By Constantinos Psillides
TREATMENT requests for cannabis use have tripled in Cyprus in the last six years – with a potent strain of the drug that is easily available here posing a serious mental health risk to a younger generation of Cypriots.
Skunk, as it is known, bears little resemblance to the relatively harmless narcotic that their parents might have experimented with.
An alarming new study by Kings College in London, and published in The Lancet, raised the alert this week, revealing that regular skunk users are effectively playing Russian roulette with their mental health. Daily users are five times more likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder than non-users.
Skunk can make them more susceptible to or even induce depression, bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. Many users suffer from paranoia. And the damage can be irreversible.
In an investigation into the increased use and dangers of skunk, the Sunday Mail has spoken to health officials, drug enforcement officers, psychiatrists, parents and users themselves.
A psychiatrist in Limassol told us it is now vital that parents educate themselves about the drug and open lines of communication to their children.
“One of my patients, a middle-aged successful businessman who was being treated for anxiety, accidentally came across in my office a young girl I was treating for abusing skunk. She was almost completely lost in her world, reacting to things that were in her head when he saw her,” the psychiatrist said. “He was so scared that the very next day he brought his two kids around and asked me to talk to them on the dangers of drugs.”
The report from scientists from the Department of Psychosis Studies of the Kings College in London and led by Dr Marta Di Forti showed a striking difference between the effects of skunk and the weaker, older form of cannabis, hash resin.
Hash seemed not to add to a person’s risk of psychosis – even if smoked daily.
Skunk is shorthand for around 100 strains of cannabis that contain a high proportion of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the drug’s primary psychoactive compound. But the levels of another compound, cannabidiol – which may have anti-psychotic effects – are the reverse, high in hash and virtually zero in skunk.
The researchers speculate this could be due to the differing chemical make-up of the two forms: “The presence of cannabidiol [in hash] might explain our results, which showed that hash users do not have any increase in risk of psychotic disorders compared with non-users.”
While experienced cannabis users can tell when they are presented with skunk rather than hash, the same can not be said for younger, first time users.
According to the Cyprus Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, first time users – as young as 14 – nowadays run a much higher risk of being exposed to the high-potency skunk that is now more widely available.
The Drug Squad (YKAN) is fully aware of the high-potency cannabis now available and the challenges that poses.
“The cannabis that we seize today has very little to do with the cannabis used before. Our lab analysis on the cannabis confiscated indeed shows a much larger concentration of THC than before,” said YKAN spokesman Stelios Sergides.
“This is a far more potent drug and perhaps parents don’t realise that this is not the same drug they used when they were younger.”
While requests for opioids treatment have been declining since 2004, those for cannabis use have skyrocketed. According to the latest figures from the Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, requests for treatment for cannabis use almost tripled from 210 in 2009 to 597 in 2012.
It is important to note that these figures include those who either voluntarily checked in for treatment or were forced to do so by police to avoid incarceration. Since 2010, instead of locking up younger drug users (14 to 24), and especially those caught using cannabis, police have ordered them to complete a rehabilitation programme. Upon completion of the programme, the offender is released without any ramifications from the court.
Officially, cannabis use in Cyprus remains low compared to the rest of Europe, but it has risen significantly in recent years. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 9.9 per cent of Cypriots over 15 say they have tried cannabis compared to the European average of 23.2 per cent. That is a 3.3 per cent rise from the 6.6 per cent reported in 2006.
Another sign is the huge increase in the quantities of cannabis seized by police which jumped over 100 percent in a single year. Some 202 kilos of cannabis were confiscated in 2014 compared to 99 kilos in 2013.
“We are concerned by this sharp increase and because of that and the apparent increase in drug use, we will commission a study on drug use in Cyprus for 2015,” said YKAN’s Sergides
Tonia Bayada, executive secretary of the Cyprus Anti-Drug Council (CAC) told the Sunday Mail that the far more potent varieties of cannabis now available is taken into consideration when drafting the national strategy on drugs.
She said that the CAC informs all authorities tasked with informing the public – such as the education ministry and police – that skunk-like cannabis is becoming increasingly potent.
But why do people turn to skunk? According to one 34-year-old male, who is a frequent and long-time user, “the taste, smell and effects of skunk are far superior to that of the regular stuff.”
Asked if he can tell between skunk and regular cannabis, the user said that any experienced user can, mainly because skunk -as the name suggests – has a far stronger smell.
The Limassol psychiatrist, who has treated many substance abuse cases, said that for a long-time user, transitioning to more powerful forms of cannabis is a natural progression.
“Frequent, long-time users build tolerance to the drug. Seeking new, more powerful varieties is only to be expected,” he said.
