WESTERN AUSTRALIA BANS SYNTHETIC CANNABIS

Western Australia will become one of the first states in Australia to
ban the legal synthetic cannabis product Kronic.

WA Health Minister Kim Hames announced yesterday that the state
Government would ban synthetic cannabinoids after he expressed concern
over their use last week.

Marketed as "legal weed", the company behind Kronic said there had
never been any reports of negative side-effects in the seven years it
had been on the market.

However, the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has
been calling for Kronic to be outlawed, saying that it had dangerous
side-effects and users were being treated at emergency
departments.

The president of the AMA in Western Australia, Associate Professor
David Mountain, welcomed the ban and said it was timely with a "large
number of synthetic drugs coming into the pipeline which would be
arriving in WA, if they hadn't already".

But Mountain called for a national approach.

"We certainly need a more sensible approach rather than waiting for
things to happen and try to respond in an ad hoc way," he said.

"The states, territories and federal Government need to sit down and
decide how they're going to deal with these things."

Kronic has already been banned in 16 countries. According to the AMA,
using Kronic can cause severe paranoia, anxiety and panic attacks,
high heart rates, agitation and restlessness.

Mountain said the longer-term use of synthetic cannabinoids was not
yet known but if it worked in a similar way to cannabis then there was
the risk users could develop psychosis.

"We've had some cases where the drug has induced a psychotic episode
for a short-lived period while some of them have come to emergency
departments with their hearts racing, feeling anxious or upset."

Earlier this month Tasmania announced it would move to ban synthetic
cannabinoids.