Debra Bell

1
CANNABIS AND CHILDREN the damaging effects on
families
Oral evidence to ACMD Review of Cannabis, 5 Feb
2008
Debra Bell CEO, Talking About Cannabis Ltd
2
Home-grown skunk cannabis now accounts for 60
per cent, or even more, of cannabis seized
3
Families from across the socio-economic spectrum
of the UK, and from across the country, from
areas as remote as the islands of Scotland, have
been in touch.
4

• CONFUSION AMONG PARENTS families report being
  
• bewildered, afraid, alone and ashamed.
• Many talk of their beliefs that it must be
  something they did or did
• not do.
• CONFUSION AMONG CHILDREN those who have become
  
• adversely affected by cannabis begin to
  believe that if cannabis is
• not very harmful, as the government has
  signalled, then there must
• be something wrong with them, it cant be the
  drug that is to blame,
• it must be them.
• They fear giving up cannabis, in case whatever
  is wrong with them
• should become too much to face.

5
SUPPORT FOR TAC Europe Against Drugs, the
National Drugs Prevention Alliance, The Luke and
Marcus Trust, ACPO, Youth Courts Magistrates, HM
Customs, schools, politicians and medics have
been in contact, many have joined our committee
of advisers.
6

• TAC BELIEVES THAT GOVERNMENT UNDERMINED
• PARENTS when they decided to down-classify
  cannabis and
• families were left with little or no support
  particularly
• vulnerable are the millions of one-parent
  families being
• headed up by mothers, especially those with
  boys.
• Families were left with insufficient knowledge
  about
• cannabis and its effect on the young to be
  able to cope.
• The massive and consistent health education
  campaign
• promised by Charles Clarke has not
  materialised.

7

• 500 people a week are presenting to doctors with
  
• cannabis-related symptoms. (source BMA)
• Scientists report that 80 per cent of patients
  newly-
• diagnosed with schizophrenia, and other
  psychiatric
• illnesses, are heavy users of cannabis. (Daily
  Mail 28.01.08)
• Warnings from leading psychiatrist Peter Jones,
  from
• Cambridge University, that children who start
  on cannabis as
• young as 10 or 11, could be trebling their
  risk of schizophrenia.
• Monthly drug usage among 11 12 year old boys
  has
• increased by one per cent since
  reclassification, according to
• a study done for the NHS in 2006, THIS
  REPRESENTS
• THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN.

8

• Recent Government figures showing a dip in
  cannabis
• use among 16-24 year olds is open to question
  - if police
• are not arresting for possession, then numbers
  are going
• to appear to go down.
• If use is dwindling then who is buying the
  increasing
• amounts of cannabis grown in our burgeoning
• cannabis farms? Drugs expert David Raynes said
  
• recently that THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT
• THE UK IS EXPORTING IT.

9
I cried when I read your Diaries. I cried for
your son, for you and for the other members of
your family. I also cried for myself and for my
son who died in October 2004. He was 18 and had
been smoking cannabis for 2 years and had become
paranoid and depressed. He was found dead in a
car park of a tower block after falling from one
of the landings.
10
Im sitting here in my office trying not to let
my colleagues see the tears in my eyes after
reading your diary. They are tears for you and
for what happened to my daughter and my family
after she became addicted to skunk, becoming
disturbed and demented, giving up on life.
11
Tomorrow is the anniversary of my sons death. He
was 19, and had been smoking skunk since he was
13. The mood swings, violence, stealing and
blatant disregard of family rules were more than
the family could take. He became schizophrenic
and died in a filthy flat from a heroin overdose.
I am so glad you have gone public with your
story what we have to remember is that none of
us are alone.
12

• TAC BRIEFING CANNABIS AND CHILDREN COMPLACENCY
  IS NOT AN OPTION - HOUSE OF COMMONS OCTOBER 2007
• Cross-party support from the House of Lords and
  the Commons.
• Event sponsored by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
  (Cons), Baroness Joan
• Walmsley (Lib Dem), Lord Brian Mackenzie
  (Lab), Kate Hoey (Lab),
• Jim Dobbin (Lab), Graham Brady MP (Cons),
  Angela Watkinson MP(Cons)
• Cannabis and children is an issue that is
  uniting politicians.
• Hundreds of concerned people attended, most were
  parents.
• All the speakers outlined the effects of
  cannabis on the young.
• Professor Robin Murray talked of studies he had
  done at Kings with
• healthy volunteers, with no family history of
  mental illness, whereby when
• injected with THC, these people experienced
  psychotic symptoms.

13
In light of the compelling evidence before you,
TAC urges you to reclassify this drug, to send
out an unequivocal message to children and their
families that the Government decision in 2004 was
a mistake.