Clever teenagers most at risk of 'skunk' psychosis as cannabis expert reveals super-strong strain is linked to permanent schizophrenia
Skunk is so wide spread it's even a gateway drug to tobacco
Skunk is so wide spread it's even a gateway drug to tobacco
Britain’s brightest teenagers are among those most at risk of mental illness caused by smoking a potent form of cannabis, a leading expert has warned.
Professor Sir Robin Murray said it tended to be ‘clever and sociable’ youngsters who were damaged by using the super-strong strain of the drug, known as skunk.
Sir Robin, the foremost authority in Britain on the effects of smoking cannabis, led a landmark study with colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry which found that regularly smoking skunk triples the risk of psychosis, as revealed last week by The Mail on Sunday.
Now he has given further alarming warnings after his study was published in full in The Lancet Psychiatry. Speaking yesterday, he said that:
- Skunk now dominates Britain’s cannabis market – and is so widely used that it has become a gateway drug to tobacco.
- It is having a devastating impact on mental health – leaving some people with permanent schizophrenia.
- Cannabis has been ‘effectively decriminalised’ in South London.
- Teens are now legally purchasing ultra-strong synthetic cannabis online – without knowing it is even more likely than skunk to trigger psychosis and acute paranoia.
Sir Robin said: ‘Twenty-five years ago, if parents, brothers or sisters of a patient with schizophrenia asked me: “Could it have had anything at all to do with the cannabis he smoked?”, I’d have said: “There’s no evidence that’s the case – don’t worry about it.” All the medical journals said cannabis was a safe drug. But now we know there are these risks.’
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