a genetic link, too, with some people up to ten times more susceptible to cannabis psychosis than others.

I called a friend, Julie Lynn-Evans, who is a highly respected child psychotherapist. She didn't mince her words. 'Skunk is one of the most serious things on our streets today. I would rather my daughter took heroin.'

Her explanation was chilling in its rationale. Heroin addiction can be cured, but the horrendous effects of skunk on some young people cannot. The symptoms of skunk-induced psychosis are permanent.

Julie explained what this means in the real world, out on the streets.

'Gangs, or crews as they're known, of 14 and 15-year old boys wearing hooded tops get stoned and seem not to care about ethics or morality.

'Unlike the old-fashioned dope, skunk makes people aggressive: they're stealing, breaking into cars and snatching phones.

Many of them are middle-class kids who were smoking at their public schools and ended up at tutorial colleges in London after being expelled.

'I do a lot of work with the police and they are very worried about this new wave of juvenile crime.' Julie went on to describe how, even when these youngsters try to stop smoking skunk, they suffer horrendous symptoms: 'They hear voices and have alarming mood swings. They feel very fearful and will go to any lengths to get more skunk.' This was not what I had campaigned for.

Not by any stretch. How on earth had this happened?

I spoke to Amanda Neidpath, founder and director of The Beckley Foundation which works with the Government on drug policy and the science of drugs, who explained how skunk has supplanted the milder versions of old.

'It is now so easy to grow high strength cannabis in Britain under polytunnels that people no longer import so much,' says Amanda. 'It is cheaper and easier to sell the stuff that's been grown here in the UK under artificial conditions than it is to import cannabis grown abroad.

'What is particularly frightening is that there is no way for someone to tell what they are buying. Imported varieties of cannabis, like the stuff that used to be smoked in the past, are now far more expensive than UK grown skunk - it is little wonder that most people opt for the cheaper variety.'

HER views are echoed by Dr Clare Gerada, head of the Drugs Misuse Unit at the Royal College of General Practitioners, who said that enhanced more powerfulk forms of cannbis 'are now the norm rather than the exception.

In fact, in many cases it is difficult for users to buy anything else.

'With higher potencies more widely available than ever before, it is time we looked again at the health risks.' For some, it may already be too late. Two cases this year have shocked the nation to the core.

Last month, Mark Hobson was found guilty of the savage murder of two sisters, Claire and Diane Sanderson, and of an elderly couple, James and Joan Britton, in their home.

Hobson had once been a hardworking family man but something had made him capable of unrelenting horror.

Back in January, 16-year-old Luke Mitchell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, 14-year-old Jodi Jones. He had once been described by teachers as a bright, attentive and popular pupil but in the months before the murder had become introverted and prone to violence.

One thing linked both culprits, beyond the brutality of their actions. Both were young men who had become heavy users of cannabis - most probably skunk - in the months before their crimes. Friends of Mitchell said he used cannabis '99.9 per cent of the time', while Hobson's ex-wife revealed that a combination of alcohol and cannabis had 'rotted his brain'.

Now we learn that the chief suspect in the stabbing of Abigail Witchalls, who took his own life this week, was likewise a heavy cannabis user. As one of Richard Cazaly's former employers put it: 'If Richard's committed a violent act of that intensity, then I think the authorities should be looking at cannabis psychosis, because there's no doubt he was a doper, someone who smoked cannabis regularly.' I am certainly not suggesting that cannabis use leads inexorably towards extreme violence. But I do now believe that, just as roughly 10 per cent of the population will develop alcohol problems, so will 10 per cent of cannabis smokers develop problems with skunk.

Moderate use of both intoxicants will cause no problems, but heavy use of either can.

And it's not just the extreme cases that can lead to tragedy.

Even those with relatively moderate side-effects can have their lives destroyed by smoking highstrength cannabis.

When my friend Fiona's son Craig came out of hospital, he stopped smoking skunk and took up a place at the London School of Economics, but he found the social pressure of living in a university hall overwhelming and started to smoke again to try to fit in.

He suffered a seizure, went on to heavy medication, got behind in his studies and is having to redo his first year. He is now back at home living with Fiona.

'He accepts that skunk has horribly exacerbated his problems,' she says. 'It creates such a feeling of edginess and paranoia that when you're coming off it, you just want to have more to take the feeling away. I think you have to have a very strong sense of yourself not to be affected by the drug - something that teenagers don't have.' What, then, can be done to prevent others from falling victim to the skunk phenomenon? In the Netherlands, which has long had a liberal approach to cannabis, the Dutch government is considering legislation to ban skunk, on the grounds that it is unlike all previous strains of cannabis and should instead be reclassified as a hard drug.

might seem the sensible option - but it is not one that I favour. I believe that the present legislation in Britain regarding cannabis is confusing enough already, without having separate penalties for different strains. So why not ban it altogether?