The psychiatrist, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that the findings of the Kings College study did not surprise him at all.
“They describe things that I come across all the time. Indeed, using high potency skunk can have an effect on your brain and I’m sad to say that some times the damage is irreversible.”
While the psychiatrist said that frequent use of more potent strains of skunk increases the chances of a psychotic episode, he warned that even the “one time thing” can be harmful.
“This is what unfortunately most people don’t understand. Of course chronic and frequent use greatly increases the risk but even smoking high potency skunk once can be harmful.”
The psychiatrist urged parents to educate themselves on the drugs available and open lines of communication with their children.
“Children need to feel that they can confide in their parents about stuff like this. They need to know that they can talk to them and not be afraid. The vast majority of first time users fall victims to peer pressure. It is important to know what they are getting into and even if they do, to be able to get their parents’ advice,” he said.
A generational ignorance
A 55-year-old mother from Limassol describes how she failed to see the signs of her son’s skunk habit
I come from a generation that smoked dope. It never particularly appealed to me, but I took it periodically at university and afterwards. It’s what you did.
When I had children I never viewed cannabis as a substance that I had to fear as they grew into teenagers. I was far more concerned about cigarettes and alcohol and it was there I focused my messages.
So when my son, now 23, started becoming moody, withdrawn, unreasonably angry, unwilling to go to school from the age of 17, I assumed it was him being just a teenager.
As the months wore on and important exams loomed, he did less and less work. The arguments grew along with his anger. By then he had admitted he had tried dope, and yet because I still viewed it as a relatively harmless, occasional drug, I totally failed to make the connection between the drug and the behaviour. I put his attitude down to computer games, staying out too late and the classic male teenaged laziness.
He did better in his exams than he deserved and got into a very good Scottish university. At first things seemed to go well, but in reality he had gone from one set of dope-smoking friends in Cyprus to a similar group in England. By the middle of his second term it was hard to contact him. When I did, he admitted he hadn’t been attending lectures, that his sleeping patterns were all over the place and that he was smoking a lot of cannabis.
More worryingly he insisted on talking quietly, convinced that people were listening to what he was saying. He spoke of friends in an increasingly paranoid way. He felt he had little control over his daily life and no hope for the future. As the weeks wore on he became increasingly isolated, going for days and barely leaving his room because of the way he thought people were looking at him. He was utterly miserable. I was distraught.
He barely scraped through his first year and came back to Cyprus morose, deflated, depressed and with weird tales of people hiding his things that didn’t make much sense.
It was the signs of paranoia that scared me. I couldn’t put that down to him just finding it difficult to adjust to a new life abroad. By then, I had done my reading. Skunk – the malign and dangerous form of cannabis my son had access to – bore little resemblance to the stuff I smoked years ago. I had no doubt his state of mind was largely down to the cumulative effects of the high-potency cannabis he had smoked. Neither, of course, did the doctor we took him to.
The doctor convinced my son he had to stop. Immediately and completely. It meant changing his friendships and lifestyle. He didn’t find it easy. He still doesn’t, yet he went back to university, has apparently turned his life around, and graduated last year with a good degree.
‘I had a panic attack’
A very occasional cannabis smoker recalls her first experience of skunk
Most people probably have memorable weddings. Mine – the civil wedding at least – in the eighties was followed by a reception with five other people piled into my now-ex husband’s Volkswagen Beetle somewhere in Nicosia as it filled with marijuana smoke. A little late to become a hippy, but in those days there wasn’t much else for young people to do in Cyprus. Nicosia had around three pubs, one cinema, one nightclub, one Wimpy’s and one TV channel.
I had never smoked before coming to Cyprus let alone smoked marijuana, so I was dragged a little unwillingly into a group of around four other mixed-nationality married couples in their twenties whose life revolved around it. My ex always had a couple of plants on hand that he grew in the shed behind his mother’s house. At the time I wasn’t working so I tried it out of boredom. As a drug, it had no effect at all. Unfortunately the tobacco it was mixed with did and I became a smoker instead, had no interest in pot after that and didn’t touch it for around 20 years.
In the last ten years or so I have tried it again a couple of times to help with some back pain and found what was now on offer much stronger than what my ex grew. I did feel the effects though all it did was put me right to sleep. I had not used any for years but over Christmas my 27-year-old son, who lives abroad, left behind enough for one cigarette.
One Saturday late in January, feeling tired and stressed with an achy back, I decided I might as well use it up. It was very, very strong. I headed off to sleep but within minutes felt the onset of a panic attack caused by fearful thoughts. Luckily, I defeated them by distracting my mind. I won’t be trying it again, back pain or not.
