CORONER WARNS ON CANNABIS SUICIDE

Coroner Garry Evans has stepped into the cannabis debate, warning the
Government to be cautious over decriminalisation.

He warns that the drug is too often associated with youth and evidence is
mounting that it is causing psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia,
psychosis and depression.

"Young people who take their lives are commonly users, often very heavy
users of cannabis," he said.

Mr Evans, the Wellington coroner, made the comments in his findings in the
deaths of Lower Hutt's Matthew Ross Sinclair, 28, who committed suicide in
January 2002, and John William Cash, who died after he inexplicably ran
into his burning Stokes Valley house on June 14, 2000.

Mr Sinclair had been a daily cannabis user from about the age of 14 years
and had mental health problems that began when he suffered a head injury as
a child.

At the hearing his father, Ross Sinclair, said cannabis was the major cause
of his son's problems, over and above his mental condition. He would enter
into cycles of heavy cannabis use, binge drinking and depression.

"This was the course that would take his life," he said.

Analysis of Mr Cash's blood showed he had smoked the equivalent of one
cannabis cigarette 21/2 to 24 hours before his death.

Witnesses described seeing Mr Cash standing outside his house as it burned
reading a book, possibly a dictionary or a bible. He then inexplicably ran
into the inferno.

Mr Cash had a history of psychiatric problems and had been, in the past,
treated for a psychotic illness, which stemmed from drug abuse. He was not
under medical treatment at the time of his death.

Mr Evans said cannabis was viewed by a section of society as a "harmless
provider of recreational pleasure".

"That is not the experience of police officers and coroners. Nor is it the
experience of good parents such as Mr and Mrs Sinclair who have seen and
have had to cope with the consequences of the baleful effects of such drug
on young people.

Mr Evans said he supported comments made recently by High Court Justice
Gendall, who said the court often saw the "tragic outcome" of teenagers who
had been introduced into the drug scene at an early age.

"Such outcomes lead not only to other criminal offending but to youth
suicide ..."

Mr Evans also referred to a recent article in the British Medical Journal
that showed evidence was mounting for a clear link between cannabis use and
various psychiatric illnesses.

A US study of 1920 people showed cannabis use increased the risk of major
depression fourfold.

Mr Evans' comments were supported by long-time drug educator and lecturer
Trevor Grice, who says he has seen the results of cannabis abuse.

"This drug I have seen literally destroy hundreds of young people. What
I've come to learn is that every heavy cannabis user has trouble with short
term memory, and it is difficult for them to see a future because a pathway
in a very sensitive part of the brain, the part that we use to think about
the future, is badly impeded with this drug. That leaves them locked in a
hole of today and sometimes they see suicide as the only way out."

In the debate over decriminalisation the Government should be listening to
the police and the coroner and looking to the facts, he said.

For example, one study showed that 83.4 per cent of inmates in New
Zealand's prisons in 2000 said they had had problems with drugs. Of serious
offenders that figure rose to 89 per cent, he said.

"What worries me is that in the current political MMP government the issue
could be used by a minority party as a bargaining chip and be pushed
through. To my mind that makes this country no longer a democracy but an
autocracy."