Kay Elson (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to place on record my strong personal support for the ongoing efforts of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, the honourable member for Sturt, in bringing attention to the dangers of cannabis use, particularly in relation to mental health. I wholeheartedly support his calls for state governments to recriminalise the possession and consumption of cannabis. I have long believed that one of the most foolish things we have done as a society is to refer to cannabis or marijuana as a ‘harmless’ or ‘recreational’ drug. For too long the notion has been put out there that this drug is not really like other drugs—that it is more benign in nature, that it cannot really hurt you, that it is ‘okay’. That is certainly the message that decriminalisation sends.

The truth is that cannabis does not deserve the benign tag. Cannabis does enormous damage to those who regularly use it—both physically and socially. New evidence is emerging every day of the irreversible effect it can have on the brain, especially as a trigger to serious mental illness. We have had a lot of press in recent times about the need to deal more effectively with the growing prevalence of mental illness—in particular, schizophrenia. Yet very few headlines are given to the mounting evidence that cannabis use can lead to serious mental health problems. Surely one way of helping ease the pressure on our mental health system is to send a clear message about the potential health impact of smoking marijuana, to try to decrease the incidence of drug induced mental illness.

A recent study conducted in the UK found that one in four people may have a genetic profile that makes it more likely that cannabis use will trigger psychiatric disorders. That is 25 per cent of the population; and that is not to say that the other 75 per cent are immune from developing disorders of this nature—far from it. The very clear fact is that cannabis use can lead to mood swings, panic attacks, delusions, hallucinations, paranoid thinking, schizophrenia and psychotic illness.

There is not enough time in tonight’s debate to fully detail the impact this can have on the families of those who fall prey to this drug. While people may not die of a cannabis overdose—it is less dramatic, in a sense, than heroin or cocaine—its social effects are just as hard on the families of users. Families are being torn apart by the illness, the delusions, the lies and, in many cases, the criminal behaviour that taking this drug can create. An Australian Institute of Criminology report last year found that 94 per cent of juvenile offenders had used cannabis, and a huge 64 per cent were regular users. So the effect stretches beyond families and to victims of crime and the wider society. Perhaps most sadly of all, cannabis use has rendered sons and daughters virtually unrecognisable to their parents. Make no mistake about it, as a nation we are losing our young people to this drug every day. I am talking only about the dangers of the drug itself at this stage. Of course, there are other dangers. It is clearly a ‘gateway’ drug, the use of which often leads to the use of other illicit drugs.

It is a very sad indictment of our nation that, in 2004, 15 per cent of our population over the age of 15 used cannabis. In fact, in a list of 24 comparable countries, including the Netherlands, the UK, the USA and New Zealand, Australia ranked the highest in cannabis use. This indicates a serious public health issue. While the Tough on Drugs campaign has gone some way towards warning young people of the drug’s dangerous effects, clearly more needs to be done.

I want to take this opportunity tonight to call on the national media and on state governments around Australia to help us dispel the myth that cannabis is a harmless drug. We need to work together to educate our young people on the potentially serious mental health problems associated with the use of this drug. Finally, I want to sincerely thank the member for Sturt for his ongoing work. He can be assured that he is supported in this campaign by the concerned constituents of Forde and of people across this nation.

Question agreed to.