WHY SMOKERS SHOULD FEAR THE REEFER

Have we become too liberal and complacent about the possible effects of
cannabis?

Go to any house party these days and, more likely than not, somebody will
be smoking a joint. Cannabis resin (aka "pot" and "hash"), along with its
dried plant version "grass", is now the most widely used illegal substance
in Ireland.

The popularity of cannabis as a trendy recreational drug has made it almost
as socially acceptable as alcohol, largely because its use has been
overshadowed by ecstasy and other "hard" drugs.

And it has its fair share of advocates. American actor Woody Harrelson last
week brought his campaign to legalise cannabis to Ireland. The Texan actor,
known for his controversial role in Natural Born Killers, was speaking at
the Galway Film Fleadh. Mr Harrelson has narrated Grass, a documentary
chronicling 50 years of US government anti-cannabis policy, which is being
shown at the fleadh. The actor didn't choose to be a campaigner for
legalising cannabis, he said. "It chose me because my friends went to jail
over it. That's when I started speaking about it."

Cannabis's mellow allure is easy enough to understand. It gives you a
gentle "high", making you mildly euphoric, pleasantly relaxed and rather
giggly. It can also make you more talkative, and more sensitive to the
feelings of others.

But are we becoming a bit blase about this so-called "soft drug" do we
really know what we're dealing with when somebody passes us a joint?

Rolande Anderson, a Dublin-based addiction counsellor, believes we're
definitely too complacent about the risks of cannabis. "For example,
there's a risk of depression with heavy use. I believe that, together with
alcohol, cannabis can cause the death of young people as a result of
depression."

The vast majority who use cannabis won't get depressed but there is a
significant risk. "Though the jury's still out on its long term effects,
the effect on people's personality greatly worries me. One of the big
dangers when people take cannabis is that their inhibitions are lowered and
they take more, or don't know what they're taking.

"I'm dealing with loads of situations where young people get into serious
trouble with cannabis problems with the law, relationships, and lowering of
inhibitions in every way.

"Parents are up the wall and are losing touch with their kids because they
don't have the knowledge to deal with the problem," he adds.

Despite what people say, there is a risk of addiction. "People say you
can't get physically addicted to cannabis. But that's irrelevant to the
person who's psychologically addicted."

About 10pc of users become dependent on cannabis. He agrees that the media
hype about ecstasy has trivialised the potential dangers of cannabis. "I
also think some of the terms people use, like `recreational use', can muddy
the waters as well. I'm not saying people don't use cannabis recreationally
but in talking like that you're not stressing the possible dangers of
cannabis."

Anderson does not agree with DrugScope, the British institute for the study
of drugs and dependence, who say "the consensus is that moderate, long-term
use of cannabis does not cause any lasting damage to your physical or
mental health."

"That's irresponsible. It's like saying anyone can drink alcohol without
any problems."

Dr Eamon Keenan, consultant psychiatrist in substance misuse, works with
drug addicts. He also believes the risks of cannabis are seriously
underestimated now that there's a certain amount of social acceptance of it.

"Any recent debates about cannabis haven't been about its dangers, but
about whether it should be legalised. There's clear evidence that cannabis
causes subtle impairment of memory and brain function, especially when
taken with alcohol. Whether this is temporary or not hasn't been clearly
shown."

However, he believes that "amotivational syndrome" is more a feature of
chronic cannabis use than just occasional use. He adds: "People with a
history of serious mental illness are more likely to suffer a relapse of
psychotic behaviour."

It also seems some people have an innate weakness to mental illness and
there's no way of knowing who they are. For them, using cannabis may be
extremely dangerous in unmasking mental illness. Dr Keenan disagrees that
moderate long term use is harmless.

"It's the same argument people have used for years about cigarettes. You
can't know who will have problems. The evidence suggests cannabis causes
chronic bronchitis more so than cigarettes do." He says cannabis also
brings an increased risk of cancer and leukaemia in children in the womb.