Mental health toll of cannabis soars after Scots went soft on the drug six years ago, data suggests 

Mental hospital admissions among cannabis users have soared 74 percent since the drug was effectively decriminalized in Scotland six years ago, figures show.

They soared from 1,191 in 2015/16 to 2,067 last year.

It comes after Scottish police changed guidance in January 2016 so that those found in possession of cannabis could be given a warning instead of being prosecuted.

The number of prosecutions was cut in half during the period.

Last year, a record 1,263 new patients in Scotland sought hospital treatment for psychiatric disorders attributed to cannabis, including schizophrenia.

The NHS figures will add pressure on the UK government to resist calls to decriminalize cannabis.

An earlier report from Public Health Scotland indicated that psychiatric admissions for cannabis users doubled between 2014 and 2020.

It said: ‘There has been a notable increase in the percentage of…stays attributed to [cannabis]…increasing from 9 per cent in 2014/15 to 18 per cent in 2019/20.’

Research has previously shown a strong link between cannabis and mental illness.

A US study found that admissions for cannabis-related psychosis are 2.5 times higher in areas where the drug has been legalized.

Harvard Medical School studied 246 new psychosis patients between the ages of 16 and 35 and found that 78 percent had used cannabis.

Professor Jonathan Chick, from Castle Craig Hospital, a private rehabilitation center in Peeblesshire, said: ‘The eye has gone off the ball with the cannabis.

Last year, a record 1,263 new patients in Scotland sought hospital treatment for psychiatric disorders attributed to cannabis, including schizophrenia, which has been linked to cannabis use.

“We have to worry about the number of young people who develop psychosis and schizophrenia because of this.

“We are dealing with both dependency and psychosis. Often when there has been a second or third psychotic attack, there has been hospital or police intervention due to incidents of self-harm or harm to others.

These patients have frightening thoughts. It’s a paranoid psychosis where they can’t even go outside without misreading completely innocuous signals as malevolent. It’s a horrible experience.

He added: ‘In some cases, people have used cannabis for 20 years and got by up to that point, but generally psychosis will occur within the first three or four years.

“Sometimes the damage is permanent, in which case treating schizophrenia involves living and working in safer environments and with medication.”