MENTAL PROBLEMS LINKED TO POT USE

Youngsters who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental
health problems, the government said yesterday.

Past medical studies have linked marijuana with a greater incidence of
mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. But questions
remain about whether people who smoke marijuana at a young age are
already predisposed to mental disorders, or whether the drug caused
those disorders.

Government officials say recent research makes a stronger case that
smoking marijuana is itself a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms,
particularly schizophrenia.

"A growing body of evidence now demonstrates that smoking marijuana
can increase the risk of serious mental health problems," said John P.
Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

Administration officials pointed to a handful of studies to make their
case. One, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, found adult marijuana smokers who first began using
the drug before age 12 were twice as likely to have suffered a serious
mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking after 18.

The ratio was 21 percent to 10.5 percent. Those who first started as
teens also were at significantly higher risk.

Also yesterday, the Sentencing Project released a report that found
the government's "war on drugs" has become the "war on drug" as police
agencies increasingly target marijuana.

Begun in the 1980s, the war on drugs was aimed at stopping large-scale
narcotics traffickers, particularly those selling cocaine. But since
1990 more of the focus has been on catching users and low-level
dealers. And more often than ever, the drug targeted is marijuana,
according to the group, a national nonprofit organization that works
on judicial reform and favors alternatives to jail.

Of about 700,000 marijuana arrests in 2002, 88 percent were for
possession, it said. And only one of every 18 of those arrests ended
in a felony conviction. "Arresting record numbers of low-level
marijuana offenders represents a poor investment in public safety" and
diverts resources from "more serious crime problems," said Ryan King,
co-author of the report.

Mr. King found that in 1992, arrests for heroin and cocaine made up 55
percent of all drug arrests and marijuana 28 percent. A decade later,
heroin and cocaine arrests accounted for less than 30 percent of all
arrests, while marijuana's share had risen to 45 percent.

Jennifer deVallance, spokeswoman for the White House drug office, said
there are many reasons for the greater focus on marijuana. Among them:
Marijuana is the single largest drug of abuse in the nation, the
strains are more potent than ever and more is known about health dangers.

"For the first time, more kids are seeking treatment for marijuana use
than alcohol," she said.

The Sentencing Project called for renewed national discussion of the
war on drugs, an idea echoed by the conservative American Enterprise
Institute for Public Policy Research. The group reported last month
that despite spending at about $40 billion a year now and toughening
drug-sentencing laws, "America continues to experience the Western
world's worst drug problems."