UK - Almost twice as many admitted to hospital for cannabis than cocaine

[edgarshade]

STV

1 March 2014 10:33 GMT

Almost twice as many people were admitted to hospital for cannabis use than cocaine last year, according to figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives.

The statistics show there were 608 admissions for cannabis in 2012/13, up from 492 in 2008/09. Cocaine accounted for 316 people being hospitalised across Scotland during the same period. The Tories are now warning the police and NHS not to "ease off" on the class B drug amid attempts to tackle higher profile illegal substances such as heroin. Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw MSP said: "Cannabis enjoys a reputation in some quarters as essentially being a safe drug. But we can see from these figures that clearly isn’t the case. "Allowing the illegal substance that reputation can breed complacency among not only users, but authorities too. "It accounts for almost double the hospital admissions as cocaine, and the five-year trend is certainly moving in the wrong direction. "We have to break this relaxed attitude, and ensure that the hundreds who are hospitalised as a result of cannabis don't fall into a trap of believing what they are doing is a risk-free activity."

In total, 5693 people were admitted to Scottish hospitals in 2012/13 for drug-related issues, almost 600 fewer than the previous year. Heroin and other opiates were still the most prevalent reason for drug-related admissions with 3825 people seeking medical attention after using the substance. Health boards in Dumfries and Galloway, Lothian, Fife and Lanarkshire recorded the most incidents of cannabis-related admissions while NHS Grampian, Forth Valley and Ayrshire and Arran had the fewest. No figures were provided for Orkney, Shetland or the Western Isles. Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: "We have maintained record amounts of money in frontline drug services and support, with drug treatment waiting times dramatically reduced. We have an ambitious programme for education about the dangers of drugs, including cannabis, through Know the Score and Choices for Life.

"Drug taking in the general adult population has fallen since 2006 and drug use among young people is at its lowest levels since 2002. Hospital discharges for drug use have also fallen among younger age groups."

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/265829-...mitted-to-hospital-for-cannabis-than-cocaine/

 

[23536]

Why do British people have such a hard time with the cannabis high? Most of the negative cannabis news here seems to originate in the UK.

 

[neversickanymore]

In other breaking news.. after getting a benzo and some doritos all 608 where released alive.

Seems kinda amazing that only 5000 some people went to the hospital for drugs.. oh yeah alcohol isnt a drug. This is Scotland we get drunk like god wants us to. 8)

 

[CLICKHEREx]

Some of the reasons would be that there is far more hash in the UK than in other countries with a high proportion of cannabis users, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, and adulterants such as pesticides should be more concentrated in hashish. Also, there are far more cannabis users than cocaine.

 

[Jackeh]

Pesticides aren't the worse things in hash over here. Motor oil, plastic, random other shite. It's far easier to bulk out than cannabis is, although I have seen cannabis in Ireland reported as having been sprayed with some kinda fire retardant to add weight, a bit deadly to try and smoke.

 

[matt<3ketamine]

my mates, years ago, got a hold of some tragic sprayed weed that literally smelt and tasted of febreeze, crackled more than rock would ever dare to!
we just sat and coughed our wee lungs up, that sprayed gear overruled any normal weed for years, getting anything non-sprayed was referred to as 'homegrown' and only ever came with a strain name from an old grower, was either pure power plant or white widow, was always same phenotypes too, the lad knew how to grow crackin buds alright

you will never get better bud than from a grower who has pride in their hobby and that knows how to take care of their plants properly
same with the likes of mdma/lsd/dmt/ketamine/4-mmc/amphetamine, if a chemist takes pride in their work, their product will be top quality almost every time


why is it so hard to find people that take pride in their work now

 

[sonicwhite]

I can assure you that if I just take one little hit of weed....I start to think I'm in hell and being tormented......You know what confuses me is that I was labeled drug induced psychosis which I still believe I am but I'm treated as if I have SZ/SZA. So for the most part I think my body rejects weed because I used it from the age of 13 to 21. And that my first major psychosis that lasted seven months was so traumatizing that it just seems to draw it out.....Sucks to be me but, my point is......Cannabis can make you go crazy...I have even smoked medical and I have to say that that stuff didn't throw me over the edge like swagg but still in the same boat of terrorizing anxiety and thought loops.

 

['medicine cabinet']

Wow the uk is really trying to demonize cannabis...i remember watching a video where someone did a clean up process on like an oz of soapbar hash, when it was done he had more adulterant than product...the adulterants were all black and nasty looking, def looked like there was plastic in there. How hard is it for a few ppl to run a small grow and pump out decent buds? I guess ppl just get greedy when they the poss money.

 

[theatarisfan]

Ah there's decent bud in the UK and plenty of people to gobble it all up n not moan about it too! The uk does seem to have a MASSIVE problem realising any medical uses for it tho. I would definitely agree with that. I could only dream of Dispensaries!
I do remember that period of shitty sprayed weed being EVERYWHERE for what seemed like forever though. Ground up glass n shit! Stupid. N they wonder why people stopped smoking hash. Because they started fucking with it like that!
Also I'm guessing that people buy some spice type shit and fuckin up on the synthetic cannabinoid and then go hospital and say it was cannibis because they bought it as a synthetic cannabinoid. I can't see that many people being admitted to regular a and e from cannibis? Surely they would be admitted to a mental health secure unit? That's what happened to me and other people I know in the uk who have had 'episodes' over here

 

[Tenchi]

Ah there's decent bud in the UK and plenty of people to gobble it all up n not moan about it too!

Yup, for a small island, we do burn through a lot of bud on a daily basis. 3 Tons a day at last estimate. The story though, it's like comparing apples to oranges. Hopefully though, we can continue the march of changing opinion, especially here in the UK. I have recently been appointed to the executive committee of CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform and we're taking the fight directly to the politicians, having recently met with Keith Vaz MP with a few members of our medical users panel. He agreed that the UK's current system is hypocritical, seeing as GW Pharma has the exclusive right to grow cannabis in the UK, yet genuine, suffering people can go hang. It's looking to be brought up in parliament to allow individuals with prescriptions from their doctor to obtain Bedrocan dried cannabis with a home office import licence from Holland or Belgium based pharmacies.

 

[theatarisfan]

Wow that's a MASSIVE move forward if this was to actually happen. The thing is I can see these things being brought in and used like the sativex spray. Yes 'technically' you can get it int he uk but not on the NHS and not for ANY symptoms other than those of ms. So virtually unobtainable. I mean, I have heard its aweful and doesn't actually work other than make u feel sick but I can see the government allowing it to a certain degree tos how they are 'moving forward' and then make it out of range of 90% of people who actually need it. Mind you as a drug user in the UK in general over the past 12 or so years can you blame me for being sceptical?

 

[Tenchi]

I don't blame you in the slightest. Jaded cynicism is something we all possess to some degree as a group. I felt exactly the same way until I started working with CLEAR and saw the progress that was being made. Some of our work will be featured in Dr Sanjay Gupta's WEED2 this month, I believe.

 

[theatarisfan]

Like I say it is great to know that something is actually happening over here. I have noticed a lot more uk drugs policy articles in Ditm recently tbf.

 

[Tenchi]

I do the daily news updates for their website, and I've noticed a large increase in the amount of stories I'm headlining and linking to as well, especially in the last 2 weeks. Something is going to give, and I think it's going to be sooner rather than later.