SMOKING JUST ONE CANNABIS JOINT RAISES DANGER OF MENTAL ILLNESS BY 40%

A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more
than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns.

The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the
drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.

Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of
schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.

The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with
mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown
ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C,
the least serious category.

The Prime Minister is said to have a 'personal instinct' that the
change should be reversed, with more arrests and stiffer penalties for users.

Cannabis has been implicated in a string of vicious killings,
including the recent stabbing of fashion designer Lucy Braham.

The authors of the latest study, the most comprehensive of its kind
and commissioned by the Department of Health, said: 'Policymakers
need to provide the public with advice about this widely-used drug.

'We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using
cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness
later in life.'

The analysis does not look at the age at which schizophrenia is
likely to develop. However, previous studies have shown that smoking
the drug as a teenager raises the risk of developing schizophrenia in
one's twenties or thirties.

The researchers, from four British universities, analysed the results
of 35 studies into cannabis use from around the world. This suggested
that trying cannabis only once was enough to raise the risk of
schizophrenia by 41 per cent.

At greatest risk, however, were heavy users, with those who took
cannabis over 100 times having more than double the risk of those who
never touched the drug.

With up to 40 per cent of teenagers and young adults in the UK
believed to have tried cannabis, the researchers estimate that the
drug could be behind 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia and other
psychotic illnesses.

'Although individual lifetime risk of chronic psychotic disorders
such as schizophrenia, even in people who use cannabis regularly, is
likely to be low - less than three per cent - cannabis use can be
expected to have a substantial effect on psychotic disorders at a
population level because exposure to this drug is so common.'

Cardiff University researcher Dr Stanley Zammit added: 'Even if
cannabis does cause an increased risk of developing psychosis, most
people who use cannabis will not develop such an illness.

'Nevertheless, we would still advise people to avoid or limit their
use of this drug, especially if they start to develop any mental
health symptoms, or if they have relatives with psychotic illnesses.'

In an accompanying editorial in the Lancet, Dutch psychiatrists said
the focus on heroin, cocaine and other Class A drugs meant the
dangers of cannabis had been overlooked.

'In the public debate, cannabis has been considered a more or less
harmless drug compared with alcohol, central stimulants and opioids.

'However, the potential long-term hazardous effects of cannabis with
regard to psychosis seem to have been overlooked, and there is a need
to warn the public of these dangers, as well as to establish a
treatment to help young frequent cannabis users.'

Previous studies have shown a clear link between cannabis use in the
teenage years and mental illness in later life.

Research completed by leading psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray in
2005 showed that those who smoked the drug regularly at 18 were 1.6
times more likely to suffer serious psychiatric problems, including
schizophrenia, by their mid-20s.

For those who were regular users at 15, the stakes were even higher,
with their risk of mental illness by the age of 26 being 4.5 times
greater than normal.

It is thought that, used during teenage years, the drug can cause
permanent damage to the developing brain.

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London,
warned yesterday that the risks were likely to be heightened by the
increasing use of powerful skunk cannabis.

'My own experience suggest to me that the risk with skunk is higher.
Therefore their estimate that 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia
in the UK are due to cannabis is now probably an understatement.'

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE,
said: 'This analysis should act as a serious warning of the dangers
of regular or heavy cannabis use, doubling the risk of developing
schizophrenia - a condition in which a person may hear voices and
experience strange thoughts and paranoid delusions.

'The debate about classification should not founder on statistics but
take into account the potential damage to hundreds of people who
without cannabis would not develop mental illness.

'While the majority can take the drug with no mind-altering effects,
it is estimated that 10 per cent are at risk.

'You only need to see one person whose mind has been altered and life
irreparably damaged, or talk to their family, to realise that the
headlines are not scaremongering but reflect a daily, and
preventable, tragedy.'

However, others questioned the link, pointing out there has been
little change in rates of schizophrenia in recent years despite the
rise in cannabis use and the increasing strength of the drug.

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THREE HEAVY DRUG USERS AND THEIR HORRIFIC KILLINGS:

William Jaggs, a 23-year-old Oxford University student and prolific
cannabis user, stabbed fashion designer Lucy Braham 66 times at her
home near Harrow, the public school in North-West London.

The paranoid schizophrenic was found covered in blood beside Lucy's
body, having plunged the knife into his own chest last September.

The former Harrow pupil, whose father is a teacher at the school,
started using drugs when he was 14, moving on from cannabis to cocaine.

He was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital this month for an unlimited
period after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished
responsibility.

Drug-crazed drifter Richard Cazaly is believed to have stabbed
pregnant Abigail Witchalls in Surrey, in April 2005.

Cazaly, 23, who killed himself five days after the stabbing, had a
history of heavy drug use dating back at least four years.

His girlfriend, Vanessa MacKenzie, told police both she and Cazaly
were regular cannabis users, smoking 'a couple of joints a day'.

Surrey police said Cazaly became psychotic and violent as a result of
long-term abuse of drugs and the alcohol he had consumed on the day
of the random stabbing.

Miraculously, Mrs Witchalls and her unborn baby survived the attack.
Her young son - who she was pushing in a pram when she was set upon
by Cazaly - was unhurt.

Son of a nurse at Broadmoor Thomas Palmer butchered two of his
friends during a woodland walk after his mind was warped by smoking
skunk - a particularly potent form of cannabis.

Then aged 18, he virtually beheaded 16-year-old Steven Bayliss and
repeatedly stabbed Nuttawut Nadauld, 14, near their homes in
Wokingham, Berkshire in September 2005.

Palmer had started using the drug at 14. He told doctors he had not
been smoking on the day of the killings but admitted to using skunk
regularly in the weeks before the brutal attack.

In March this year, he was given a minimum 20 years in prison for the
double murder.