Again, it is my personal belief that this would not work in practice. There always have been and there always will be recreational drugs in our society and penalising users will not resolve the crisis we are encountering with skunk.

Far more important now is that people can have open access to honest, sensible information about this new type of cannabis.

At a recent conference, the Royal College of General Practitioners said that doctors shied away from questioning patients about drugs, due to their own lack of knowledge and concerns about confidentiality.

When even GPs do not understand the dangers of skunk and cannot advise their patients accordingly, then we are truly betraying an entire generation of youngsters, many of whom will experiment with drugs at some stage in their life, just as they have done for decades past.

As Mark Collins says, it is time that we treated young people as grownups.

Skunk is a new phenomenon and is clearly a danger which we need to face up to honestly and openly or the consequences for society will be dire.

It is time, in short, for a new cannabis campaign - one that makes it clear that smoking skunk can destroy some young lives for ever.
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In this article cannabis is described as highly addictive, dangerous and most irresponsibly COMPARED TO HEROIN.
I've already sent my response to this shocking article, and everyone here should too!

Oh this is just so full of crap. Rosie Boycott must have been paid something massive to write this rubbish.

In any case, IF it is true that cannabis used to be harmless, why did this country and others spend milions wiping the crops out in an effort to erradicate it?

IF there is any truth in this utter shite, it's that prohibition has caused the problem dear Rosie thinks she's identified.

Interestingly I didn't see any report in this scum-rag about the collapse of Americas "Plan Columbia" (the attempt to erradicate coca growing in South America), which was the real drug war story from the weekend.

Derek

Webteam UKCIA

This piece of journalism is awful. No real argument of any worth has been put forward. How do we reverse this trend???

THIS HAS TO STOP...

Well I've started by writing to newspapers and the Home Office... Don't know how much effect this will have but its worth trying whatever we can.

Write to everyone, complain about every article, complain when there are no articles to complain about, and generally be a complete pain in the arse to as many people as possible. You'll get standard replies from the government but they all have to be logged. Write letters rather than mails if you can as letters must be replied to, mails do not, and you get a pretty collection of letters with a port culis on to keep you going. Some journalists will reply so you can really give them chapter and verse until they get tired of you or start to wake up, it happens.

If you have the spare time anyway you're not wasting it are you.

Annoy an MP today.
;o)

HvyFuel Wrote:
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Annoy an MP today.
;o)




[www.faxyourmp.com]

I cant wait to see what happens when oil and bubblehash become widely available in the uk.

One thing I don't quite get is I was smoking skunk on the Independent march,organised by Rosie Boycot.. as it was widley available then,and the government of then, Major, turned around and made class A mumblings yet again....


ffs if the politicians left the drug alcohol alone and the cocaine, we might get near the truth,and realise skunk is not that strong...

ps I don't smoke no more, joined Granny pats way of doing things,.

and really enjoying it...

winstone

Lets try together to put this wrong right!!!

Why dont we all send letters to the daily mail and other papers, and also our MP's giving our stories on how cannabis has changed our lives for the better, and lets see just how many get printed. The truth is these papers only like to print horror stories i dont know why people buy them, its not very often you read a report that puts a smile on your face.

I have been trying to make contact with RB since this article so far without success

Maybe we could write about the good things cannabis has done for us. Lester Grinspoon's webpage [www.marijuana-uses.com] looks like a good way to do this. And the idea of getting people to sign their name to say 'I use cannabis' or 'Cannabis cured me' is another way of getting the positives across. It all helps to present the counter-message which does trickle through the media eventually.

Alastair

You would make a much better case if you say that you want legalisation because it would be safer if it were legal and controlled. Harm minimisation benefits everybody - controlled and within the law. Protecting children is not a counter-message.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2005 08:38PM by tiny vol.

same old bull eh tiny?

winstone

Lets try together to put this wrong right!!!

Mysterious Wrote:
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> Why dont we all send letters to the daily mail and
> other papers, and also our MP's giving our stories
> on how cannabis has changed our lives for the
> better, and lets see just how many get printed.
> The truth is these papers only like to print
> horror stories i dont know why people buy them,
> its not very often you read a report that puts a
> smile on your face.

How many letters have ppl wrote then?

If you say something enough , people will believe it , even if its not true,


and so many people just keep telling lies, the Mail , and the odd individual, demonise the herb,,,.



winston

ps why is it that the ones who ask for definatives, do not use cannabis as there main drug?

Lets try together to put this wrong right!!!

the mail are very anti

Check this out, new Dail Maily article:

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Cannabis 'can ease mental illness'
The Daily Mail - 04 Jun, 05

Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bi-polar depression could be eased with cannabis, according to new research.

