By Tom Chadwick
WALKING through the streets of Cardiff last weekend, a strange sight struck the eye. A crowd of 200 cannabis smokers marched along, in a collective cloud of weed smoke holding aloft placards with slogans like “Gardening is Not a Crime”. Maybe not that odd, but on further inspection, the crowd was accompanied by a number of police officers, not arresting, but guiding the procession through the centre of town.
Cannabis is enjoying something of a renaissance. In some of the most westernised societies in the world it has now been legalised. In the UK it is barely policed making it practically decriminalised. In fact, many police forces across the UK have openly stated that cannabis is no longer a priority for them.
California is leading the way in the US, where cannabis has been legalised for both recreational and medical use. Many more countries have also made the drug legal in the last decade and public opinion seems to be swaying towards the right to use cannabis recreationally.
The drug is seen as relatively harmless and, of course, it may be in the majority of cases. But there appears to be a significant minority of users who do actually become addicted to cannabis.
There is a popular misconception that cannabis is not addictive, or that it is only “psychologically addictive”. However, more recently experts have said this is a myth and that cannabis can actually be both physiologically and psychologically addictive.
Speaking to the Guardian recently, Aaron Weiner, a psychologist and director of addiction services at Linden Oaks Behavioral Health, a clinic in Illinois, cited a 2004 study which concluded that Cannabis withdrawal can lead to irritability, anxiety, negative mood, loss of appetite and impaired social functioning. These withdrawal symptoms tended to be more severe in heavier users.
Weiner noted that whilst drugs differ in the effects produced, the symptoms of addiction are relatively consistent. Cannabis use tended to begin as a social activity, before progressing to be a tool for relaxation and a way to cope with problems. For problem users it then becomes more central to their lives and takes precedence over seeking fulfillment in work and relationships.
In almost all cases, the consequences of use are not as potentially life shattering as an opioid addiction and compared to alcohol, cannabis use is far less likely to precede a traumatic event like a car crash or physical violence. But in a way, this can be what makes cannabis very difficult to give up. It may have ruined relationships and taken away ambition, but realistically, you’re unlikely to lose a job or suffer a traumatic event through cannabis use.
Instead, heavy cannabis users may just become unmotivated and lose any ambition in life. Relationships may end and the user becomes more isolated, smoke more and the cycle continues.
Studies have shown that heavy teenage cannabis use can depress school performance and lifetime earnings, as well as being the period of life where the drug is most closely linked with psychotic episodes.
Weiner stated that cannabis addiction was the second most common addiction treated in their clinic, after alcohol addiction. He estimated that one in 10 cannabis users would become addicted.
Another thing worth bearing in mind for those in the UK is that we traditionally mix cannabis with tobacco and smoke without a filter. Some studies have compared one joint smoked this way as similar to chain smoking 5 cigarettes. Other clinics have noted symptoms of the progressive lung disease COPD in adults as young as 30 who have become addicted to smoking cannabis in joints. Smoking in this way is rare in the US, where most studies into the long term effects of cannabis have been carried out.
In fact, a study into the mixing of tobacco and cannabis found that those who smoked in this way had a far poorer chance of quitting either substance.
With legalisation across the globe and ever increasing calls for the same in the UK, it is important that we are honest about the effects of cannabis use. Not everyone will become addicted, but it seems around 1 in 10 will become a problem user and that is a significant minority.
CAIS specialist counselling consultant Wynford Ellis Owen said: "There is a move towards cannabis liberalisation internationally that we might have cause to regret in the future as more and more people seek to find ways to stupify themselves against the difficulties and challenges of living. A far better approach is to find ways to support people to deal with who they are and how they feel without the need to flee from themselves into intoxication."