POTENT DRUG CROP GIVES HOSPITAL HEADACHE

A particularly potent crop of cannabis has been putting pressure on Hawke's Bay Hospital's psychiatric unit, with unexpected numbers of young men admitted after smoking the drug.

Hawke's Bay District Health Board chief executive Chris Clarke told a meeting yesterday that the sudden influx of patients was almost entirely due to cannabis use.

"Apparently this year's Hawke's Bay crop is particularly potent," he said.

The 22-bed mental health unit has a history of overcrowding, with patients in the past often required to sleep on mattresses on the floor.  With improved staffing and clinical practice during the past nine months, the average number of patients had dropped to 16.

However, the cannabis use had seen bed occupancy shoot from 14 to 24.

Chairman Kevin Atkinson said he was disturbed by the crop's effect.  Even under normal circumstances 80 per cent of patients in the unit had used recreational drugs of some kind.

Environmental Science and Research forensic programme manager Keith Bedford said it was not known if the problem was nationwide, as police no longer sent cannabis samples for testing.

However, there was evidence of hydroponically-grown crops reaching THC ( the active ingredient in cannabis ) levels of up to 20 per cent.  The average level was 10 per cent.

Detective Sergeant Tony Dewhirst, of Napier CIB, said he had not heard of any specific crop causing problems and wondered if P use could account for the influx of patients.

Hawke's Bay clinical psychologist Logan Elliot said cannabis on its own would not cause psychosis - but it could bring out psychotic tendencies in people who were already borderline.

"They may act strangely, hear voices, feel they are being controlled by someone else or by the radio, and have severe mood fluctuations.  It's really quite awful," he said.