'Stamp out dope' to tackle psychosis

[Tom]

MARIJUANA users should be treated like cigarette smokers and told to "quit for life" if Australia is to tackle the rising incidence of drug-induced psychosis.

 

A drug conference heard yesterday that the fashionable strategy of "harm minimisation" was not working as greater numbers of people suffered from mental illness.

 

Acting magistrate Craig Thompson called on governments to wind back the decriminalisation of marijuana and impose "coercive rehabilitation" based on abstinence for people addicted to drugs.

 

He said it was "totally incomprehensible" that the laws had evolved so people could be fined for smoking a cigarette but cautioned for marijuana use.

 

"So many are coming before me suffering drug-induced psychosis where marijuana and crystal methamphetamines are the main causes," Mr Thompson told the Adelaide conference.

 

"In NSW, you can stand on a railway platform smoking a cigarette and get a $500 fine," he said.

 

"But under harm minimisation, the first two times a person is found smoking cannabis they will get cautions."

 

Mr Thompson has been a magistrate in NSW for 23 years, and has served in several drug awareness organisations including three years as president of Parents Reaching Youth Through Drug Awareness.

 

He spoke yesterday to about 100 social workers, drug addiction counsellors and experts on illicit drugs at the People's Drug Summit in Adelaide, organised by South Australian independent MP Nick Xenophon.

 

The conference heard that Australia led the countries of the OECD in the use of amphetamines and was near the top in marijuana use, according to a 2004 UN report.

 

Mr Thompson's criticism comes in the wake of two landmark reports into Australia's mental health system and the crisis that the highly addictive crystal methamphetamine known as "ice" was causing mental health and hospital emergency departments.

 

Ian Hickie, one of the authors of the Not for Service report by the National Mental Health Council of Australia released this month, said that the evidence now seemed conclusive that use of cannabis and amphetamines were wrongly thought of as harmless "party drugs".

 

He said they contributed to psychotic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and to non-psychotic complaints including anxiety and depression.

 

The federal parliamentary secretary for health, Christopher Pyne, has blasted the state and territory systems of on-the-spot fines for possession of marijuana, claiming that "all states and territories need to toughen up their laws".

 

A report on the amphetamine market in Sydney found last week that "ice" was among the most addictive drugs available, and caused an 11-times greater chance of a psychotic episode.

 

The study found ambulance and police officers and hospital emergency departments faced hazardous working conditions in dealing with amphetamines-affected patients.

 

South Australia was the first state to decriminalise marijuana possession - in 1987 - and has the most lax fines.

 

But state Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said that laws for cultivation had been toughened, forcing growers and anyone in possession of more than one plant to front court.

 

Fines for possession of marijuana were introduced in the ACT in 1992 and the Northern Territory in 1996, while Victoria and Western Australia implemented a system of cautions for minor marijuana offenders in 1998. Last year, Western Australia also decriminalised the use of marijuana.

 

Author:Jeremy Roberts

Date:October 31, 2005

Source:The Australian

Copyright:© The Australian

 

[Mushaman]

Thanks for the info Tom :angry:

why is it always

 

Cannabis and Meth?

Cannabis and crack?

Cannabis and Dex?

Cannabis and Cocaine?

Cannabis and Heroin?

Cannabis and weapons

 

the media just love linking cannabis with every other evil known to scare the public ... neatly wrap em in one tidy little bundle .. then go forth and MISINFORM the public they are responsible for EDUCATING and INFORMING - makes me sick...

 

"So many are coming before me suffering drug-induced psychosis where marijuana and crystal methamphetamines are the main causes," Mr Thompson told the Adelaide conference.

who made him the expert or are people pleading psychosis to get a lighter sentence?

 

"In NSW, you can stand on a railway platform smoking a cigarette and get a $500 fine," he said.

"But under harm minimisation, the first two times a person is found smoking cannabis they will get cautions."

 

Yes, the pot smoker should be summarily lynched by any mob who finds them smoking this antisocial substance.

 

 

mpose "coercive rehabilitation" based on abstinence for people addicted to drugs

 

oooh yeh ...thats what we need !!!!!! Government control over our habits and pastimes ... excellent frikin suggestion Craig ... wonder if you ever enjoy a drop of alcohol ... bloody hypocritical double standard system - lets get everyone into alcohol coersive rehab first .. thats where the BIG problem is.

