Dr. Winston De la Haye is consultant psychiatrist and head of the Detoxification Unit, University Hospital of the West Indies. - PHOTOS BY CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
CERTAINLY THERE is no controversy over whether or not marijuana leads to a psychosis. That's clear as I mop up the other end of the problem at the Detox Unit.
Just to share some data with you, we have ... the only adolescent drug abuse clinic in this country which I started in January last year. When we analysed the data for last year, 100 per cent were using marijuana, two-thirds (were) using alcohol and one client (was) using cocaine. This is in the age range of 10 to 18.
When you move across to the adults, age range, 20-55, what we find is poly-substance abuse, (with) 93 per cent using crack cocaine, 92 per cent using alcohol (and) 90 per cent using cannabis. Clearly, if you look at the age ranges of both cohorts, those between 10 and 18 come in primarily for marijuana use. Those three years later between 21 and 50-odd come in for crack cocaine use. And so clearly there are factors associated with environmental issues primarily resulting in adolescents within a three-year period transitioning from primarily marijuana use to crack cocaine use, which is the big problem.
EXPOSURE TO GANJA INCREASES RISK OF CRACK COCAINE EXPOSURE
They have worked this out in the United States and they state clearly where by virtue of marijuana use, one is potentially five times more likely to be exposed to crack cocaine. Having been exposed to the potential to use crack cocaine as a result of your marijuana use, the risk is 15 times increased.
I certainly support the fact that it is highly unlikely in our country with the high prevalence of marijuana use that we are going to be able to reduce the number of people using marijuana (and) I do think it is inappropriate to be locking up people for a spliff.
However, here is the difficulty. In this country, 12 per cent of the population, that amounts to 375,000 people, is affected with substance abuse to include alcohol, cannabis and crack cocaine of which, and we have worked this out at the National Council of Drug Abuse, 190,000 need treatment. How many are we treating today?
Well, we are offering treatment given the scarce resources to 20 per cent of this population. Clearly then, hand in hand with decriminalisation which I support, we clearly need to be beefing up our services in order to offer treatment to individuals who already are affected and we are not able to treat because of the small number of beds, I have only eight beds the only inpatient drug treatment unit in the country.
