Tuesday, 31 August, 2004
Turner: Mental illness link to dope holds true
The strong link between cannabis use and mental illness drawn today by the Hawke's Bay Clinical Director of Mental
Health simply adds weight to the overwhelming evidence of the damage the drug is doing, United Future's Judy Turner
says.
Dr Anne Walsh revealed that a study of teenagers in the Hawke's Bay mental health unit showed that most of the 62
patients suffering severe psychiatric illness were cannabis users.
"We get this same message from coroners, from various medical professionals, from psychiatrists - there are few better
ways for young people to scramble their minds than to smoke cannabis," Mrs Turner, United Future's health spokeswoman,
said.
Similarly disturbing recent international findings have included:
* A Swedish cohort study showing the 600% increase in schizophrenia rates among cannabis-users under the
age of 18, as against their peers who did not use the drug * A University of Maastricht study confirming
anecdotal evidence that cannabis use can treble the risk of mental illness, and confirming that cannabis causes serious
psychotic disorders in people with no history of mental illness * A Karonlinska Institute (Sweden) 15-year
longitudinal study of some 50,000 military conscripts that showed that the higher the consumption of cannabis in
adolescence, the greater the risk of schizophrenia * A 15-year study of 1920 Americans which showed the
cannabis use increased the rate of major depression by 400%
"There is also Professor Robin Murray of London's Institute of Psychiatry reporting that some 90% of his patients
showing a first episode of psychosis smoke cannabis.
"In the face of such overwhelming evidence, we have to ask why anyone would legalise this drug?" Mrs Turner asked.
ENDS