 

Its enough to make you :whistling

[Frazz]

Coercive measures must be taken to remove this magisrate from the bench, his job is to administer the law not to change or make new laws.

He should shut his f*ckn mouth before i take coercive measures to shut it for him.

[Mushaman]

Coercive measures must be taken to remove this magisrate from the bench, his job is to administer the law not to change or make new laws.

He should shut his f*ckn mouth before i take coercive measures to shut it for him. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

can i help ya Fraz?

[barron]

Can someone plz tell me, has there been any legitimate conclusive studies done that link marijuana to psychosis. Also any of the older timers that have been smoking for 15+ years, have you experienced any adverse mental or physiological effects from marijuana?

cheers

[Tom]

I've been smoking and growing for 28+ years and I'm the most stable person I know, seriously though the person would need to have a pre-existing mental condition for cannabis to have that sort of adverse effect.

 

[Mushaman]

I've been smoking for 30+ years (and there's nutin wrong with ma brain cell :reallyexcited: ) - can only give you my experience - healthy productive life so far ... own business, children ... only unstable as anyone else that experiences a few things I have ... no more .. no less

 

.. but smoking definately helped me put up with the trials and tribulations along the way ... i cant point you at it, but i have read that the research is in on cannabis and brains not fully developed and its conclusive .. will stunt their development - hope someone can point us both at something that'll prove it.

 

I also think that those people that would be driven into pschosis by weed, would go the same way on any other substance ... many with no substance needed at all :smoke

[mull]

Well it says here in the oxford that 'psychosis' is a - severe mental derangement (insanity) involving loss or contact with reality.

 

The loss of contact with reality is a lovely side effect of very potent smoke, unfortunately it doesn't last very long. Which illusion is reality anyway?

 

Quote

 

"He said they contributed to psychotic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and to non-psychotic complaints including anxiety and depression. "

 

Once again I refute the anxiety and depression part of this frequently used statement. They are nulled for me by the use of cannabis (yet I only use cannabis).

 

I've known 2 fellas with biploar/manic dep/ or schizophrenia. The dianoses seemed to change from year to year, and so did their medications. One guy was on 3 types of meds, as he could be quite violent. The doctors had them both believing cannabis was THE cause of their illnesses. After getting to know one of them quite well, he told me it was speed that triggered his first 'episode'. From there on 'episodes' would come on about every 2-6 mths.

It was a tragedy to hear/see the doctors over medicating him. Eventually his stomach gave up to the pills and ulcered up. He died shorty after due to the illness.

 

Barren, I've been smoking for over 10 years, exclusively for depression and anxiety symptoms.

The worst side effects I've ever seen for cannabis use alone, are 'green outs'.

Get down low, if you feel like you might pass out! Don't bang your head! Wait 10 mintues and you'll be fine.

 

Other than that, the next worse side effect is talking shit (so called profound thoughts).

[Frazz]

I've been a chronic smoker for about 20 years, as yet no ill-effects

 

But im sure the most common defence for commiting crimminal offences is conviently attributed to drugs of one kind or another, the same thing was happening in the late 60s-70s when everyone was blaming LSD trips whenever they got in trouble.

 

People are constantly looking for ways to explain thier bad behaviour, the last thing they want to do is take responsibility for thier own actions

[WantDaChronic]

i have been smoking since my early teens and deadset the worst problems with marijuana i have ever had is when i have mixed it with other things, especially alcohol :thumbdown

 

then again i have greened out a few times, too many cones, lungs couldnt handle all the coughing and dry reaching so a spew was welcomed then

 

generally though, if you already have a fair chance of a mental ilness, marijuana will help to bring that side out, i have seen it happen with my mother in law who is schitzophrenic....i only smoked with her 2 times because the first time flipped me the fuck out because she was hearing the voices in her head but instead of them only being in her head, she was speaking for them and replying to them in the morning, i wondered if that was just me flipping out so a few days later when we got some more smoko and she asked for a cone, i passed it and once she had smoked it and the voices came back, i cut her supply off for good....never been so freaked in my life

 

although for people like me who have no family history of mental illness, i can smoke myself retarded and not have any side effects other than euphoria, less anxiety and no depression :smoke