CANNABIS PSYCHOSIS

FUNDAMENTALIST "Focus on the Family" activist Jenny Milne treats the concept
of "cannabis psychosis" as incontrovertible.

Other neurological researchers debate the actual existence of this alleged
"psychosis."

According to the British Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease, Schizophrenia Research and Germany's Fortschrifte der
Neurologie Psychiatrie, there was no causal relationship between prior
cannabis consumption and schizophrenic presentation.

At the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia, Professor
Wayne Hall agreed, and noted that early onset schizophrenia cases and their
treated incidence reduced during the seventies and eighties.

One reviewer of the cited study expressed concerns about the absence of
detailed references to methodology, absence of control groups or access to
the original raw data in Dr Murray's original paper. Is this reliable
research?

Some people with schizophrenia do develop polydrug use problems, or people
with prior family or personal histories of schizophrenia shouldn't use
cannabis.

Polydrug use may be a risk factor for subsequent development of
schizophrenia.

If heavy or chronic cannabis use is a factor, then could this be countered
through harm minimisation and risk reduction techniques?

Should there be an age limit of eighteen for cannabis if it is ever
decriminalised?

Craig Young, Wellington