Realists guide to drug use

Many believe that relaxing the cannabis law is a step in the wrong direction; that it sends out the message that cannabis is harmless.

They predict an explosion in cannabis abuse and an inexorable slide into a more permissive society where drugs pose an ever-growing threat to the nation's health. It's a typical knee-jerk reaction from people who have little understanding or experience of the nature of the drug problem in this country -and they are wrong.

What are the risks?

Only a fool would argue that cannabis is harmless, but the health risks for most of the three to four million people in the UK who use the drug, appear to be small. The risks contrast starkly with the outlook for the tens of millions who use cigarettes and alcohol - two legal drugs that kill, maim and injure more people in a weekend than cannabis does in a year.

Strict legislation hasn't slowed cannabis's rise in popularity over the years - it is ubiquitous and easy to obtain. It would probably take me a while to track some down but only because I don't know where to look; my 14-year-old daughter, however, assures me that, for research purposes, she could get me some within 24 hours, and she would not need to stray out of school grounds.

Reclassification of the drug isn't going to change any of this. My daughter has never heard of the Misuse of Drugs Act. She knows cannabis is illegal and, so far, she has not tried it, but if she does experiment with it one day I won't panic. The odds are she will be one of a vast majority who will come to no harm. I worry far more about her taking up tobacco - a gateway to premature death for one in three users - or falling victim to alcohol, either through drinking too much, or indirectly at the hands of a drunk.

Can you become addicted?

We now know far more about cannabis than we did just five years ago and it is nowhere near as safe as street lore would have it, but the risks need to be put into perspective. Cannabis smoke may be worse than tobacco smoke - with just four joints thought to be as harmful as 20 cigarettes - but only a fraction of cannabis users smoke the drug that heavily and the carcinogenic potential of the odd joint is negligible. It's the mental dangers that worry doctors most.

Contrary to popular belief, you can become addicted to cannabis. One in 10 users risk becoming dependent on the drug - a proportion that rises to at least 50 per cent in heavy users - and cannabis abuse now accounts for 10 per cent of all attendances at UK drug treatment centres. There's also evidence that cannabis use can lead on to harder drugs, although only a minority of users - currently thought to be fewer than one in 10 - will do so.

The most alarming recent discovery is that prolonged cannabis use can trigger serious mental illness such as depression and schizophrenia. One leading psychiatrist estimates that it now accounts for as many as eight out of 10 new cases seen in some psychiatric units.

I'm not particularly liberal, just a realist. Maybe the world would be a better place without cannabis, but it's here to stay. The risks it poses have come about despite legislation, not because of it. The authorities have tried to reduce usage and have failed, and are now diverting their limited resources to tackling the harder drugs that pose a much bigger threat to our welfare. If downgrading cannabis to Class C helps them do that then it gets my vote.