A 30-month study of 229 cannabis users in Australia, carried out by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), has found that only 10 per cent of cannabis addicts were able to stop using cannabis after a series of counselling sessions.

The study found that a major problem for users trying to quit is a community attitude that cannabis is not a drug of addiction.

According to project head Dr. Jan Copeland, cited by the Australian Daily Telegraph, cannabis dependence is too often trivialised as being equivalent to that of television or chocolate addiction. “It´s time people started taking it seriously.

The attitude that cannabis is not a drug of addiction has meant that the state of knowledge about treatment is very poor”, Copeland was quoted as saying by the paper.

Co-investigator Dr. Wendy Swift was quoted as saying that most users in the study were “severely dependent” on cannabis and were unable to control their use. Dr. Swift said “many clients expressed depression, they also attributed problems with concentration and memory, isolating themselves from others and lack of motivation to their cannabis use.”

According to the study, dependent cannabis users spent an average of 27 per cent of their income on cannabis with 21 per cent growing enough themselves to support their habit. They had begun smoking cannabis at the age of 15 and on average had used it for 14 years.

Source: HNN document Oct. l999