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Lothar121

The Rising Toll of Cannabis Users on Psychiatric Wards
RedNova News | 08/06/2005

THE number of cannabis users being admitted to hospital with mental illnesses has risen dramatically since the drug's criminal status was downgraded, it was revealed yesterday.

Health service figures show a 22 per cent leap in admissions blamed directly on the drug last year the same year police stopped routinely arresting those caught with cannabis.

The startling figures add to the growing weight of evidence linking cannabis use to mental illness in particular schizophrenia.

They brought fresh demands from medical authorities yesterday for a reversal of the law which saw the criminal status of cannabis downgraded from Class B to C.

One of the country's leading experts on addiction psychiatry, Professor Colin Drummond of St George's Medical School in London, said: 'It is notable that this (rise in hospital admissions) has followed the change in the classification of cannabis.

The public has taken its lead from the Government.' The figures were revealed yesterday by Health Minister Rosie Winterton in response to an inquiry by Newport West Labour MP Paul Flynn.

Mr Flynn, a longstanding advocate of the legalisation of cannabis, had asked for evidence on whether use of the legal drug khat used largely by Somali and Ethiopian immigrants was a cause of mental illness.

Mrs Winterton provided him with new NHS figures saying nothing about khat but giving a breakdown of hospital mental health admissions brought about by other drugs.

The figures cover admissions 'with a primary diagnosis of a mental or behavioural disorder due to psychoactive substance abuse'. This means that they may only be the tip of the iceberg because they do not include many cases in which drugs were involved but were not recorded as the main cause of mental illness.

The figures showed that 710 people were sent to hospital because of mental illness caused by cannabis in the 12 months ending in April last year. That compared to 580 in both 2001-02 and 2002-03.

By contrast, admissions caused by abuse of other drugs fell in almost all cases. Heroin hospital cases were down two years running, and fell by more than 4 per cent in 2003-04.

Mental hospital admissions because of hallucinogens such as LSD remained steady across the two years, and admissions blamed on alcohol were down 4 per cent.

Apart from cannabis, only admissions blamed on cocaine rose significantly by 16 per cent in 2004 to 220.

In January last year cannabis became a Category C drug, possession of which attracts little police interest and leads to comparatively trivial punishments.

It was previously Category B, meaning anyone caught with it would face automatic arrest and a potential five-year jail sentence.

The change in the law was mooted by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2001, approved by Government drug advisers in 2002, and foreshadowed by highly-publicised police experiments such as the decision to allow small-scale cannabis users to go free in Lambeth, South London.

But in March this year Home Secretary Charles Clarke called for a rethink on downgrading cannabis because of new evidence from New Zealand and Holland that it is linked to mental illness.

He has asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to advise on the growing availability of stronger forms of cannabis.

Professor Drummond, head of addiction psychiatry at St George's Medical School, added: 'There are more people willing to take cannabis now than in the past since the Government has signalled that it believes cannabis is not as dangerous as other drugs.

'The more people who take cannabis, the more people who are going to get into difficulties.' The Advisory Council is to deliver its report by the end of the year.

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vladimir

i'm sure the BLAMED DIRECTLY is vaguely defined.

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If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.

Mamabudz

Perhaps that is because People who are feeling the effects of a mental illness, who may have smoked pot to self medicate only todiscover that it is an ineffective method of treating serious mental conditions, are less reluctant to seek that much needed treatment.

In other words, these patients are not afraid of being jailed rather than put in hospital and treated as needed.

...unlike this country.

Just a possibility ...but what would I know?

SkyTripper

Any way they can continue to scapegoat marijuana and blame as much as they can on it exclusively....they will.
Do these "experts" in the psychiatric field ever consider other possible circumstances? Or do they truly feel that pot is 100% to blame?
Do they not consider that there are likely many individuals with PRE-EXISTING mental issues who have and still do LIKE to self-medicate?
Do they NOT consider that there COULD be many other causes of mental illness which could include environment....possibly anxiety, uncertainty, disillusionment in the overall direction of society as a whole and the possibility of FEAR contributing to people's mental state taking a detrimental course? Genetic predisposition?
Seems to me that these are fanatics who look for ANY excuse to demonize weed and spread propaganda to support their unfounded claims which they wish everyone will see as truth or some kind of proof.
Like re-cassifying weed back into a different category, making its possession and use more of a jailable offense and requiring more police enforcement of.....IS EXACTLY what anyone with mental illness truly needs?!
BIG DIFFERENCE between JAIL and a PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL.....big difference in treatment and environment.....or there SHOULD be. But unfortunately, governments would rather construct more jails/prisons and lock up ANYONE they desire.....instead of building more compassionate and humane TREATMENT facilities instead. Jail IS the answer to every ill of society....right?
Problem solved?! NO fu*ckin way!
These "experts" are just prohibitionists who despise marijuana and anyone who uses it, therefore......DESPERATE to convince politicians and anyone else they can that only they are right and know what is best for society.....they come up with more propaganda and.....overall, I think the majority of the people can see the BS in their desperation and their scare tactics.
What's next?
Potsmokers believing they can fly out a window so more people are going to be swan dive victims from toking this super potent weed?
REEFER MADNESS continues.....cause "today's weed isn't the weed our parents might have smoked."

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SkyTripper

Dennis

Seems to me that this "DOCTOR" should check himself into his own institution for paranoia. However, I'm curious to know how much MONEY this doctor gets from pharmaceutical corporations to publish such rubbish.

 

BC.Buddy

Yeah, this is very unfortunate that this guy is labelled an "expert". How is he an expert? Isn't psychiatry a pseudo science? Isn't a lot of it speculative? For this reason;

(DRAMATIZATION)

"Expert": "What's troubling you, I've noticed you looked all wigged out and you keep mumbling stuff?

Reefer Madness Patient: "I don't know. I just get the feeling sometimes to act like a dog and go on murdering and raping sprees. Help Doc."

"Expert": "Do you do the dope?!"

Reefer Madness Patient: "As a matter of fact, this shady fellow in a back alley asked me if I want to try it and I DID!"

Later, in the "expert's" pink, little diary;

Dear Diary,

It would seem, without any other probable cause, that mother ****ers are goin' crazy up in here!! Stay away from the reefer, it'll make you want to have sex and kill and rape!! I've got to take this to the police right away, those dope fiends trying to legalize it must be stopped!!!




Sorry, I'll clean that up in a bit... :spark:

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