The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has today issued a stark warning over the dangers of cannabis use.
Criticising the United Kingdom's recent decision to downgrade the drug from class B to class C, the head of the United Nations Office commented that countries pursuing such a policy would get the "drug problem they deserved".
The review, released in Vienna, echoes a marked swell in public opinion that resides against the "soft" approach, following a tide of research that warns of the dangers of using cannabis, not least the risk of a disorder known as "Cannabis Induced Psychosis".
The United Nations announced that statistically "cannabis related health damage" is "increasing" and that policies focusing on the decriminalisation of the drug were "fundamentally wrong".
The wave of cannabis related or caused disorders was labelled as a "pandemic" in the report, a term not used lightly.
One of the key problems surrounding this particular drug is the increase in potency; politicians all too often judge the effects of drugs based upon personal experience or perceived experience. What they fail to focus on is the fact that cannabis today is "considerably more potent" than it was as little as a decade ago; to judge it by what it once was or to judge it as "soft" was labelled as "a mistake".
The United Nations found that the dangers surrounding cannabis use "are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin".
Approximately 160 million people worldwide use cannabis, making up approximately 2.7% of the world's population.
Additionally, the UN noted that there was a fast growing market for even more potent strains such as "skunk".
Sadly, past research has been once again reinforced by the latest findings. A "significant" number of cannabis users have or will experience marked psychotic symptoms. Claims that cannabis can be habit forming have also been verified by the report. "Despite early claims to the contrary, cannabis dependence is a reality. Many people who use cannabis find it difficult to stop, even when it interferes with other aspects of their lives, and more than a million people over the world enter treatment for cannabis dependence each year.
"Research indicates that younger users, whose brains are still developing, may be especially vulnerable ... it should be noted that cannabis is a powerful drug that has recently become more powerful in many parts of the world."
Happily, research into the use of cannabis have started to yield positive results. The Home Office of the United Kingdom stated that use of said drug has noticeably declined among young people; they further went on record, stating that "[cannabis] is harmful and illegal and no-one should take it."
Interestingly, a report from the European Union's Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction has found that deaths attributable to drug use within the European Union had peaked at an all time high.