New cannabis type prompts call for action

A new breed of powerful cannabis and ballooning costs in treating its health effects have led to calls for urgent action, including drug education for primary school children.

The information, in a National Drug Intelligence Bureau report obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act, shows that cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug, causes more than $30 million a year in hospital bills.

The report the first of its kind to use information from Customs, health and police officials warns that the drug is likely to become more harmful. The threat posed by high-potency "re-engineered" cannabis has been steadily increasing, it says.

Hospital costs jumped 50 per cent from $19.5 million in 2004 to $31 million in 2005. Of the 2062 hospital cases in 2005, 48 admissions cost between $100,000 and $370,000 each.

The report calls for further action to reduce supply and demand as communities have become "comfortable with high prevalence levels".

Included is a call to curb the "alarming" trend of teenagers to use cannabis by making drug education programmes an immediate priority in primary schools.

Cannabis could account for up to 10 per cent of cases of psychosis, the report says, pointing to increasing admission rates for psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and behavioural disorders.

Bureau co-ordinator Detective Inspector Stuart Mills said the report provided the first big picture of cannabis' harmful effects.

"We talk about methamphetamine, but here we can see the harm it causes with the number of hospital admissions caused solely by cannabis."

Health Minister Tony Ryall said he had not yet read the report, but suspected the cost to the health system would be "significantly higher than that, when you consider its contribution to accidents and family breakdown".

The call for primary school drug education is welcomed by the Wellington youth drug and alcohol counselling service WellTrust. The average age at which the trust's clients begin using cannabis is about 12, executive officer Murray Trenberth says.

The report says users prefer marijuana grown indoors, where "a consistently higher-quality product is achieved". Scientific tests ESR completed this year are believed to confirm increasing amounts of THC, the ingredient responsible for the giving the "high", in cannabis.

Police have refused a request for the THC test results, but the report says levels are believed to have increased between six and 12 per cent since the late 1990s.