YOUNG SUICIDES USED CANNABIS, INQUIRY TOLD

More than half of a group of youth suicide victims checked for drugs had
been using cannabis.

Figures from a review of cases were given to the parliamentary health
select committee's cannabis inquiry yesterday in Auckland.

Fourteen of 25 young people who killed themselves in 1997 and 1998 tested
positive for cannabis, scientist Dr Keith Bedford said.

But Dr Bedford, the forensic programme manager for the Institute of
Environmental Science and Research (ESR), said the figures were weak
because most suicide victims were not checked for drugs.

ESR scientists tested for them only when asked by the police, who paid for
the service.

Only a third of youth suicides are referred to ESR. In the review period of
about a year, this was 46 cases, but only 25 were screened for drugs.

The remaining 21 were carbon-monoxide poisoning.

But some committee members were disturbed by the findings.

National MP Lynda Scott told the hearing that although it was a limited
sample, "it's certainly of concern".

Alliance MP Phillida Bunkle asked if every youth suicide case could be
tested for cannabis and what the cost might be.

The committee is studying the legal status of cannabis and how to reduce
its use and the harm it causes.

Dr Bedford also outlined a 1995-97 study on road deaths, but warned that
it, too, was statistically biased. Twenty-two per cent of the 404 drivers
killed in road accidents had cannabis in their blood and 41 per cent had
alcohol.

Many of the drivers had been using both drugs - a combination of them was
found more commonly than cannabis alone.

Fifty-two per cent had neither drug in their blood.

Answering questions about driving and work-place drug testing, Dr Bedford
said that while there was a fairly good correlation between the blood level
of alcohol and degree of mental and physical impairment, the same was not
true of cannabis.

ESR potency tests had found that cannabis leaf had remained static from
1976 to 1996 at an average of 1 per cent tetrahydrocannabinol - the main
mind-altering ingredient - by weight; flowering heads remained at 3.5 per cent.

But drug users had become "increasingly discerning. There is a strong
preference for good quality seedless female heads".

Selling low-grade "cabbage" - leaves and stalks - had become difficult, he
said, leading to the proliferation of "laboratories" where it was processed
into hash oil.

This, with the decline of hash oil imports, had reduced the product's
average potency from 34 per cent in 1985 to 13 per cent a decade later.

Hydroponically grown cannabis had not been tested by ESR, but reports
suggested it could produce potencies of over 20 per cent.

Auckland HIV sufferer Greg Soar told the committee he was under enough
stress without being branded a criminal for taking cannabis to relieve
severe nausea and anorexia.

He was particularly concerned that his 12-year-old daughter was taught at
school to view people like him as criminals, yet a couple of puffs of
cannabis instantly eased intense nausea caused by the cocktail of legal
drugs he had to take.

At one point last year he had been swallowing 98 prescribed pills a week,
which induced diarrhoea, insomnia, headaches and appetite loss as well as
nausea.

Mr Soar, a 38-year-old solo parent and beneficiary, presented letters from
three doctors either acknowledging that his cannabis use had not produced
any adverse effects or supporting his request to be allowed to continue
using it.

Auckland Hospital infectious diseases physician Dr Mark Thomas wrote that
if his nausea and anorexia were significantly helped by marijuana use "then
it is reasonable for him to continue to use this drug in a responsible manner."

His former Mangere-based GP, Dr Daniel De Klerk, said he had to
"reluctantly admit" that he had seen no noticeable harm, but feared a
disastrous effect on Mr Soar's mental and physical health if he ended up
being arrested and jailed.

He also showed the committee a "vaporiser" which he said was illegal but
beneficial to him as it allowed him to inhale small amounts of high-quality
cannabis without burning it and therefore harming his lungs.

And he tabled information from a Californian university researcher, Dr
Donald Abrams, which he said showed a decreasing viral load among HIV
sufferers who took cannabis.

In a personal submission, Adrian Picot, treasurer of the pro-cannabis group
Norml, calculated that the Government's prohibition policy cost $669
million a year in unemployment benefits and forgone GST and income tax from
an estimated 10,000 growers and dealers.

The Crown was also spending more than $60 million a year on cannabis
control, the majority going on jailing drug offenders.