CALL FOR LOOK AT USE OF CANNABIS

Cannabis use among adolescents has risen sharply, a research body says, and
it has urged the Premier's Drug Summit not to focus solely on heroin.

A spokesman for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Mr Paul
Dillon, said a national survey last year showed that 39 per cent of the
population said they had used cannabis, compared with 31 per cent in 1995.
Among young women the rise in use was much steeper, with 44.8 per cent of 14
to 19-year-olds last year saying that they had used the drug, compared with
24.4 per cent three years earlier.

In the same age category for males last year, 44.6 per cent reported using
cannabis, compared with 35.5 per cent in 1995.

The State Opposition Leader, Mrs Chikarovski, said yesterday that she had
tried cannabis in her university days, and she understood it was now up to
30 times stronger. Mr Dillon said: "There is anecdotal evidence that it is
stronger but, hopefully, at the summit people in power can understand and
learn the facts."