Stop treating cannabis like a 'soft' drug - it wrecks the brains of our young

Thank God our kids never got into cannabis. Well, I'm sure they must have experimented with the odd toke or two in their teens, but if they did, it never developed into any kind of habit. I say thank God because far from being a relatively harmless 'soft' drug, evidence has steadily emerged that cannabis has the potential to completely wreck young, developing brains. Apart from anything else, the cannabis that's readily available these days is a zillion times stronger than the stuff that was passed around student campuses in the 1960s and 1970s.

So-called 'skunk' is literally mind-blowing. This week, the UK's top psychiatrist warned that it isn't safe for teenagers' brains and can dramatically increase the risk of psychosis in adulthood. Dr Lade Smith is president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and she says there is 'no doubt at all' that cannabis is a direct cause of psychosis. But there's a mountain to be climbed here, isn't there?

Millions of parents have been persuaded by decades of procannabis propaganda that the drug is not much more than a pleasant, mood-enhancing, non-addictive relaxant.

So they remain complacent about the risks the drug actually poses to their growing kids. 'When you start smoking it at 14 to 15 you are literally growing your brain in a cannabis soup,' Dr Smith says, underlining that the direct link between the drug and psychosis is a proven fact.

What is psychosis? It's a truly awful mental illness where the sufferer loses touch with reality, frequently suffers hallucinations and falls into the grip of delusions.

It's a truly dreadful cocktail which can lead to serious self-harm, or pose lethal danger to others. Many, many horrific murders and attacks in recent years have been committed by young people who are or were habitual cannabis users.

One of the biggest myths about cannabis is that it's non-addictive. It is. Very. Just ask the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Addiction Faculty. We all need to wake up to its dangers.