mental health: concern for blair as plot to make cannabis 'Class B' again is revealed by the independent on sunday

TONY BLAIR has an deep seated, unresolved desire, to make cannabis 'Class B' again according to the the latest revelations about the mental health of the British Prime Minister in todays 'Independent On Sunday' which reports:

"Tony Blair is planning a controversial U-turn on cannabis laws and the reintroduction of tough penalties after an official government review found a definitive link between use of the drug and mental illness."

"The Independent on Sunday can reveal that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has detailed evidence showing cannabis triggers psychosis in regular users. The findings are expected be used by Mr Blair to overturn the decision made two years ago to downgrade the drug. The reports makes it "an open door" for ministers to change the law, according to one official."

According to the Independent On Sunday, Tony Blair's greatest fear is the police, who will hate his plans, and him for bringing them up, after all their help and advice:

"Obstacles to a U-turn remain, however, particularly the attitude of the police. Ministers must overcome police fears that it will reduce their ability to focus on class A drugs such as heroin."

"Most senior officers supported the original decision to downgrade because it helped them to focus on class A drugs".

The police may try to track Blair down, to stop him spending an extra billion pounds a year of tax payer's cash on about 100,000 prosecutions for cannabis possession every year (average cost; £10,000 per prosecution)."

Meanwhile the news will shock millions of Britains, who regularly enjoy cannabis more than any other nation in Europe.

According to the Prime Minister they could be suffering from mental illness, despite the fact that a lot of them voted for him.

Doctors have been asked to be prepared for a flood of cannabis using patients on Monday morning fearing they may be mad, or are going mad, because they have used cannabis - or because they voted 'New Labour' in the last election.

The emergency services are also preparing for large numbers of patients who will be suffering from parinoia brought on by the news, plus depression and 'emotional outbursts' due to unresolved relationship issues with their prime minister.

Reading the British Journal of Psychiatry may be the cause of Blair's cannabis parinoia according to the Independent On Sunday:

"A Danish study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that almost half of patients treated for a cannabis-related mental disorder went on to develop a schizophrenic illness. People who had used the drug developed schizophrenia earlier than those with the illness who had not smoked marijuana".

"In light of these new warnings, Mr Clarke asked the ACMD in March this year to review the classification of cannabis."

However, 'News of the Weed' can reveal that the Danish study failed to make a link between cannabis and the development of schizophrenia. The British Journal of Psychiatry press release says very clearly:

"Whether cannabis caused the development of schizophrenia could not be determined in this study, as it was not possible to control for other factors such as hereditary predisposition, other drug use and socio-economic status."

According to the British Journal of Psychiatry this is how the experiment which could effect British government policy on cannabis was done:

Information on patients treated for cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms between 1994 and 1999 was obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register. Those previously treated for any psychotic symptoms were excluded from the study.

The remaining 535 patients were followed for at least three years. In a separate analysis, the sample was compared with 2721 people referred for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders for the first time, but who had no history of cannabis-induced psychosis.

It was found that 44.5% of those with cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms were later diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. This proportion increased with length of follow-up.

'News of the Weed' should not have to reveal to any normal, balanced and sensible person that this procedure is so full of holes, you could make a religion out of it.

Just as sightings of the 'Virgin Mary' and 'Elvis' come in waves, so it seems do studies linking cannabis to "schizophrenia-spectrum disorders."

In March this year, Dr van Os, a psychiatrist at the University of Maastricht, Holland, hit world headlines with his 'discovery' that marijuana is responsible for up to 13 per cent of schizophrenia cases in the Netherlands. What the headlines did not report was Dr van Os had based his whole study on yet another utterly discredited study done on teenagers in New Zealand.

'Normal' New Zealand reports in a damming expose:

"The study of 759 people born in Dunedin in 1972-3, reported in New Scientist magazine, claimed to have found a 10 percent higher chance of suffering the symptoms of schizophrenia among those who had smoked cannabis three or more times by the age of fifteen, compared to those who had not".

"However only 29 of the sample of 759 had used cannabis three times or more by the age of fifteen, and just three went on to suffer schizophrenic symptoms".

Then on Sep 18th the Sunday Times prominently carried a story headlined “Mental Health Problems Soar Among Children Using Cannabis.”

'Addaction', a leading UK drug and alcohol treatment charity whose research data the Sunday Times had twisted into the shape of Rupert Murdock on XXXX, immediately issued a statement saying the story was "entirely misleading."

Rosie Brocklehurst, Director of Communications at Addaction said:

“This report on Page 7 of the paper was a distortion and factually wrong. We have therefore written a letter of complaint to the Sunday Times asking for clarification as to how this story came to appear in the form in which it was published, and to ensure that the truth is given in a correction of the original story.

"We suspect the story was influenced by the 'Sunday Times' wish to write a piece before the imminent deliberations by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs."

Tony Blair, obviously mentally exausted after his recent holiday with Cliff Richard, plus the mental lobby group 'SANE' (very American/DEA) who have been trying to campaign in Britain for cannabis to be 'Class B', should study this report from the Independent On Sunday, 16 Oct:

'High-dose cannabis stimulates growth of brain cells in rats'

"CANNABIS, the third most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco, yesterday won an unlikely accolade from scientists who said that it could boost brain power."

"Experiments on rats given a potent cannabinoid have shown the drug stimulates the growth of new brain cells. Canadian researchers found that the drug caused neurons to regenerate in the hippocampus, an area that controls mood and emotions, after one month of treatment."

They say a week is a long time in politics, so maybe a month's treatment will not be fast enough for our troubled PM, who could be discharged from his current institution at any moment.

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