CANNABIS FEATURE: Positives and Negatives from Milton Keynes user and drug abuse service

“The doctors had tried me on numerous medications including citalopram and sertraline but none of these worked; to be honest they only numb out your emotions, making you incapable of feeling happiness or sadness.

“You don't feel better, the drugs just take away your ability to feel anything at all.

“There are major circumstances where cannabis use has really helped me including when I was admitted to hospital with severe panic attacks that was affecting my heart and breathing.

“I think people are just afraid of what they don't know or understand. Cannabis, in my opinion, is completely safe. I work 50+ hours a week and I smoke weed every single day. It doesn't affect my mind set, it doesn't make me lazy. Every morning I'm down the gym at 6:30. I buy it with my own hard earned money and am not on any benefits.”

Assistant director Joanne O’Connor from Compass, a service that works with Milton Keynes Council to tackle problem drug use, has shared her views on the problems young people are facing as they are smoking a higher strength cannabis.

“Cannabis is not the same as it was five years ago, the clinical make up has modified and grown. Skunk, G13 and blue cheese is now more popular with young people than a lower grade of the drug that is used by older adults.

“The stronger the drug is the more physical affects it can have - hallucinations is a really big problem with the high grade drug. On par with LSD, users can become very paranoid, anxious and even have violent thoughts.

“We are seeing young people experimenting and starting on the higher strength of the drug, therefore the use is a lot more extreme than it was previously.

“We find young people who use it find it hard to concentrate at school and sometimes miss school as they feel dopey in the morning.

“The strength of the drug can be like harsh cigarettes and as well as addiction, users are constantly thinking about it and a very powerful feeling of needing it can take over them.

“The drug is illegal because of the dangers associated. It hasn’t been proved that it can cause a fatal overdose like alcohol but it can make people really ill - called a whitey - when people turn white and sick.

“Cannabis is a creeper, you don’t realise you have a problem until you really do and it is then difficult to change your behaviour.

“We try to help people as early as possible to ensure better outcomes. Our aim is to make sure people make informed decisions and come to us instead of watching videos on youtube.”