Does pot make you potty?
Shortly after I first became a Member of Parliament, I was approached by a local GP to discuss drugs abuse which he said was rife and on the increase. It led me to visit many drugs centres in the country, to find out about drugs, their impact on people’s lives and treatment and rehabilitation programmes.
It is interesting that in an era when cigarette smoking is viewed so negatively because of its health impact, the health implications of cannabis have not been widely aired.
Cannabis has carcinogenic properties far more potent than tobacco. Some studies suggest that habitual pot smokers begin to suffer mouth or lung cancer prematurely. We should also bear in mind that new variants of cannabis, like skunk, are far stronger than the cannabis of a generation ago.
I was told that taking cannabis for some was like pouring very hot water into a crystal tumbler which had a tiny flaw. One day the glass would disintegrate quite unexpectedly. In the same way those with an unknown predisposition to mental instability could be pushed into a really unstable condition. Yet, of course, we know that there is also some evidence that cannabis in its medicinal form – cannabinoids – may be helpful in softening the impact of certain diseases.
After learning all of this, I set up a Drugs Task Force in Newmarket to help people affected by drugs, especially young people. Of course, the long term beneficial impact of the task force was very difficult to measure, but at least it brought key parts of the local community together to try to tackle the problem.
Now evidence has been produced to suggest a very clear linkage indeed mental instability and heavy cannabis use. I am not remotely surprised. Cannabis smoking is not some cheerful recreational activity, free of risk.
I suspect others are now taking on board what I discovered years ago from professionals in the field. We now need to look carefully at not only the question of the right drugs classification, but also whether the health issue needs to be properly aired.
What do you think? Can we now escape from the did he/she or didn’t he/she stuff that trivialises this subject.