Shradha Badiani

There has been much debate on cannabis following the trend of some US states legalising, then Canada, and now Luxembourg and many other countries following suit.

In the UK it is estimated that among young adults cannabis is used more widely, however weekly use has more than halved since 2002, down to 7.3%. There is a lot of concern in the UK regarding the link between the use of cannabis and severe mental health issues such as psychosis. It is imperative that we begin to address this link in a way that doesn’t leave young people feeling like they cannot seek out help. I believe that the way to do this is to decriminalise cannabis or even follow other countries and legalise cannabis. This is of utmost importance if we want to protect young people. Although prosecution for possession of cannabis has halved over the past decade, the UK is facing severe mental health crisis and a spike in mental health issues in young people over this period of time. 

As a young person myself, I can say with absolute conviction that the tough stance on cannabis has not worked and in fact, alienates young people who may have or want to try cannabis. Curiosity is a natural part of being a young person, but the way we can best protect the young generation of our country is to put harm reductive measures in place. Firstly, the link between use of cannabis and psychosis is still very complex, with research still emerging. Psychiatrist Robin Murray who has carried out extensive research on cannabis and links with psychosis, has found that heavy use from an early age combined with genetic predisposition does increase the likelihood of developing psychosis considerably.

 As much as this research should be paid attention to, psychosis is highly dependent on genetic and environmental factors. The black market ensures that young people can easily access the market as there is no age control and this leads to young people buying cannabis that is completely unregulated. This means that the cannabis being brought by curious teenagers is high potency, and therefore carries a higher risk of dependency and potentially psychosis. Surely the risks to young people are higher if we leave its supply to those who are merely interested in making money, and couldn’t care less about the safety of young people. Street dealers have a vested interest in producing much more potent and addictive strains of cannabis which can then trigger or even cause longer term mental health issues. With the mental health epidemic, we are currently experiencing, it is vital to look at the current system of prohibition and really evaluate if it is working to protect people. 

The stigma and criminalisation around cannabis also means that young people who may have tried cannabis who are experiencing mental health issues may not be able to seek help due to the fear of being stigmatised. We need to start an open and honest conversation around the most widely used drug in the UK among young people if we want to protect them. Some may argue that a liberal policy for cannabis will increase the likelihood of cannabis use, however a University of Kent study shows that there is no statistically significant association between policy liberalization and any increased likelihood of adolescent cannabis use. Any drug can be abused, more so if it is criminalised as there is no watch on it. Alcohol, in fact, although legal, has an addiction rate of 15% compared to 9% for cannabis. If we can trust people with alcohol, and provide them with necessary harm reduction methods and public awareness campaign on its dangers, we can do this with cannabis also.

Across the world, it is clear that the main and central focus of adopting a more liberal approach towards cannabis is harm reduction to protect young people from harm. It is proven that most of the time it is high potency “skunk” (which makes up 94% of the street market in London) heavily used over a prolonged time which is most closely associated with mental health issues. By legalising and regulating, we can introduce caps on potency and therefore protect young people from accessing the harsher versions of cannabis. The only way to do this is to finally start a conversation that highlights cannabis as a health issue instead of a criminal one.