The Sentinal – a local paper in the Staffs region of the UK recently published a story about the study by Keele University which failed to support a causal link between cannabis and mental illnes, the thrust of which was really quite interesting:
But the leading expert behind the study said it could be too low-key to re-ignite the debate on whether restrictions should be removed from soft drugs.
This “leading expert” is Dr Frisher, one of the authors of the report “Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005” – which can be seen online here
The report goes on to say
Yet Dr Frisher revealed last night that the study had been partly commissioned by the Government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs.
He said: “We concentrated on looking into the incidence of schizophrenia during those years and not specifically at cannabis use. “It was relatively low-key research so I don’t believe it will re-ignite the debate on whether the drug should be legalised.”
As this blog has discussed before this study was carried out for the ACMD on behalf of the Home Office as a part of its review of the classification of cannabis, the study didn’t produce the result the government wanted so they ignored it and ensured it didn’t get picked up by the media. The study had reported its results to the ACMD over a year before the government allowed it to be published very quietly in a specialised medical journal. The reason this study is “low key” is because the government wanted to keep it low key and the good old British media was only too pleased to go along with the government’s agenda. As Dilys Wood, national co-ordinator of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance said in the article:
so far the report had been published in medical journals and would have a far-reaching reaction if it surfaced more widely.
Indeed it would have done, it undermined the core reason for the reclassification of cannabis back to class B – the fears that cannabis use caused severe mental illness. Dilys added
“I believe that if it had found a causal link between cannabis and schizophrenia it would have been all over the press.
That is a pretty safe bet indeed, “Study proves cannabis causes schizophrenia” would have been all over the media had the results gone that way.
But even a year later had this article printed by a small local paper had been in, say, the Times, or The Guardian, or on BBC news it might not have been so “low key”. The press is strangely reluctant to report developments in the cannabis debate which go against the government’s stated agenda.
If that sounds like paranoia setting in, compare the reporting of Frishers study with another cannabis and mental health story which happened on 6th August and which was widely carried in “youth” media such as BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat. The story came from what the BBC called the “drug information service FRANK”. The is of course “Talk to Frank”, which seems to have quietly re-branded itself and lost the “Talk to” bit. Frank, of course, is no simple “drugs information service”, it’s the government’s anti drug advertising campaign, the key element of its anti-cannabis drugs policy. Frank can not be considered an objective, honest drugs agency along the lines of, say, Release or Lifeline and the BBC is fully aware of this, yet carried the item as a factual news report.
Newsbeat reported
Nearly one in two teenagers knows someone who has suffered from a mental health problem like paranoia after using cannabis, a survey suggests.
Forty-two percent of 11-18 year olds know someone who has experienced memory loss, panic attacks or paranoia from cannabis, drugs information service Frank said.
This is news? Well known short term effects of cannabis include short term memory loss when stoned and panic attacks – “the horrors” as stoners call them, it’s like saying “newsflash, people who drink get hangovers”. The item was clearly part of the government’s anti cannabis campaign aimed at kids. Perhaps there is a justification for this in terms of preventing kids using cannabis, but it is not news, the unreported Keele study was.
It also seems to have quietly redefined what is meant by “mental health problems” from meaning a serious condition like schizophrenia to something like a mild panic attack, shades of Orwellian newspeak indeed.
Guess what? No-one seems to have noticed. No critical comment anywhere, not even on drug law reform sites.
The brings us back to the subject of a UKCIA blog from over a year ago when we asked what was the future of Cannabis law reform movement?It’s not as if there aren’t massive changes happening out there in the real world with what are perhaps the first real signs of a collapse of hard line prohibition throughout South America and even – dare we hope – in the USA itself. Everywhere, it seems, the cold light of day is shining into those fogged pickled onion eyes of politicians for so long blind to the need for change. Everywhere, that is, apart from here where all we have is a media content to do the government’s bidding and only the promise of even more of the war on drugs should the Tories win the next election.
The article in the Sentinal came as a result of a letter written by the LCA’s Dilys Wood, it was only a minor local paper and easily ignored by the government, but it was an example of the kind of campaigning we need more of. This isn’t “free the weed”, it isn’t promoting cannabis as God’s gift to the human race and the only way to heal a troubled world, it’s promoting hard science, challenging the lies and misinformation the media normally serves up. This is the way to go, it means being involved in very real debates about health risks, harm reduction and legal regimes focused on controlling the cannabis trade. It’s all about approaching this debate in a sober, adult way and it’s long overdue.
