Irish Independent: Citizens’ Assembly vote not to legalise cannabis is the correct decision – just ask Portugal

Catherine Conlon writes for the Irish Independent on the recent decision by the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use to recommend diverting those found in possession of drugs in Ireland to a health-led system rather than the criminal justice system. The article draws on the research presented by the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland which finds that cannabis use can precipitate new mental illness and exacerbate pre-existing illness.

Read the article in full on the Irish Independent website here (behind a paywall), or read selected quotes below. You can also read the CPsychI publication “Cannabis and Your Mental Health” here.

The recent arguments from experts in criminal justice that “most drug use is not problematic” ignores the mounting body of evidence in the last decade, for both health harms and increased potency of cannabis.

The College of Psychiatrists in Ireland states that cannabis can both precipitate new mental illness and exacerbate pre-existing mental illness. The evidence shows that cannabis users are at a three- to four-fold increased risk of development of acute psychosis and this risk increases five- to six-fold with early use of high-potency cannabis.

Perhaps most worrying of all, the regular use of high-potency tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabis (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) and starting to use cannabis at an early age are the strongest risk factors for developing a psychotic disorder among cannabis users. THC has been shown to induce psychosis in healthy people with no history of mental illness.

A report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (2017) stated that cannabis use is associated with psychosis: ‘The higher the dose the higher the risk.’

Recent evidence confirms the effects of cannabis on brain structure and development with particular risks for the adolescent brain.