From: [civl 097] at [csc.canterbury.ac.nz]
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs
Subject: Cannabis - suicide link claimed
Date: 26 Aug 94 17:07:27 +1200

From THE PRESS, Christchurch, 26 August  1994 

		Doctor links suicide bids to marijuana
		--------------------------------------
							by Kathryn McNeil

	Decriminalising marijuana would lead to higher suicide rates among
teenagers and young adults, says an American doctor. 
	Richard Schwartz is a paediatrician at the Georgetown University School
of Medicine, Washington DC, and specialises in treating adolescent drug
abusers. 
	His surveys of adolescents in drug treatment programmes in the United
States show a strong link between marijuana use and suicide attempts. 
	Teenage drug users were three times as likely to attempt suicide as
those who did not use drugs, he said. 
	In one survey of young white middle-class adults, the rate of suicide
attempts for drug users was 30 per cent, compared with 9 per cent for non-
users. 
	Although the teenagers were depressed at the time of their suicide
attempts, Dr Schwartz said only 15 per cent could be diagnosed as clinically
depressed. 
	Many adolescents turned to drugs because their lives were in disarray,
he said. Those with a family history of alcoholism or drug abuse were at much
higher risk. 
	Young women who had been sexually abused were 20 per cent more likely
to attempt suicide, and young men with learning difficulties 25 per cent more
likely. 
	It was now believed there was a clear link between drug use and adult
suicide, especially among those aged 18 to 25. 
	If marijuana were decriminalised, it would be impossible to prevent
adolescents and children obtaining the drug at a younger age. Those espousing
decriminalisation were naive, he said. 
	"Prohibition may not work, but it is better than any other system I've
seen." 

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-- 

Brandon Hutchison,University of Canterbury,Christchurch
                  New Zealand