Marijuana

Alarm bells should be ringing over the suggestion by Christopher Pyne, the parliamentary secretary to the federal minister for health, that mental health funding under a Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) agreement should be tied to tougher marijuana laws.

There is simply not enough evidence linking marijuana consumption to mental illness. Pyne is mistaken when he states that the link is “clearly proven”.

Australian-based researcher Louisa Degenhardt and two colleagues tested the hypothesis of a causal relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia by carefully examining the incidence of schizophrenia in Australia over a 30-year period. The results, published in 2003, found that although the prevalence of marijuana use had increased markedly during that period, there was no evidence of a significant increase in the incidence of schizophrenia.

Despite claims by some mental health professionals that some pre-existing mental illnesses can be exacerbated or “brought on” by marijuana use, the evidence that supports this is extremely dubious.

The end result of the commonwealth's proposed re-criminalisation of marijuana would be a dramatic increase in the number of people in our prisons. This would have a devastating impact on the mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing of those Australians who are unlucky enough to be incarcerated.

Pyne would have you believe that they are being incarcerated for their own good and for the good of the nation. He is horribly wrong. The almost negligible negative health effects of marijuana call for legalisation and regulation, not further criminalisation.


Gary Meyerhoff
The Narrows, NT

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2006
Source: Green Left Weekly (Australia)
Author: Gary Meyerhoff
Website: http://www.greenleft.org.au
Email: glw@greenleft.org.au