Mum whose son developed schizophrenia and has spent the last five years in a psychiatric ward after using cannabis slams calls to legalise the drug
A MUM whose son became addicted to cannabis at the age of 14 has slammed calls for the class B drug to be legalised.
Yesterday, senior MPs called on Prime Minister Theresa May to make marijuana legal in the UK in order to make more money for the Treasury.
Appearing on the programme, Penny, who did not want her full name disclosed, said the move would not eradicate drug dealers from our streets or encourage addicts to use “weaker” substances.
Penny said her son, who is not named, became psychotic and, at times, suicidal because of his cannabis addiction that began when he was a young teenager.
She said: “Our son started using, and I’m going to be very specific here, skunk at 14, one of the dangers in this debate is no one is delineating the difference between cannabis and skunk.”
Skunk is one of 100 or so varieties of the cannabis plant, which contains high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the plant’s main, mind-altering ingredient.
Herbal cannabis has between two to four per cent of THC content, while potent variations have between ten and 14 per cent.
Penny continued: “Our son had straight As and A*s at GCSE, by the time he took his A Levels they were down to C and D grades.
“He then started using very heavily, became addicted, had a first psychotic attack in 2010 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia in January 2011.
Penny's son has spent the last five years in a psychiatric unit.
She said: "He has had nine months outside of that ward in rehab and he has a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
“This is a nightmare not just faced by our family but by very many families.”
Also joining the debate was Liberal Democrat MP and former health minister Normal Lamb.
While he has “enormous sympathy” for Penny’s situation, he believes the current law needs to be changed.
He said: “The current law doesn’t protect our children and what’s happened to Penny’s son, tragically, has happened under the current arrangements where we allow criminals to prey on young people - they have no idea what they’re buying, they’re buying this super strength skunk very easily.
“The whole approach the government is taking has had no impact on reducing supply, it’s available in every town, village and city across our country.
"Surely a better approach is to regulate what people can actually sell, control the potency, we know that if you control the potency you can remove most of the risk.”
Penny hit back and said legalising the drug is not the answer.
She commented: “I’m not sure how much you know about addiction or how buying and selling works.
“People who become addicted need larger and larger amounts or greater strengths of a drug to get the same affect.
“We’ve now had this stronger strain of skunk on our streets for 15 years or more.
"There are a lot of people out there who are addicted to a very high potency drug and you are living in a very unreal world if you think for one moment that legalising it and having it in cafes or cannabis social clubs will magically make the illegal drug sellers disappear off the streets or persuade the people who want the strong version of the drug to settle for a weaker version. It’s just not going to happen.”
Norman said they have legalised cannabis in certain American states which has taken “criminals out of the market”.
He compared it to the prohibition of alcohol which had “horrendous consequences for many people”.
“I want to end the risk that your son faced, I want to get that high strength substance off our streets,” he said.
“We know that if we pitch the tax level right we can take criminals out of the market, protect young people and end the criminalisation of so many people in our country which then blights their careers.
Related Stories
“All of these tragedies are happening under a current criminal market, the law is not protecting your son.”
Dina Browner, who is based in Los Angeles and supplies marijuana to the likes of musician Snoop Dogg, has owned a cannabis dispensary for the past 14 years.
She commented: “I have seen people from all walks of life come in and use them for a medicinal reason.”
She said you can only possess cannabis in California if you are over 21.
“It’s keeping it out of the hands of children, like the mother you had on whose 14 year old son was smoking cannabis, that is not what we prefer. We don’t think that’s healthy," she said.
She believes cannabis is an “amazing medicine” but we need to understand the “beneficial parts and breed out the bad”.
The marijuana trade in Britain is currently worth £6.8billion a year.
A report by the right wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute reveals there are major savings for state coffers if the soft drug was regulated.
Between £750m and £1bn could be earned by the Revenue if it was taxed.
And there would also be significant savings in the criminal justice costs, with 1,363 offenders now in prison for cannabis-related crimes, costing taxpayers £50million a year.
The call is backed by a full spectrum of MPs, including ex-Tory Cabinet minister Peter Lilley, and veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn.
In addition to financial arguments, there has long been a call to legalise the drug to help people with chronic pain and anxiety.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform says tens of thousands of people in UK already break the law to use cannabis for symptom relief.
The Home Office said last month there are no plans to legalise the drug.
But a petition which called for cannabis to become legal was signed by more than 150,000 people, which means it must receive a formal response from the government.