CANNABIS NOW BIG POLITICAL ISSUE IN UK

AFTER WHAT WAS REGARDED as an enlightened approach in dealing with
cannabis (marijuana), the present Labour government in Britain is
being told that mental health hospital admissions in England due to
use of cannabis, have gone up under its administration.

The Labourites had taken steps to classify marijuana as a Class C drug
which permitted limited use of it in spite of laws deeming it illegal.
It is estimated that marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in
Britain with more than two million users. A problem, according to
health experts, has arisen because it has been found that there has
been an 85 per cent increase in the admission of mental patients
because of a mental or behavioural disorder linked to use of marijuana.

The health authorities were quick to point out that the number of
admissions is not the same as the number of patients, since some
patients might have been admitted more than once. At the same time,
many more cases might have been missed or diagnosed "simply as mental
health disorder instead".

The health authorities said the figures include people with a chronic
addiction to cannabis, people with an acute cannabis psychosis as well
as those with cannabis-related schizophrenia, with Professor Robin
Murray, professor of psychiatry at London's Institute of Psychiatry,
adding: "There is no doubt that cannabis-related psychiatric problems
have increased substantially . . . . I would say these figures are
just the tip of the iceberg. It's only more recently that
psychiatrists have understood the importance of cannabis use."

Murray said that cannabis use had been linked to ten per cent of
schizophrenia cases in Britain but that this had been
under-recognised. Schizophrenics display delusional behaviour with
emotional and intellectual deterioration. It is estimated that in
Britain there are 1,500 new cases of cannabis-related schizophrenia a
year.

Unfortunately, in our part of the world, we are seldom given this type
of breakdown where the use of marijuana, the illegal drug most widely
used in these parts, is concerned. But daily we see the effects of its
use in our society - right across the region.

The British Conservatives, who had opposed the classification of
cannabis as a Class C drug, have signalled that if they regain power
they will have it reclassified - back to B. The Labourites have
maintained that although the drug was classified C by them, it was
always made clear that it is illegal and should not be taken.

The major concern is that enough is not being done to make young
people in Britain understand "some of them are risking lifelong mental
illness; that they are playing Russian roulette with their minds",
when they use marijuana.

Are we putting over this message as effectively as we should in the
region? As we said earlier, the health experts in our region do not
give us any detailed breakdown as to how they see marijuana affecting
the mental health of our young people. Laymen identify the "paros" on
the street, but as the Brits are saying, in our case that might just
be the "tip of the iceberg".

Meanwhile, in Barbados we might glean something from the increasing
number of young people who are being sent by our courts for
observation at the Psychiatric Hospital, some after pleading for help.