ONE SPLIFF CAN MEAN LIFELONG MENTAL ILLNESS

For 20 years Sane has been trying to alert the public to the links
between cannabis and psychosis. Yesterday's report risks playing down
the dangers of illegal substances that it says can be harmless.

The report fails to recognise the specific link between cannabis,
particularly in its more potent form of skunk, and psychotic
breakdown. In some cases the hallucinations, delusions and paranoia
triggered by smoking a "harmless" spliff can lead to lifelong mental
illness, even suicide.

Contrary to the evidence cited by the RSA not everyone can use
cannabis with no ill effects - particularly those teenagers whose
developing minds are most at risk. Continued cannabis use can rob
young people of their appetite for life. Motivation, focus and energy
literally go up in smoke. I know too many whose lives have been
blighted by cannabis and who face bleak days tormented by fear and
failure. The fallout on their families is equally heartbreaking.

While it has not yet been proven that there is a causal link between
cannabis and mental illness, recent studies have shown that heavy use
can be associated with a fourfold increased risk of developing
schizophrenia. Research in both the US and Australia associate it with
higher rates of depression and anxiety.

Prof Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, warns that
with the escalating use of cannabis many more psychiatrists will be
needed. "Eighty per cent of the patients I assess with their first
episode of psychosis say they have been taking cannabis," he says.

In the 1960s and 70s when I was a flower power acolyte smoking grass
was a rite of passage - but we are dealing with something quite
different now. Skunk, one of the most sinister derivations of
cannabis, is 10 times stronger than the home-grown weed smoked back
then and many psychiatrists attribute the more damaging effects of
taking street drugs today on its worryingly high THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol) content.

Every spliff should be rolled with a health warning - chilling out may
not be for just a few hours but may start a journey into mental
isolation from which you never return.