Joe King

Over the last 25 years Joe has worked as a drug and alcohol clinician in various treatment services, gaining experience in the issue of cannabis use within the context of mental health and young people. It could be speculated that prohibition has only served to compound mental health related issues by creating an unregulated black market economy where there are no quality control measures in the production and sale of cannabis. If you wanted the worst-case scenario you would implement prohibition. The drug, the use of the drug, the situations and people in the consumption of the drug are all operating outside the law, effectively alienating at risk youth beyond the scope of help and support. You can directly correlate how during alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and 30s similar issues arose. Furthermore our legal and mental health systems do not encourage individuals experiencing drug related problems to seek help due to the social stigma associated with the issue of mental health. Early interventions have much better outcomes.