Abuse of cannabis puts 500 a week in hospital

The public health impact of the Government's decision to downgrade cannabis is disclosed today in official figures showing a 50 per cent rise in the number of people requiring medical treatment after using the drug.

Since cannabis was downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, the number of adults being treated in hospitals and clinics in England for its effects has risen to more than 16,500 a year. In addition, the number of children needing medical attention after smoking the drug has risen to more than 9,200.Doctors say cannabis abuse can contribute to a series of mental health problems


Almost 500 adults and children are treated in hospitals and clinics
every week for the effects of cannabis.Its health toll is revealed in official data compiled by health authorities and obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

Drug campaigners last night said the figures proved Labour's decision to reclassify cannabis in January 2004, which made the penalties for its possession less severe, was badly mistaken and had sent out the wrong signals about it being a "soft" drug.

Doctors say cannabis abuse can contribute to mental health problems
including forms of psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. There can be
harmful physical side-effects, disrupting blood pressure and
exacerbating heart and circulation disorders. The data will add to the pressure on Gordon Brown to reverse its reclassification when a review of the decision by Home Office scientific advisers concludes in the Spring.

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, a leading campaigner on drug issues since her son, Nick Mills, killed himself in despair at his addiction four years ago, said: "These results are shocking and dreadful. What more evidence do you need? You cannot sweep this under the carpet any longer. Children have to be told of the dangers of this what is wrongly called a young minds."

James Clappison, a Conservative member of the Commons home affairs
committee, said: "The reclassification of cannabis sent the wrong
message and was clearly the wrong decision. These figures show the
evident dangers of cannabis abuse and support the case for the drug
being restored to Category B."

The health authority figures show that 16,685 adults were treated by
English hospital trusts after abusing cannabis in 2006-07. The previous
year, it was 14,828 - up from 11,057 in 2004-05.

The data also shows that the number of children treated for using
cannabis has risen from 8,014 in 2005-06 to 9,259 last year. In total,
25,944 people were treated for cannabis use last year - around 498 a
week. In addition, around 70,000 people are treated for mental disorder
as outpatients each year.

The figures suggest health authorities are treating more people for
cannabis abuse than there are patients who have heart bypass operations
or treatment for colon cancer. Some 21,000 people a year have a bypass
operation and colon cancer is contracted by some 22,000 people a year.

Downgrading cannabis to a Class C drug placed it alongside steroids and
some prescription anti-depressants. Possession of them can lead to a
two-year prison sentence, but charges are rarely brought against people
found with small quantities of such drugs. Class B drugs however, include more dangerous substances such as amphetamines. People found in possession of Class B drugs can face a five-year jail term and an unlimited fine.

There is no "substitute medication" available to treat cannabis
problems, so the majority of National Health Service treatment is
carried out by psychiatrists, therapists and counsellors.

The independent review into its reclassification, by the Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs, was prompted by growing concern about
the increasing prevalence of new high-strength forms of cannabis.
So-called "super-skunk" leaves can be twice as potent as more
traditional cannabis resin. Advocates of downgrading or legalising cannabis say the risks are low compared to those of alcohol and tobacco. Some sufferers of chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis say the drug provides vital pain relief.

Many doctors say the risks outweigh the benefits, and the British
Medical Association yesterday said the latest treatment figures
strengthened its opposition to the decision to downgrade the drug.
A BMA spokesman said: "This is drug that is mostly smoked, so that can
cause lung damage and cancer. There are also concerns about the
potential negative effect cannabis has on users' psychiatric state."

Addaction, a charity that treats people with drug problems, warned that
children suffered particularly from cannabis abuse. "Young people often
use cannabis at crucial development stages in their lives, and it does
have serious impacts on mental health and physical development," a
spokesman said.

Last night, the Department of Health insisted that the rising numbers of treatments reflect improvements in drug treatment and not rising
cannabis use.

However, the department also announced yesterday that the budget for the National Treatment Agency, which co-ordinates drug treatment, will be frozen at 2007 levels for the next three years. The agency will also be expected to find "efficiency savings" of £50 million a year from its
£398 million annual budget. Despite the freeze in his budget, Paul Hayes, the head of the agency, insisted that the number of drug treatments it can fund will rise.

"By becoming more efficient at delivering the best outcomes for
individuals we will be able to continue to increase the number of people into treatment, while increasing treatment effectiveness," he said.

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative health spokesman, said Labour was
wasting vast amounts of money. "The Government is ignoring the fact that its drug treatment policy is fundamentally misguided. Conservatives have promised to introduce abstinence-based treatment for drug addicts to help them get off drugs for good," he said.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/11/ncnbis111.

Scandal of Scots dope factories

DETECTIVES are shutting down at least one cannabis factory a week in their battle to contain an illegal industry created by reclassification of the drug, one of Scotland's leading police officers revealed last night.
Graeme Pearson, director general of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA), said cannabis factory raids north of the Border had gone from none to 66 in the space of 12 months.
In comments that will be seen as critical of senior politicians who allowed cannabis to be "downgraded" from Class B to Class C, Pearson says organised crime saw a business opportunity and quickly moved in.
Pearson said Scotland's new generation of "industrial-sized" cannabis producers could be worth more than £7m - equivalent to eight million "spliffs".
The SDEA chief spoke out after the government announced cannabis could be returned to Class B. That prompted numerous admissions north and south of the Border from politicians who admitted smoking the drug as students.
But Pearson warned that society faced much more severe problems as a result of cannabis use, including the increased strength of the drug. He also revealed that many people were working in the factories in conditions similar to "slavery".
The move to reclassify cannabis was made in 2004 by the-then Home Secretary David Blunkett. It came despite fierce opposition from many experts who claimed it gave out the wrong message.
Pearson said: "It is not surprising that the public misunderstood the reclassification message. They began to think cannabis was OK and young people took that message to mean that it cannot be too bad to use and was no big deal.
"As a result, we have gone from zero cultivation of industrial-sized cannabis factories in Scotland a year ago, to 66 today."
It is estimated that around 60% of cannabis smoked in Britain these days is home-produced, compared with just 11% a decade ago. The UK trade is run by the 'Viet-Ching', an amalgamation of Vietnamese gangsters working alongside Chinese counterparts, the Triads.
Pearson said: "I am obviously concerned about cannabis and its links to organised crime."
He added: "Each factory can house up to 1,000 plants, each capable of producing £100,000-worth of cannabis, making production in Scotland alone worth at least £7m a year."
Across the country, factories have been built in houses, flats, industrial units and farms. And just as worrying as the soaring production rates is the fact that the cannabis is today around seven times stronger than the era when many top politicians were smoking it.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said his party had long called for the reclassification of the drug, adding that the evidence "shows all too clearly the real damage this drug can do to people, especially young people".
Margaret Smith, the Scottish Lib Dem justice spokeswoman, said the drug's classification needs to be kept under review. She said: "I find these facts and figures very worrying and cannabis is a drug we need to take seriously. We should not underestimate its potential for harm."
The anti-drugs campaigner Maxie Richards said it was a mistake to have reclassified cannabis. She said: "The government never listened to us when we warned about the damage the reclassification would do. I see beautiful young people whose lives have been destroyed by cannabis. David Blunkett should be called to account for what he did."
A Scottish Executive spokesman said they remained vigilant about the drug's dangers.
Source: www.Scotsman.com Sunday 22nd July 2007