MARIJUANA IS NOT HARMLESS

Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to the letter of Mr. John Q. Public printed in The
Royal Gazette on Friday March 7, 2003. While Mr. Public makes some valid
and important points I would like to point out that marijuana is not
essentially harmless as he asserts and the statement that "not one recorded
death can be attributed to smoking cannabis" is blatantly incorrect. From
an individual and a public health perspective, there is no such thing as a
harmless drug and the use of marijuana does carry risks.

Currently evidence from the international medical literature indicates that
chronic use of marijuana carries a substantially increased risk of mental
illness, and the risks of a heavy chronic cannabis smoker developing
schizophrenia is elevated roughly three times from that of the background
population. Marijuana usage also constitutes an increased risk of an
individual developing cancer of the mouth, throat, upper airways and lungs.
From a public health perspective, marijuana is significantly associated
with accidents including motor vehicle accidents and industrial accidents.

There is also evidence from the literature that usage of marijuana precedes
misuse of harder substances such as cocaine and heroin and it is therefore
possible that marijuana may indeed be a gateway drug. After an analysis of
the evidence detailed above, in my opinion it is therefore erroneous to
conclude that marijuana is harmless.

However, I do agree with Mr. Public that other drugs including alcohol and
tobacco may currently cause the individual and society more problems than
cannabis and that prohibition may not be the most effective method of
tackling the drugs problem.

Dr. Grant Farquhar

Locum Consultant Psychiatrist

St. Brendan's Hospital