Re: High potency cannabis
posted 17/03/2015
publication BMJ
Hall and Degenhardt are right to draw our attention to the risks associated with cannabis use and to the evidence that has accumulated so far on this issue.
BMJ 2015; 350 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h1205 (Published 04 March 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h1205
Communicating these risks in a way that is straightforward and honest is critical if scientists, policy makers and clinicians are to be viewed as credible by young people on this subject. The obvious danger is that if young peoples experience of cannabis is at odds with the advice then this could impact on their decisions about using other substances. Acknowledging that that drugs offer pleasure as well as problems is often missing from official advice, the United Kingdom Government sponsored website FRANK is a case in point.
The classification of cannabis under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act has moved three times in the last 11 years. The last move upgrading cannabis back to a class B on the premise that there were increasing concerns about the drugs link with mental health problems and psychosis in particular. However our analysis showed that these moves in the classification of cannabis had the opposite impact on admissions to hospital for cannabis psychosis (1).
Hall and Degenhardt are also right to point out that the debate about cannabis and psychosis has distracted us from the increasing number of people seeking specialist drug service treatment for problems with cannabis (2).
We are in urgent need of a national comprehensive survey of cannabis use, which should distinguish the type of cannabis used. This would improve our understanding of the extent of not just high potency cannabis use but all varieties of cannabis.
References
1. Hamilton,I. LLoyd,C. Hewitt,C. Godfrey,C. (2014) Effect of reclassification of cannabis on hospital admissions for cannabis psychosis: A time series analysis. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25,1,151-156.
2. Hamilton,I. Lloyd,C. Monaghan,M. Paton,K. (2014) The emerging cannabis treatment population. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 14,3,150-153.
Competing interests: No competing interests
17 March 2015
Ian Hamilton
Lecturer in Mental Health
University of York
Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
