The government's decision that cannabis should remain a Class C drug
came as it accepted it could trigger serious mental illness. Here, one
father tells the traumatic story of how cannabis turned his bright and
promising teenage son into a wreck.
My son James was always a popular teenager. He had masses of friends,
was good at sport, and was also intelligent and handsome. Like many
boys in their teens, he was constantly going out to meet friends,
arrange football or cricket games or see his long-term girlfriend.
He'd done well at school with 10 GCSEs and three
A-levels, and he went off to Southampton University to study history
and politics. He was following the fine example of his sister Joanne,
who had been to Nottingham University and was doing well in public
relations.
I remember thinking one sunny day seven years ago that
life was good, and couldn't get much better. I had a good job as a
journalist, a great wife, and two lovely children. I was proud of both
of my kids and thought they had a great future ahead of them.
But I hadn't reckoned on cannabis.
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It was as though someone had stolen my lovely James overnight - he was talking weirdly; his thoughts were all over the place
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I didn't know of the damage it would inflict on my son and my whole
family. I didn't know then that it would ruin his life and he would be
plunged into a deep and dark nightmare, which has still not ended.
My wife and I knew that James had smoked some cannabis
when he was younger, and was still dabbling in it. But we were not
aware of the dangers he faced from the drug.
In fact, when I was a student at university in the 1970s
I had tried it. Unlike Bill Clinton, I had inhaled. But I never smoked
regularly and hadn't touched the stuff for decades.
When we suddenly found out there was a problem, it was
unexpected and dramatic. My son had just finished his first year at
university, and it was the summer break. When we returned from a
weekend away, we found our son was a different person.
It was as though someone had stolen my lovely James
overnight. He was talking weirdly, his thoughts were all over the
place, he was having hallucinations, and was totally paranoid. He
thought people and vampires were after him. But it was going to get a
lot worse, and I'm still waiting for my son to fully return to me.
£5,000-a-year
We found out that James had started smoking cannabis
regularly from the age of 15. He was very good at hiding it and
controlling himself when he'd been smoking. He'd even given it up when
he sat his exams.
Cannabis, often grown indoors now, is said to be stronger
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But at university he went wild, spending around £5,000
in one year on cannabis, much of it on "skunk weed" - a particularly
potent variety of the drug, that's between 10 to 30 times stronger than
ordinary cannabis. It had literally blown his mind.
Some experts claim that for many younger people who have
"drug induced psychosis", like my son, this sort of mental illness
would have happened anyway. That is total rubbish. He was a perfectly
normal boy, until this happened.
Once we knew he was really ill we tried to get help for
him, but in our West Country town the doctors and psychiatrists were
hopeless. We paid for him to see a child psychiatrist, and after he put
James on some anti-psychotic drugs things began to calm down.
James took a year out of university, but it took about
six months to wean him off cannabis, as he was psychologically
dependent on it.
Just over a year after his breakdown, he went back to
Southampton. We were hoping this would all be forgotten; just a bad
memory. We were wrong.
James was clean of the drugs but he was still terribly
paranoid. He started to focus on food, and thought people were trying
to poison him, so he stopped eating properly.
Weight loss
By Christmas his weight had fallen dramatically, from 11
stone to just over seven stone. He'd given up sport, his girlfriend had
left him after five years, and many of his friends had given up on him.
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It
was the worst day of my life - he barricaded himself into his bedroom
and it took 10 officers in full riot gear to smash his door down and
drag him off to hospital
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Although he managed to pass his exams, and finish his second year at
college, by the summer things were not looking good. James went to stay
with his sister in America, but then stopped taking his medication and
started drinking.
When he got home it was clear things were going off the
rails. He was getting angry and violent, and we were worried he might
harm himself.
Eventually, just before the following Christmas, he was
so bad we had to section him under the Mental Health Act. It was the
worst day of my life, and the authorities made it even worse by
screwing up the arrangements.
He barricaded himself into his bedroom and it took 10
police officers dressed in full riot gear to smash his door down and
drag him off to hospital. They thought he was a danger, but he wouldn't
have hurt a mouse.
Succumb to treatment
It took another trip to hospital a year later, before
James finally realised he needed to take some sort of medication to
stay stable. That was over four years ago, which I'm told is a hopeful
sign.
Since then he has not only given up all drugs, but also cigarettes and even alcohol.
Things are slowly getting better, but sometimes the
progress is glacial. He still cannot hold down a full-time job and his
paranoia can be powerful and debilitating.
What appalled me about David Blunkett's decision two
years ago to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug is the signal it
sends to our young people. My own son told me: "It's okay Dad, it's
herbal and organic."
That may be so, but as our experience shows, cannabis is anything but harmless.
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