HEALTH WARDS GO TO POT

Victoria's Mental Health Clinics Have Become Little More Than "Cannabis
Wards", Experts Have Said.

Hundreds of patients are being turned away as psychiatric units are swamped
by hordes of young people in the throes of cannabis-induced psychosis.

Drug-addled mental patients as young as 13 often suffer delusions and
paranoia, were sometimes ultra-violent and required more attention than
less chronic patients, mental health workers said.

As a result people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders are not
being treated at clinics.

The cannabis wards revelation comes as evidence mounts that cannabis, far
from being a soft drug, is a real factor in many cases of mental illness.

Melbourne drug and health workers told the Herald Sun of:

A MENTAL ward that did not know how to treat a psychotic man who had no
drug history because all their procedures were for drug-related patients.

DRUG-INDUCED patients sneaking drugs into wards and trying to take them
while there.

A GIRL who had been using drugs since she was 13 who managed to quit heroin
but could not beat her cannabis addiction.

A TEENAGER who went psychotic smoking bongs in front of television
destroyed the walls of his room with his hands and body when "the
television told him to".

Paul Denborough, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with the Alfred
hospital, said worried and jumbled thoughts made the patients delusional.

He said more than half his chronic patients would have used drugs.

He said their most common delusions were paranoia that the government was
stealing their ideas, beliefs they had superpowers or religious fantasies.

Experts estimate most of the state's 958 public psychiatric beds are
devoted to patients with drug-induced psychosis.

Barbara Hocking, executive director of mental illness charity SANE
Australia, said: "What's happening is mental health care has been inundated
and crisis patients are the only ones still actually getting care."

Veteran youth worker Les Twentyman said marijuana had taken such a toll
that when people offered paying jobs to his young charges, he had to turn
them down.

"I've got to say they can't work because they're so drug-dependent and
psychotic," he said.

"This pot is not the same stuff that was around in the '60s. It's eight
times stronger and it sends them mad."

Mental health experts say Victoria's cannabis wards are proof of the strong
links between marijuana and mental illness.

They have demanded health authorities fix the current "scandalous" system
of separate treatment centres for drug users and the mentally ill.

Ms Hocking said separate drug and mental illness services had to be merged
to cope with the cannabis-induced psychosis epidemic.

THOSE seeking help should call the SANE helpline on 1800 688 382 or email
helpline@sane.org