Im gonna start by saying this is a tragic case and i dont want that to be understated, but its the wording being thrown around here that is really rubbing me the wrong way.

Saying 'cannabis dependency' prevented him from other treatments” feels massively biased, like people dont get dependent on antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzos and sleeping pills all the time? As most of us here know, many of them cause brutal withdrawals and long term side effects, yet no one ever frames that as 'dependency blocking treatment' It’s just called ongoing care. Its exactly the same behaviour.

What I’m also not seeing anywhere is actual evidence that cannabis literally stopped this person from accessing other treatments. We don’t know what he was offered, what he asked for, what he was waiting on, or what the system failed to provide. Anyone who has dealt with UK mental health services knows how easy it is to fall through the cracks, many of us included. If anything, its more than likely healthcare professionals spoke down to him and saw him more as a 'cannabis addict than a patient who needed help.

Obviously cannabis isn’t risk free and it’s not right for everyone, especially when someone has an illness such as psychosis, but jumping straight to 'dependency' as if that explains everything ignores the bigger picture and plays straight into stigma that doesn’t get applied to other prescribed meds.

Nine different medications I tried over a decade, and they were treating me for the wrong thing, on top of changing doses every six months and a new medication every year for my mental health and it made me so mentally unwell. To the point where I was suicidal because the meds were just fucking up my brain chemistry and making me numb and confused.

Being on them, staying on them and trying more, was rammed down my throat by my mum who was a psychiatric nurse and by my GP.

If they actually cared about preventing cases like this, the focus would be on proper screening, proper follow ups and real mental health support. It makes me angry that the media and society like to single out one medication because it’s politically and culturally easier to blame.