KEEP MARIJUANA USERS OUT OF JAIL, SAY EXPERTS

An expert panel yesterday endorsed decriminalisation of marijuana despite
Australian research establishing long-term effects on the brain.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre researcher Dr Nadia Solowij said
her studies showed smoking marijuana more than twice a week could make it
harder for users to remember, pay attention or organise complex information.

Dr Solowij stressed the impaired information filtering was only subtle and
was due to changes in how brains worked rather than brain damage.

"But it's probable an inability to focus attention and filter out
distractors would affect learning in the classroom and work performance in
jobs where mental operations predominate," she told a a ScienceNow! public
forum.

But Dr Solowij and fellow panellist and chairman of the Victorian Premier's
Advisory Council on Illicit Drugs, Professor David Penington, said it was
wrong for marijuana use to be treated as an offence rather than a health issue.

"Even though I have identified some harms, associated with cannabis use,
they are subtle and I think the greater harm ... is the fact it's illegal
and exposes people to criminal activity and other harder drugs," she said.

Prof Penington said young people rejected arguments that marijuana use
should be a criminal offence when alcohol was responsible for far more deaths.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett