---<br /> <br /> MANY psychiatric units have become little more than 'cannabis wards'<br /> because of the huge numbers turned psychotic by the drug, a mental health<br /> expert claimed yesterday.<br /> <br /> Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the charity Sane, said the situation<br /> had become so serious that the entire mental health system was being<br /> 'distorted'.<br /> <br /> Patients with non drug-related mental illnesses were being turned away<br /> from some wards because the threat of violence from psychotic cannabis<br /> users had made them unsafe, she added.<br /> <br /> 'Doctors are saying to non cannabis-users, such as young girls with<br /> anorexia and middle-aged women, "I can't admit you if you are not taking<br /> cannabis, because it's not safe",' Miss Wallace said.<br /> <br /> 'It means people who may be even more seriously ill and even more of a<br /> suicide risk are being neglected.<br /> <br /> Cannabis has changed the whole way in which the mental health system<br /> operates. The popular view of cannabis is that it is a harmless drug. It<br /> is not.' Miss Wallace's comments came a day after research in Sweden<br /> suggested cannabis can permanently damage the development of teenagers'<br /> brains, with users in the age group up to ten times more likely to suffer<br /> long-term mental illness.<br /> <br /> One of the most outspoken critics of the Government's decision to<br /> downgrade cannabis from a class B to a class C drug in January last year,<br /> Miss Wallace has spent 18 years trying to draw attention to the link<br /> between the drug and mental illness.<br /> <br /> 'In all the years I have campaigned in the mental health field, I think I<br /> have only come across two examples of young people developing psychosis in<br /> which cannabis was not a factor,' she said.<br /> <br /> 'In London, 80 per cent of people assessed with a first episode of<br /> psychosis are on cannabis. The explosion in cannabis-induced psychosis is<br /> already happening.'<br />Aurora Indica |  B52 |  Big Bud |  California Orange Bud |  Citral |  Four Way |  Haze |  Hindu Kush |  Indoor Mix |  Jock Horror |  K2 |  Maroc x Afghan |  Northern Light x Big Bud |  Northern Light x Haze |  Northern Light x Shiva |  Shiva |  Skunk #1 |  Skunk Red Hair |  Skunk Special |  Papaya |  White Rhino |  Haze 19 x Skunk |  Afghan |  Master Kush |  Northern Light |  Super Skunk |  Top 44 |  Durban Poison |  Early Bud |  Early Girl |  Early Misty |  Early Special |  Hawaii x Maui Waui |  Hawaii x Skunk #1 |  Hollands Hope |  KC 33 x Master Kush |  Mixed Sativa |  New Purple Power |  Swazi |  Swiss Miss |  Northern Bright |  Snow White (fem.) |  Supergirl |  Venus |  Wonder Woman |  Kaya |  PPP (fem.) |  Medusa |  Blue Mystic |  Chrystal |  Ice |  Misty |  PPP |  White Widow |  Nirvana Special |  White Rhino |  Snow White |  AK-48 |  Bubblelicious |  Silver Pearl |  Haze |  Jock Horror |  Northern Light x Haze |  White Rhino |  Haze 19 x Skunk |