Dialogue: Cannabis: key issue is health not crime

By SUE KEDGLEY*

As politicians and the media continue to wrangle about cannabis law reform, the important debate - about how to minimise the health risks of cannabis - is being overlooked.

The revelation that 30 per cent of children aged 11 to 17 have tried cannabis, and 70 per cent of those use it regularly before they are 15, suggests it is time to redirect the debate into how we can educate people, especially teenagers, about the health risks of cannabis and try to discourage them from smoking the drug.

Most young people who smoke cannabis realise it is illegal. But how many of them are aware that cannabis smoke contains potentially carcinogenic substances similar to those contained in tobacco smoke, and that there could be as many carcinogens in one unfiltered and loosely packed joint as there are in an entire packet of cigarettes?

How many realise that when they inhale cannabis, the smoke will inevitably affect their lungs and increase their risk of long-term chronic health effects such as respiratory disease and cancer, especially when the cannabis is combined with tobacco?

Do they know that as teenagers they absorb the more than 60 active compounds in cannabis much faster than adults and excrete them more slowly? This is particularly so for the THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis), which accumulates in the fatty tissue and can remain there for weeks after a person has stopped using the drug.

How many have heard about the study which found that, puff for puff compared to cigarette users, up to 40 per cent more tar can be deposited in the lungs of smokers who hold cannabis in their lungs before exhaling it?

And how many have wondered about the additives that might lurk in an illegally produced marijuana joint, or the herbicides or pesticides that may have been sprayed on during cultivation?

Teenagers need to be aware of the potential side-effects of smoking cannabis regularly, such as loss of concentration, short-term memory and motor skills, which may make driving unsafe, especially when it is combined with alcohol.

These side-effects may make it nearly impossible for them to study - a huge concern for teachers and principals who have to deal with students under the influence of the drug.

Cannabis is generally rated as a lower health risk than alcohol or nicotine, both of which produce far more lethal long-term effects. Some studies suggest there are few short-term impacts for infrequent adult users of cannabis.

But evidence is mounting that frequent cannabis use, especially by young people, is risky.

Teenagers are at a critical stage in their lives, maturing socially, emotionally and psychologically. Cannabis can affect this process, as well as their ability to plan and to study.

Clearly many, perhaps most, of our young people are oblivious to these risks. So how do we get the message through?

High profile anti-smoking and drink-driving campaigns have successfully changed public attitudes towards tobacco and alcohol. We need the same kind of campaign about the health risks of cannabis.

Unfortunately, the fact that cannabis is illegal is hampering urgently needed campaigns highlighting the risks of marijuana, in much the same way that society's denial, a few decades ago, that adolescents were sexually active meant we failed to warn them of the dangers of unprotected sex.

The drug's illegality pushes the debate about health risks underground. It brands all users as criminals and implies that recreational users are drug addicts, making them hard to reach for either prevention or intervention.

It is time to bring the debate out into the open, and discuss it in our classrooms, on television, in advertising and other educational campaigns.

Educating young people about the health risks and ensuring they can get help if they have a problem with cannabis or other drugs, including alcohol, could provide a turning point in their lives.

Treating them like criminals for using cannabis might well send them down the wrong road for the rest of their lives.

Education, not prosecution, is the key. Prohibition has not worked. Nearly 2000 pupils were suspended from our schools for drug offences last year. It is time to look at where we can go from here.

A law change is needed to allow possession of small amounts of cannabis, because smoking is a health issue, not a crime. We also need a well-funded and resourced national drug strategy focused on minimising the harm of cannabis.

Let us not focus just on cannabis. Dr David Fergusson, of the Christchurch Medical School's health and development centre, says schools that are hysterical about cannabis are often far too laidback about alcohol and tobacco.

Obviously there is no magic wand that will solve the health and social problems of drug abuse, which have their root causes in poverty, hopelessness and despair. But much more money is needed to help people, especially young people, who are trapped in a cycle of drug abuse.

Imagine what could be achieved if we redirected some of the $21.1 million a year spent on policing cannabis into policies and programmes which would reduce the damaging health, social and economic consequences of drug use.

* Sue Kedgley is the Green Party spokeswoman on health.