ALARM BELLS

Alarm bells should be ringing over the suggestion by the
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health, Christopher Pyne,
that mental health funding under a Council Of Australian Governments
(COAG) agreement should be tied to tougher marijuana laws.

There is simply not enough evidence linking marijuana consumption to
mental illness. Mr Pyne is mistaken when he states that the link is
"clearly proven".

The Australian-based researcher Louisa Degenhardt and two colleagues
tested the hypothesis of a causal relationship between cannabis use
and schizophrenia by carefully examining the incidence of
schizophrenia in Australia over a thirty-year period. The results,
published in 2003, found that although the prevalence of marijuana
use had increased markedly during that period, there was no evidence
of a significant increase in the incidence of schizophrenia.

Despite claims by some mental health professionals that some
pre-existing mental illnesses can be exacerbated or "brought on" by
marijuana use, the evidence that supports this is extremely dubious.

The end result of the Commonwealth's proposed re-criminalisation of
marijuana would be a dramatic increase in the number of people in our
prisons. This would have a devastating impact on the mental,
emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing of those Australians who
are unlucky enough to be incarcerated.

Mr Pyne would have you believe that they are being incarcerated for
their own good and for the good of the nation.

He is horribly wrong.

The almost negligible negative health effects of marijuana call for
legalisation and regulation, not further criminalisation.

Yours truly,

Gary Meyerhoff

The Narrows