Clegg:Legalised cannabis will be good for health

Fury as experts warn of ‘normalising’ drug

NICK Clegg angered health officials last night by saying that legalising cannabis would improve public health.

The former deputy prime minister claimed making mild forms of the drug legally available would stop people using the super- strong ‘ skunk’ types flooding Britain.

Mr Clegg, who is standing for re-election as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Sheffield Hallam, claimed that a regulated market for cannabis would reduce the use of skunk, which has been shown to increase the risk of developing psychosis.

But experts last night insisted that legalisation would be a misguided step and would ‘normalise’ cannabis use without stopping a black market in more dangerous forms of drugs.

They also stressed that even milder forms of cannabis can trigger mental illness. Mr Clegg, whose party stands alone from Labour and the Conservatives in pursuing a liberalisation of drugs policy, compared current UK laws to alcohol prohibition in 1920s America.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Mr Clegg said: ‘Skunk is a direct result of prohibition. New cultivation methods have pushed up potency over the past 20 years.

‘Skunk is now sold without any effective restriction to about two million UK consumers a year, including large numbers of children. As with prohibitionera users of illicit alcohol, people use it because there is no alternative – the market is saturated by a high-strength product associated with severe mental health problems.’

But David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: ‘Nick Clegg has enor- mous power and influence and he should make sure he is careful when he makes statements like this.

‘If we legalise cannabis we will normalise it – we can guarantee more people will use it. It also will not prevent the use of skunk – we will see a black market in skunk because of consumer demand. People will want the stronger hit.’

Research has found that cannabis use in teens doubles the risk of developing psychotic disorders, and heavy use of the drug in adolescence warps key structures of the brain involved in empathy and decision-making.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, added: ‘While stronger cannabis such as skunk may carry a higher risk of triggering mental illness, all types of cannabis present a risk, and the public health debate is not as simple as legalising what are believed to be milder forms.’