MENTAL ILLNESS UP AFTER CANNABIS DOWNGRADE

The number of people admitted to hospital with schizophrenia and psychosis has shot up since the laws on cannabis were relaxed in 2004, according to figures given to MPs [24 April] in advance of the publication this week of a report  from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on whether cannabis should be again upgraded.

Newspapers are reporting that the ACMD is expected to recommend that the drug stays in class C, based on research by one of its members in Keele University – see item below for the flaws Addiction Today identified in this.   

Cannabis was downgraded in January 2004. Admissions for patients with primary or secondary diagnoses of schizophrenia in England rose 12.7% since then to 45,955 people. Admissions for primary or secondary cases of psychosis rose 20.8% over the same period to 213,624 people.

The figures increased even more since Labour’s David Blunkett first indicated in 2001 that cannabis would be reduced from a class B to C drug. The increase in schizophrenia admissions since then is 24%, in psychosis 42%.

Downgrading cannabis gave the message to young people that smoking it causes little harm and is officially tolerated. Click here for a list of damage. Read today/Comment.