Tuesday, July 5, 2011 -

    PCC Complaint. The Guardian, 14th June 2011

    —– Original Message —–
    From: Peter Reynolds
    To: complaints@pcc.org.uk
    Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 4:07 PM
    Subject: Complaint against the Guardian, issue dated 14th June 2011

    Dear Sirs,

    “Depression is not a ‘brain disorder’”, the Guardian, 14-06-11

    I wish to make a complaint concerning the above article which is still available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2011/jun/14/depression-brain-disease-david-nutt?

    I make the complaint on my own account but also in my capacity as the Leader of Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), a UK political party, of P.O.Box 674, Salfords, Redhill, RH1 9BN. For the purposes of correspondence, please use my personal address as below.

    1. This article breaches the Editors’ Code Of Practice clause 1.i) in that it publishes inaccurate, misleading and distorted information.

    2. In the fifth paragraph the article states: “Even in cases where mental illness has undoubtedly been caused by chemical means – such as cannabis psychosis…” This is inaccurate, misleading and distorted information. Professor Glyn Lewis, of the University of Bristol, internationally recognised as the pre-eminent authority on the subject, confirmed only a few weeks ago that there is no certainty of a causal link between cannabis use and psychosis.

    3. Although the article is presented as an opinion piece, that cannot absolve the newspaper from its responsibilities under clause 1.i). This statement is clearly asserted as fact – “…undoubtedly…” when in fact all the experts agree that there is no proven causal link between cannabis use and psychosis.

    I would be grateful if you would deal with this complaint at your earliest convenience. I shall be happy to provide any further information required or to give oral evidence in support.

    Yours faithfully,

    Peter Reynolds

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    • Mrdallas

      Good luck with these Peter. i’m fully supportive of you in attempting to get the press to retract false infornmation. I also feel that if everyone who used cannabis was simply open and honest about it, then the Home Office and the CPS/Procurator Fiscals office would be unable to deal with the numbers of people to prosecute. I realise that this “Turn Yourself In day” didn’t work in the past, but with modern comms could be much more successful now.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7CKXRYD5ZSM5KUHUN2YPUSUJQI Jebus

      I’m particularly surprised at the Grauniad here. Ben Goldacre, one of their journos has many excellent articles debunking the ’scientifically proven’ tactics employed by those wishing to add weight to their argument in favour of prohibition of Cannabis.
      I have, in fact, saved one such article he published regarding ‘Cannabis psychosis’.
      In it he explains how tabloids use meta analysis to fabricate the most headline grabbing statistics (such as the one run not so long ago about how ’1 joint can increase your chances of schizophrenia by 41%’.) He goes on to show that if one were to use the available data sets, the reality of the figures is equivalent to 800 people a year suffering mental illness out of a community of six million Cannabis users. He also highlights that those people may have pre-exisitng conditions and so the causality of those 800 cases is in some doubt.  
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/28/drugs.drugsandalcohol
      perhaps you could remind them of this?