TEEN CANNABIS USE HIGHER

INCREASED regular cannabis use by teenagers as young as 14 has prompted a
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre warning.

Information manager Paul Dillon said many teenagers wrongly saw cannabis as
harmless.

More also used bongs or water pipes instead of joints to smoke it.

Bongs forced more smoke into their lungs, possibly increasing the risk of
cancer.

Mr Dillon said many young people saw cannabis as benign. More were using it
and more used it regularly and in a more dangerous way.

The NSW Government launched an anti-cannabis campaign yesterday to raise
young people's awareness about its effects.

Research links prolonged cannabis use with laziness, social dysfunction,
lung disease, psychological problems and psychosis.

The campaign will show young people at a party, playing sport and at a
school formal, emphasising the drug's negative effects.

Mr Dillon, who helped develop the campaign, said past campaigns focused on
long-term harm but this would focus on social impacts, which were important
to young people.