NHS BOSS: DON’T GO SOFT ON CANNABIS
Warning of addiction risk for children after Hague sparks legalisation row
LEGALISING cannabis risks making children believe it is safe, the head of the NHS warned yesterday.
in a major intervention, simon stevens highlighted serious health dangers, such as addiction and psychosis. He spoke out after former Tory leader Lord Hague urged ministers to be ‘bold’ and legalise cannabis for recreational use – meaning it could be sold in shops with alcohol and tobacco. The peer claimed the war on the class B drug had been ‘comprehensively and irreversibly lost’. But campaigners said it would be wrong to decriminalise a narcotic linked to mental illness, organised crime, violence and road deaths.
addressing a health conference in London, Mr stevens said: ‘We have got to make sure we don’t inadvertently introduce new risks for people. in countries where
marijuana has been decriminalised, often young people, teenagers, come to think of smoking marijuana as safe. Whereas let’s be clear, actually it isn’t.
‘For around 10 per cent it will become addictive, it increases the risk of longterm psychiatric problems such as depression or psychosis.’
Mr Stevens said it was important not to confuse the issue of the medical use of cannabis with debate around the decriminalisation, or legalisation, of marijuana.
The Government has announced a review of the rules on medicinal cannabis.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid acted following a public outcry over Billy Caldwell, 12, and Alfie Dingley, six, both of whose parents had been banned from using cannabis oil to treat their violent and lifethreatening epileptic seizures. In other developments: Downing Street slapped down Lord Hague, saying it had ‘no plans’ to relax the laws on recreational use of cannabis;
Mr Javid said 10,000 children with drug-resistant epilepsy could benefit from using cannabis-based medicines;
Alfie’s mother Hannah Deacon wept with joy and relief when she was told the Home Office was giving her a licence to treat him with cannabis oil;
Critics warned cannabis use was already being decriminalised ‘ by the back door’ with levels of seizures and prosecutions plummeting;
Barack Obama’s former drug policy adviser said selling cannabis on the open market risked a public health disaster.
Lord Hague, who took a hardline stance on cannabis as Tory leader, said the Prime Minister should introduce a ‘major change in policy’ by imitating Canada, which is on the verge of legalising the drug for recreational use. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, he wrote: ‘The idea that this can be driven off the streets and out of people’s lives by the state is nothing short of deluded.
‘Everyone sitting in a Whitehall conference room needs to recognise that, out there, cannabis is ubiquitous, and issuing orders to the police to defeat its use is about as up to date and relevant as asking the Army to recover the Empire. This battle is effectively over.’
He said that only criminal gangs benefited from the drug being illegal and that many police forces had ‘stopped worrying about it’.
Number 10 issued a stinging rebuke, insisting the Government had no plans to legalise or decriminalise cannabis for recreational use. A spokesman said: ‘The evidence is very clear – cannabis can cause serious harm when misused.’
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Javid announced a review of the medicinal use of cannabis, which could lead to patients in the UK being prescribed drugs made from the banned plant. He authorised a licence to be issued for Alfie after his mother said she had been waiting three months for Theresa May to fulfil a personal promise that he would be allowed to receive cannabis oil.
He said the legal situation on medicinal cannabis was ‘not satisfactory for the parents, not satisfactory for the doctors, and not satisfactory for me’.
The announcement of the review came just days after Mr Javid intervened to permit the use of cannabis oil to treat severely epileptic Billy, who had been admitted to hospital with seizures after supplies his mother had brought from Canada were confiscated at Heathrow.
But Mr Javid insisted: ‘This step is in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use. This Government has absolutely no plans to legalise cannabis and the penalties for unauthorised supply and possession will remain unchanged.
‘We will not set a dangerous precedent or weaken our ability to keep dangerous drugs off our streets.’
Both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Kings College London have said that cannabis use is ‘highly addictive’ and can lead to serious problems for physical and mental wellbeing. Evidence from the Government’s independent advisory council on the misuse of drugs also said the use of cannabis is a ‘significant public health issue and can unquestionably cause harm to individuals and society’.
Many other countries, including much of the US, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, have legalised the use of medicinal cannabis, but very few have legalised recreational use.
Mrs May and Mr Javid remain opposed to legalisation or decriminalisation of the drug because of the harm they say it does to individual users and communities.
Dr Kevin Sabet, a White House drug adviser under Mr Obama, said Lord Hague should ‘brush up on the science’ on cannabis. He said: ‘Today’s cannabis is so much more awful than it used to be. In fact, in the UK, when it was downgraded to class C [in 2004] we saw an increase in things like psychosis and other negative issues.
‘That’s why it was then upgraded. It hasn’t gotten safer in the last ten years, it’s gotten more dangerous
‘Nothing short of deluded’
as the levels are much higher. Frankly, the weakest in society would be hurt, not Lord Hague and his friends.’
Campaigners against legalisation argue that it would normalise the use of drugs among children and lead to greater addiction and health problems. But former Lib Dem health minister Norman Lamb called on the Government to legalise cannabis completely.
He said: ‘Isn’t there a dreadful hypocrisy in Government policy in drugs more generally? Probably
most of the Cabinet drink alcohol, the most dangerous drug of all, probably half of the Cabinet has used cannabis.
‘Shouldn’t the Home Secretary follow the advice of Lord Hague, who makes the case for a regulated legalised market and that that is the best way to protect people from harm who buy from criminals who have no interest in their welfare at all?’
Psychiatrists have warned that smokers of ‘high-potency’ cannabis have a high risk of spiralling into mental illness, with young people especially vulnerable.
Tory MP Simon Hoare, who represents North Dorset, said he was staggered by Lord Hague’s comments. He added: ‘We have seen at first hand the devastation that cannabis causes. It is not recreational use, it steals lives and futures and we must be robust in ensuring that it stops.’