 | NORML News: Cannabis-Suicide link a myth |
 Association is not the same as causation
NORML News Autumn 2003
It seems like every month we have another outrageous accusation about cannabis to contend with. In March the issue was cannabis supposedly causing suicide. Yet again.
The Dominion Post, well known for publishing anti-cannabis stories, lead with a story about the Wellington coroner Garry Evans advising against cannabis decriminalisation because of a link he said existed between cannabis and suicide. Other media were quick to repeat the claim, and its probably no coincidence it happened just as the health select committee was quietly restarting the cannabis inquiry.
But as David Currie of the Drug Policy and Education Council (DPEC) pointed out, the “coroner mentioned only two cases with this connection, one happened over a year ago and the other almost three years ago. This is not good statistics ...”
And it is not even clear that cannabis was a factor in the latest case since the deceased had only smoked “the equivalent of one cannabis cigarette 2 1/2 to 24 hours before his death.”
It was therefore unlikely that he was stoned at the time, and anyway, there will be instances where people who committed suicide smoked tobacco cigarettes or drank coffee beforehand, but no one suggests that tobacco or coffee causes suicide.
The claim came as overseas research showed women with breast implants were three times more likely to commit suicide than those without. The rational explanation is that women who choose plastic surgery tend to be less happy about themselves anyway, rather than the implants in some way causing them all to feel suicidal. The same is true for cannabis and other drugs.
The 1998 parliamentary inquiry into the mental health effects of cannabis concluded, like all previous inquiries before them, that the involvement of cannabis in some suicides was by association rather than causation: “Evidence suggests that cannabis use is not a causal factor in suicide.”
The Canterbury Youth Suicide Project told the 1998 inquiry that when factors such as socioeconomic status, abuse, behavioural problems, remote parents and mental health problems were taken into account, there was an insignificant association between cannabis and suicide.
“The real cause of the exceptionally high youth suicide rate in New Zealand is the result of adverse economic conditions after the 1984 reforms on vulnerable people combined with inadequate treatment of mental illness in the community following closure of psychiatric hospitals after 1993,” says DPEC’s David Currie. The Netherlands, where cannabis is openly sold and tolerated, has a suicide rate one fifth that in New Zealand. Their rate of using cannabis is about 1/3 that of ours.
Figures provided by the Ministry of Health show that in 1998 there were 184 serious suicide attempts by drunk people, but only 6 by people under the influence of cannabis. Of all deaths between 1990-96, only 37 had cannabis found in their system, compared to 12,500 found with alcohol.
Coroners, mental health workers and police officers tend to see only the worst cases, rather than the ordinary people who do not require any help, so it is understandable that they may form a biased view against cannabis.
The truth is that most cannabis users do not experience problems other than the detrimental effects of the current law. The relatively small number who do report problems would be better helped by offering them treatment instead of a jail cell.
The biggest barrier to seeking help is the law. Prohibitionists such as Coroner Evans should stop to consider whether advocating an environment of persecution and paranoia is the best response to their concerns about cannabis.
|
|
|
|
| |
| Login |
|
You can register for some special extra features. | |
| Article Rating |
Average Score: 3.2
Votes: 5
| |
|