With luck we’ll hear more from Dilys and people like her in the future and a little less from those who are too easily stereotyped andhave dominated the cannabis law reform campaign for too long.
I think there two stories here: i agree about the underreporting of drug science stories that do not support the prevailing ‘drugs-bad-ban them’ narrative. Its something that ben Goldacre has written about for a number of different arenas of science reporting, and applies to scare stories and media panics more broadly. that said i did notice this coverage on ABC news this week (wierd that this is only emerging now):
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/09/01/2673334.htm
I also agree regards the Frank news story. I dont doubt the data they collected but what they didnt do was publish the questionaire, the methodology, or the complete set of survey data. There are numerous ways in which questions can be phrased, and results selectively reported,that will distort the outcomes in a chosen direction. They didn’t necessarily do this but without the full information we just wouldn’t know. I think you could very reasonably ask them for all three – if they don’t hand them over, put in a FOI request. I’m happy to help.
At the root of all this is the fact that people are not interested in the truth. To say cannabis is worse than previously thought goes with the popular attitude and will be accepted. To contradict an accepted “truth” needs people to admit they had been wrong and the sort of people we are talking about (politicians, police, social workers, health care etc) don’t like to admit they are wrong about anything.
Best to agree with their fears then attribute all the evils to prohibition and its consequences on quality, contamination, and patterns of usage. Then you give them a way out as well as a solution to the problem. It could be said that prohibition is damaging and expensive but could work given infinite funds and personel. Regulation and legalisation could be put as a cheaper alternative (not implying prohibtion was wrong does not put these people on the defensive). The place for medical studies is once the legalisation process has begun – to allay the media backlash from the die-hard prohibitionists (possibly those who made money from it).
Poorly produced black market cannabis – mixed with tobacco – smoked throughout the day is dangerous to health and a real social problem. Lets agree that this must be stopped! Prohibtion does not stop this unless you spend rediculous amounts of money on it – legalistaion and control could achieve this and earn money (via taxes) to fund the process.
Thanks! Good news 🙂
The study mentioning “memory loss, panic attacks and paranoia” deserves comment:
1. The “memory loss” is likely to be of short-term, bureaucratic, compliance and promise-keeping memory, such as where your wallet is, what you have to take along to class etc. Arguably our society overspecializes in this kind of memory and we need an abatement remedy for all this boring mental trivia we are burdened with so we can get down to some real work.
My interpretation is that cannabis interacts with receptors in the brain, activating LEAP = Long-term Episodic Associative Performance memory (such as permitted muggles-user Armstrong to eject more coherent melody at higher volume through the horn than any previous musician, which changed history even though Goebbels precipitated World War II trying to stop it). When you are mentally juggling and reassociating millions of revivified remembered episodes into a new story and simultaneously expressing that in a new stream of thought, text or tune, it’s understandable that you don’t have time to remember the appointment trivia. Save that forfour hours later.
2. Panic attacks– this is worth preventing by using a gentle, nonoverdose administration method– vapouriser, single-toke utensil with a long stem so smoke cools down on the way to the trachea, and when available the THC-loaded e-cig cartridge. The cigarette companies have used hard-hit chauvinism to shame youngsters into smoking as abusively as possible, then sitting to see what “hits” them in the head, which when it does can cause anxiety.
3. “Creative paranoia”– there is a rightful place for this after all. The cannabinoid-instigated massive review of reality occuring in your mind apres une toque quickly discloses tons of stuff that is wrong in the world together with supplies of energy to try to do something about it.
4. The number one do-it issue by the way is reforestation, and wouldn’t you know, cannabis is about the best precursor crop for planting a forest. Hemp roots reach deep bringing up water and nutrients which, after the stalks die, are deposited as litter on the surface to nutrify a generation of young trees next year. IT’S BROWNSPLIFF TIME– START GETTING YOUR SUPPLY OF PLANE (sycamore) LEAVES IN WHICH TO WRAP POT(ting) SOIL AND A CANNABIS SEED, AND PLANT IN HIDDEN PLACES UNDER HEDGES (see UK Sea of Green thread).