There is no evidence that 10% of cannabis users ‘go mad’

Dr Chris Luke’s contribution to your article ‘Should Cannabis be legalised?’ (Irish Examiner, March 1) raises serious concerns for me.

Many of his claims are unsupported by evidence.

Worse, some of those claims contradict published, peer-reviewed evidence by scientists and doctors.

1. There is no evidence of cannabis use being associated with violence.

2. There is no evidence of a significant problem of combined use of alcohol, benzodiazepines and cannabis

3. There is no evidence that 10% of cannabis users ‘go mad’. This is disgraceful.

4. Most shocking of all is the assertion that: “The medical benefits of cannabis are a lot of spoofery.”

Again, a claim that demonstrates ignorance of the science. There is a vast quantity of peer-reviewed, published evidence and double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials that demonstrate considerable therapeutic benefits from cannabis for a range of conditions.

See: ‘Medicinal Cannabis: The Evidence’, https://peterreynolds.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/medicinal-cannabis-the-evidence-v1.pdf

5. The paper suggesting an 8% drop in IQ points among the Dunedin cohort was contradicted a month later in the same journal in which it was published: http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/15/new-research-questions-marijuanas-impact-in-lowering-iq/

Peter Reynolds

President and Elected Leader

CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform