PCC Complaint. The Evening Standard, 26th January 2011 – RESOLVED

—– Original Message —–

From: Peter Reynolds

To: complaints@pcc.org.uk

Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 5:01 PM

Subject: Complaint against the London Evening Standard, issue dated 26th January 2011

Dear Sirs,

“Out of their minds: the truth about teens, cannabis and psychosis”, London Evening Standard, 26-01-11

I wish to make a complaint concerning the above article which is still available online at: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/health/article-23917590-out-of-their-minds-the-truth-about-teens-cannabis-and-psychosis.do

I make the complaint on my account but also in my capacity as the Speaker of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, a political party, of P.O.Box 674, Salfords, RH1 9BN. For the purposes of correspondence, please use my personal address as below. Please acknowledge receipt of this complaint.

1. This article breaches the Editors’ Code Of Practice clause 1.i) in that it publishes inaccurate, misleading and distorted information.

2. It also breaches clause 1.iii) in that it confuses comment, conjecture and fact.

3. The London Evening Standard is also in breach of clause 2 in that it has failed to provide an opportunity for reply to inaccuracies.

4. The headline is inaccurate, misleading and distorted information. It also confuses comment, conjecture and fact in a crass, sensationalist and scaremongering fashion. It uses the phrase “Out of their minds”, conjoined with “the truth about teens, cannabis and psychosis”, clearly suggesting that it is a fact or “the truth” that teens who use cannabis get psychosis.

The facts are that anyone using cannabis is extremely unlikely to develop psychosis. By the latest research, the risk of developing schizophrenia is at least one in 7500 and perhaps as little as one in 30000.

Professor Glyn Lewis of the University Of Bristol reviewed all the published evidence on the subject in 2009 and says that 96% of people can use cannabis without any risk of psychosis at all and in the remaining 4% the risk is statistically tiny. Even if direct causation of schizophrenia by cannabis was accepted (which is clearly not proven) then on Prof. Lewis’ figures that would amount to approximately 800 additional cases per annum. Based on the Home Office’s figure of six million regular cannabis users that amounts to a risk of one in 7500. In fact, while there is evidence of some correlation between cannabis use and mental health problems there is very little of causation. There is, in fact, much stronger evidence of correlation between tobacco smoking and mental health (more than 90% of those diagnosed with schizophrenia smoke tobacco) but no one is claiming that tobacco causes schizophrenia.

Prof Lewis’ report states that among light cannabis users “…it would be necessary to stop over 10,000 young men and nearly 30,000 young women to prevent one case of schizophrenia.”

As well as the University of Bristol study, studies published in US journal “Schizophrenia Research” in 2010 indicate that “…marijuana is unlikely to instigate incidences of schizophrenia in the general population, that cannabis use among patients with the disease is associated with higher cognitive function, and that at least some schizophrenics find subjective relief from symptoms of the illness by using pot”.

Furthermore, in Britain in 2009, the ACMD commissioned a study by Keele University into the trends in schizophrenia specifically to test the claims in the media of a link between it and cannabis. It looked at almost 600,000 patients and concluded that “..the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining” despite alleged increased use of allegedly more potent cannabis.

Page 1 of 4 | Next page