"Dr John Watson" <drjohn@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:6762p3F2n6iusU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Well done, Claude, your lies have made the House of Lords.
>
> http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2008-04-21a.231.7&s
>
> --
> Dr John Watson
> Baker Street
According to Drugscope, it is 14 per week, not 500 per week.
In a population of 60,000,000 people, and 3,000,000
cannabis users, I would say 14 per week makes cannabis
pretty harmless.
Source for the 3 million number:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2923647.stm
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/newsandevents/currentnewspages/Telegraph-cannabis-stats-response.htm
DrugScope response to Daily Telegraph front-page cannabis story, Friday 11
January
12 January 2008
On Friday 11 January the Daily Telegraph published a front-page news
article under the headline: Abuse of cannabis puts 500 a week in hospital.
You can read the full story by following the link at the end of this
article.
The Daily Telegraph piece referred to National Drug Treatment Monitoring
System (NDTMS) figures cited by Minister of State for Public Health,
Dawn Primarolo, in a response to a Parliamentary Question about the
numbers of people treated for cannabis.
DrugScope sent a letter on Friday 11 January to the Daily Telegraph in
response to this story; as yet they have declined to publish it. Our
response is reproduced below.
Dear Sir,
The front-page headline on Friday’s Daily Telegraph (Abuse of cannabis
puts 500 a week in hospital, 11/01/08) misrepresents figures given by
Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State for Public Health, in her response
to a Parliamentary Question this week.
We have ascertained that the figures supplied by the Minister do not
relate to actual hospital admissions; the source of the figures, the
National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) does not
collect data on hospital admissions and this was evident in the
Minister’s response.
The figures instead relate to those who have come forward to
community-based drug treatment services seeking some form
of help, advice or treatment relating to their use of cannabis.
DrugScope understands that even if ‘treatment’ consists of no
more than an informal chat with a drug worker, this would still
have been recorded in the statistics quoted by the Minister.
Some of those clients may of course have gone on to receive
treatment in hospital for conditions relating to their use of cannabis.
However, figures provided to DrugScope by the Department of
Health reveal that rather than 500 hospital admissions a week,
the figure was nearer 14 per week (in 2006/07) for individuals
with a primary diagnosis of mental health problems due to the
use of cannabis. This is 14 admissions too many, but still way
below the figure quoted by your correspondent.
In addition, the number of hospital admissions in 2006/07 with
this diagnosis (750) was lower than in 2005/06 (946) - and it
should be noted that the same individual could have been
admitted to hospital more than once in any one year.
The public do need to be aware of the potential risks related
to cannabis; it is not a harmless drug. But public information
about the drug must be based on sound data and where that
data exists, the media has a responsibility to be scrupulous in
its presentation.
Yours,
Martin Barnes
Chief executive,
DrugScope SE1
For more information please contact Ruth Goldsmith in the
DrugScope Press Office on 020 7940 7517 (07736 895563
out of hours) or at press drugscope.org.uk
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