THE LAST STRAW

I WAS very sad to read the article about Steve Hammond ("If cannabis is
safe, why am I psychotic?", T2, January 7). I was also, however, delighted.

Thank goodness someone is taking seriously the relationship between cannabis
use and psychosis. I have been working for the past ten years or so as a
non-executive manager of two mental health trusts in Co Durham. Over those
years I have seen countless young people whose lives have been destroyed.

In all those years I can barely remember a case where drug-taking, and
usually soft drugs only, have not been part of the history. About six years
ago, I asked one of our senior consultants whether it was his opinion that
taking drugs of this kind can actually cause mental illness. I remember his
answer exactly: "While I might not go that far, I am in no doubt that, where
there is already any tendency towards mental fragility, drug-taking will be
the straw that breaks the camel's back." The sad thing is that, once people
have fallen over the mental health precipice, the way back is very hard, and
rarely successful. So please don't let your article be a one off, forgotten
by next week. We need a concerted campaign to make young people wake up to
the dangers of cannabis, and the fact that it often causes health problems
that become, effectively, a life sentence.

We need to get this message through to central government.

Caroline Peacock, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham