By 2008, the Australian Illicit Drug Report noted (based on paper review conducted by Australian researchers in 2007) that no conclusion could be reached as to alleged increases in THC potency. The report noted that while some countries figures demonstrated increases in potency others had remained stable while in one case (New Zealand) THC potency had actually fallen. Germany, a country that boarders Holland and allegedly receives much of its cannabis from that country had noted no increase in THC potency. The UNs Reefer Madness claims simply didn’t add up.

The 2008 UN World Drug Report notes this:

[Quote]

“A number of studies have been carried out to assess potential changes in potency over time. One of the most comprehensive was conducted in 2004 by the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and concluded that that a modest increase in aggregate cannabis potency had occurred, possibly related to the use of intensive indoor cultivation methods. The authors noted that THC content nonetheless varied widely. While the United Kingdom Home Office study in 2008 found little change: from a median potency of sinsemilla cannabis of 14% among samples in 2004/5 compared to 15% in 2008, long-term increases have been reported in the United States with an average potency of 10% in 2008. Multiple methodological issues have been raised, which impact on our capacity to generate comparable data and infer trends. Important variables to be considered include the phytochemistry; type of cannabis product; cultivation method; sampling; and stability. As detailed below, each of these can affect the potency estimates. Only through examining these factors can we have a more systematic, scientific and comparable assessment of cannabis potency
between places and over time.”

[End Quote]

No note of their Trimbos Report and full circle from 2006. In other words, we really have no idea what's going on but we’ve definitely binned the consumer survey which we used to spark our latest Reefer Madness scare (so sorry).

Of course the pulp fiction media seemed to have let this one slip and continue to proliferate sensationalist Reefer Madness dribble (rabid prohibitionist rhetoric), largely fed by police media/press releases.

Next, re schizophrenia and cannabis.... 

Doubt cast on cannabis, schizophrenia link

Source: ABC News

Tue Sep 1, 2009

By Michael Slezak

http://www.abc.net.au

A new study in the UK has cast doubt on the supposed link between cannabis use and schizophrenia.

But at least one Australian researcher says the study needs more evidence.

Previous research has suggested cannabis use increases the risk of being diagnosed with either psychosis or schizophrenia.

This latest study, led by Dr Martin Fisher of Keele University, examined the records of 600,000 patients aged between 16 and 44, but failed to find a similar link.

“An important limitation of many studies is that they have failed to distinguish the direction of association between cannabis use and psychosis,” the authors write in the latest edition of the journal Schizophrenic Research.

They point out that “although using cannabis is associated with a greater risk of developing psychosis, there is also evidence of increased cannabis use following psychosis onset.”

Not as predicted

Frisher and colleagues compared the trends of cannabis use with general practitioner records of schizophrenia and psychosis.

They argue if cannabis use does cause schizophrenia, then an increase in cannabis should be followed by an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia.

According to the study, cannabis use in the UK between 1972 and 2002 has increased four-fold in the general population, and 18 fold among under 18s.

Based on the literature supporting the link, the authors argue that this should be followed by an increase in schizophrenia incidence of 29 per cent between 1990 and 2010.

But the researchers found no increase in the rates of schizophrenia and psychosis diagnosis during that period. In fact, some of the data suggested the incidence of these conditions had decreased.

“This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and the incidence of psychotic disorders,” the authors say.

“This concurs with other reports indicating that increases in population cannabis use have not been followed by increases in psychotic incidence”.

More Evidence

Professor Joseph Ray of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, whose previous research has identified a link between cannabis and schizophrenia, is sceptical of the study’s results.

“Not showing that there is a link does not mean there is no link,” he says.

“There might be other factors at play that may reduce the incidence of diagnosed schizophrenia.”

According to Rey, “this study is just a start and the evidence suggesting that cannabis use does increase the risk of schizophrenia is quite strong. We need more evidence to counteract what we already know.”

The authors of the study say that while they cannot completely dismiss all alternative explanations of their data, such explanations “do not appear to be plausible”.

UK Today - Drug Advisor Sacked

In October 2009, the British Government sacked their chief drug advisor, Professor David Nutt – head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The sacking occurred after Prof Nutt had publicly stated the dangers of alcohol and tobacco were more serious than those posed by Ecstasy and LSD and criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class C to Class B drug, against ACMD advice.

He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting scientific evidence and described his sacking as a "serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government".

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the decision to sack the adviser was "disgraceful".

"What is the point of having independent scientific advice if as soon as you get some advice that you don't like, you sack the person who has given it to you?” He added, that if the government did not want to take expert scientific advice, it might as well have "a committee of tabloid newspaper editors to advise on drugs policy".

By November 2009, five more scientists would quit the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.