While some experts have warned about the long-term mental damage that cannabis smokers risk, scientists at Newcastle University believe in regulated doses it can ease manic attacks.

Professor Heather Ashton, who led the study by the department of psychiatry, stressed the medicinal use of cannabis was quite separate from heavy, recreational use.

She said: "There are certain things in cannabis which can be helpful in certain forms of mental disease. People who take it for relief of these symptoms do not need the heavy doses that recreational users take."

She did not advocate smoking the drug, but said there were certain chemicals known as cannabinoids in it which can be synthesised into a spray and administered under the tongue.

In certain doses, it can have a sedative, anti-psychotic or anti-depressive effect, she said. One ingredient THC makes users feel "high", while another, known as CBD, can have a calming effect.

Prof Ashton, a psycho-pharmacologist, wanted to study the effect of a mixture of those two specific chemicals.

Prof Ashton said current anti-psychotic drugs, often a mixture of lithium, was not satisfactory as they can render patients emotionally "flat".

"We thought it might be useful to patients to try, as an add-on not as a single drug, a known mixture of certain cannabinoids."

The department was now looking for funding to begin a trial, which could be done in collaboration with North American scientists, who have access to the two cannabinoids as they have already been licensed in Canada.

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Well I never - something positive in the Daily Mail about cannabis, do I need my eyes tested or something?

Excellent. I hope any feedback they get from their readers will convince them to change stance. Although, I do wonder whether this positive reporting benefits freeing the herb or if it supports the establishment (with whom the medical profession are aligned) who would like to control the herb their way?

It will be interesting to see if-as-and-when positive findings emerge about effects on driving whether the DM will report that positively, if at all. This second scenario is one that benefits the herb rather than the establishment.

Alastair

smoke wise Wrote:
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> ffs if the politicians left the drug alcohol alone
> and the cocaine, we might get near the truth,and
> realise skunk is not that strong...


> winstone
>
> Lets try together to put this wrong right!!!



The problem is winstone the politicians and the general public don't class alcohol as a drug for some reason, i have had this arguement over and over again with non cannabis users on other forums and i get the same reply "Alcohol is not a drug" and for some reason they will not be converted.

>>
The problem is winstone the politicians and the general public don't class alcohol as a drug for some reason,
>>

Alcohol and tobacco were specifically excluded from the government's drugs strategy by Micheal Howard back in 1995 when he started it. Although alcohol and tobacco are now included in the schools drugs education (which is why Frank talks about them), they are still treated seperatly for adults. Hence the DAT's (drug action teams) are now DAAT's - drug and alcolhol action teams.

It is, of course, a totally false distinction.

You might find this intersting:

Doctors warn Government drug strategy fails to tackle crucial issues (issued Saturday 04 Jun 2005)

The Government’s National Drug Strategy misses a crucial point by failing to tackle drinking and smoking early in life, warned public health doctors at the British Medical Association yesterday (2 June 2005).

Doctors at the BMA’s Conference of Public Health Medicine and Community Health in London voted for the Government to set up accessible addiction services for young people, and focus on smoking prevention - as part of an overall strategy for tackling drug addiction.

Dr Vasco Fernandes, a consultant physician in alcohol and drug addiction, said:

“The National Drug Strategy was set up with crime-reduction in mind - and for that reason it’s designed to tackle illegal drug use only.

“But most drug addicts don’t progress straight to heroine or crack cocaine. They show signs of trouble to come in early life, by smoking and drinking alcohol at a young age.

“The Government’s drug strategy doesn’t properly recognise the importance of these ‘gateway’ drugs in young people, leaving it to other agencies to deal with these problems separately.

“If we are serious about preventing addiction to both legal and illegal drugs, we must have better services to tackle these problems among young people, and they must be co-ordinated into the national drug strategy.

“Otherwise we are spending our time locking the door after the horse has well and truly bolted.”

The conference also called for a review of Government plans for 24-hour drinking, and demanded a public debate on the proposals.

Dr Noel Olsen, Chair of the Alcohol Education and Research Council, said “The problems caused by alcohol abuse far outweigh problems caused by illegal drugs in health terms for the population as a whole.”

A motion for a ban on proposed super-casinos in local communities was also passed, as doctors felt they would promote addictive and damaging behaviour, and increase poverty.

The conference also voted for a ‘fairness doctrine’ for advertising, where media space given over to the promotion of unhealthy foods must be matched with airtime for public health messages.

Dr Olsen, who proposed the motion, added:

“I think that industries which promote unhealthy foods, many of them aimed at children, should contribute to the cost of the public health view being heard. Personally I also feel these companies shouldn’t be allowed to write off such advertising against tax.”

Ends

For further information please contact:
Public Affairs Division
British Medical Association
BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP

Webteam UKCIA