“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”
Today’s Independent on Sunday’s front page is emblazoned with a huge picture of a cannabis leaf and the headline “Cannabis: an Apology”. The paper recounts that ten years ago it pressed for the decriminalisation of the drug, leading to a 16,000 strong march to Hyde Park; it describes how its campaign was instrumental in the declassification of the drug in 2004 from Class B to Class C.
Now there is new evidence of the dangers of cannabis. The widely-used strain known as “skunk” is 25 times more dangerous than the type consumed ten years ago. Research to be published in this week’s Lancet suggests that cannabis is more dangerous than LSD or ecstasy. Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry, says that at least ten per cent of the 250,000 schizophrenics in the UK could have been spared the illness if they had not used cannabis.
The use of cannabis is now a major danger to public health in the UK. The Independent is courageous and right to apologise for its stance a decade ago, although it qualifies the apology somewhat by the headline on a separate article, “Were we out of our minds? No, but then came skunk.” Professor Colin Blakemore, of the Medical Research Council, who supported declassification in 2004, is quoted in the paper as saying, “The link between cannabis and psychosis is quite clear now; it wasn't 10 years ago."
That link may not have been apparent ten years ago, but it was becoming very apparent in 2004, when declassification took place. The aforementioned Professor Murray and three eminent colleagues were so concerned about the growing body of evidence that cannabis causes psychosis that they pleaded with the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, not to declassify the drug; their pleas were apparently unheeded.
As Professor Blakemore points out in the Independent article, “When discussing drugs you have to have special concern for young people.” That is, of course, the point. The debate about drugs is constantly evolving as scientific and medical evidence develops and the concerns of vulnerable groups should be at the forefront of that debate.
The Independent may well have had a libertarian argument in favour of decriminalisation ten years ago – although I personally would have taken issue with it – but three years ago, when declassification came, evidence from respected medical scientists of the dangers of cannabis use was ignored by the Government. It remains to be seen whether we will receive an apology from that quarter.
Today’s Independent on Sunday’s front page is emblazoned with a huge picture of a cannabis leaf and the headline “Cannabis: an Apology”. The paper recounts that ten years ago it pressed for the decriminalisation of the drug, leading to a 16,000 strong march to Hyde Park; it describes how its campaign was instrumental in the declassification of the drug in 2004 from Class B to Class C.
Now there is new evidence of the dangers of cannabis. The widely-used strain known as “skunk” is 25 times more dangerous than the type consumed ten years ago. Research to be published in this week’s Lancet suggests that cannabis is more dangerous than LSD or ecstasy. Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry, says that at least ten per cent of the 250,000 schizophrenics in the UK could have been spared the illness if they had not used cannabis.
The use of cannabis is now a major danger to public health in the UK. The Independent is courageous and right to apologise for its stance a decade ago, although it qualifies the apology somewhat by the headline on a separate article, “Were we out of our minds? No, but then came skunk.” Professor Colin Blakemore, of the Medical Research Council, who supported declassification in 2004, is quoted in the paper as saying, “The link between cannabis and psychosis is quite clear now; it wasn't 10 years ago."
That link may not have been apparent ten years ago, but it was becoming very apparent in 2004, when declassification took place. The aforementioned Professor Murray and three eminent colleagues were so concerned about the growing body of evidence that cannabis causes psychosis that they pleaded with the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, not to declassify the drug; their pleas were apparently unheeded.
As Professor Blakemore points out in the Independent article, “When discussing drugs you have to have special concern for young people.” That is, of course, the point. The debate about drugs is constantly evolving as scientific and medical evidence develops and the concerns of vulnerable groups should be at the forefront of that debate.
The Independent may well have had a libertarian argument in favour of decriminalisation ten years ago – although I personally would have taken issue with it – but three years ago, when declassification came, evidence from respected medical scientists of the dangers of cannabis use was ignored by the Government. It remains to be seen whether we will receive an apology from that quarter.
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