Hospital admissions relating to cannabis have risen sharply, figures have revealed, as a leading medical journal branded the drug a “huge health risk “.
There were 27,501 admissions in England in 2016/2017, a 15 per cent increase compared to 23,866 in 2014/2015.
The figures were requested by Labour MP Jeff Smith, who responded by backing the legalisation of cannabis.
‘Huge health risk’
Last month, The Lancet criticised cannabis use in an editorial.
The respected medical journal said: “Globally, cannabis is still the top illicit drug used and, with the concurrent use of tobacco, remains a huge health risk.”
This is a marked departure from the journal’s position in 1995, when it claimed: “The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health.”
Agenda
It now says that cannabis users need to be made “aware of risks to their health and wellbeing”.
Last month, an NHS psychiatrist said that activists are using medicine as an excuse to push the social agenda of legalising cannabis.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Dr Max Pemberton said the current push to legalise medical cannabis is simply a “back-door attempt to make recreational use legal”.