Bobby P Smyth clinical senior lecturer, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Mary Cannon professor, Department of Psychiatry, Andrew Molodynski honorary senior clinical lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, H Valerie Curran director, Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit and professor of psychopharmacology, Niamh Eastwood executive director, Release, Adam R Winstock founder and chief executive officer, Global Drug Survey, honorary clinical professor, Department of Epidemiology, and consultant addiction psychiatrist et al
Smyth Bobby P, Cannon Mary, Molodynski Andrew, Curran H Valerie, Eastwood Niamh, Winstock Adam R et al.
Would decriminalising personal use of cannabis lead to higher rates of mental illness?
BMJ 2020; 368 :l6975
Psychological harm to others
It is important to consider alongside the potential harms to cannabis users, the mental health and psychological harms illegal drug use can bring to others. Crime, family adversities, economic cost and decline in community social cohesion can all impact the mental well-being of others as well as the users. [1]
For example, over a third of police forces in the UK reference the supply of cannabis by county line groups. With this comes high levels of violence, including the prevalent use of weapons and firearms to intimidate and control members of the group and associated victims. [2]
[1] Nutt, D, et al. 2010. Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis http://www.thelancet.
com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext
[2] https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications/234-count...
Competing interests: No competing interests