People should be allowed to use cannabis to help treat their medical conditions, Nick Clegg said today.

The Deputy Prime Minister said cannabis should be available in a 'straightforward legal way' to help people alleviate their symptoms.

Mr Clegg's remarks came after new academic research revealed users of super-strength cannabis, known as 'skunk, are three times more likely to suffer psychotic mental illness than people who don't take the drug.

Scroll down for video

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said cannabis should be available in a 'straightforward legal way' to help people alleviate medical symptoms

Overall, a quarter of new cases of psychosis can be blamed on the super-strength strain of cannabis, according to research published in the Lancet medical journal.

Mr Clegg this morning insisted he did not want to legalise 'skunk' and other dangerous drugs and insisted it was 'bone-headed' to lump all substances together.

Speaking on his weekly call-in on LBC, the Lib Dem leader said it 'strongly' agreed that cannabis for medicinal use should be given the go-ahead.

The Home Office has consistently rejected calls for cannabis to be legalised for medical use – pointing to 'clear evidence cannabis can damage people's mental and physical health'.

Opponents of allowing cannabis for medical purposes insist it could be used as a back door to decriminalising the drug more widely.

Campaigners say cannabis can be used to help conditions such as MS and glaucoma, as well as the side-effects of treatment for cancer, Aids and Crohn's disease.

People should be allowed to use cannabis to help treat their medical conditions, Nick Clegg said today

SUPER-STRENGTH CANNABIS LINKED TO PSYCHOTIC ILLNESS Super-strength cannabis is associated with one in four new cases of psychotic illness, new research has revealed. Scientists at King's College London found the potent form of the Class B drug - known as 'skunk' - led to a three-times higher risk of psychosis in casual users, rising to a five-fold risk in those who used it every day. The findings of the six-year study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, suggest strong forms of cannabis can lead to serious mental illness, the researchers said, as they called for greater public awareness. But it comes as a US neuroscientist suggested long-term recreational cannabis use has no significant association with long-term mental decline. Sir Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience IoPPN at King's and senior researcher on the study, said: ' It is now well known that use of cannabis increases the risk of psychosis. However, sceptics still claim that this is not an important cause of schizophrenia-like psychosis. 'This paper suggests that we could prevent almost one quarter of cases of psychosis if no-one smoked high potency cannabis. This could save young patients a lot of suffering and the NHS a lot of money.' While skunk was associated with psychotic episodes, the milder form of cannabis known as hash had no such link, the scientists said. Dr Marta Di Forti, lead author on the research, said: 'The results show that psychosis risk in cannabis users depends on both the frequency of use and cannabis potency. The use of hash was not associated with increased risk of psychosis. 'As with smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol you need a clear public message. 'When a GP or psychiatrist asks if a patient uses cannabis it's not helpful; it's like asking whether someone drinks. As with alcohol, the relevant questions are how often and what type of cannabis. This gives more information about whether the user is at risk of mental health problems; awareness needs to increase for this to happen.' Advertisement

It came after a caller to his weekly phone-in on LBC said cannabis helped alleviate his MS.

The caller said cannabis was a 'medicine' which helped thousands of people.

He asked Mr Clegg: 'Why are you not doing more about it? I would like to get your word – I would like to get an agreement from you – live on LBC that you are going to do more to make this a big issue because this really does affect people's lives. We need access to legal medical cannabis.'

Mr Clegg replied: 'Basically agree with you. I strongly agree with you that where there is a proven medicinal use for cannabis for instance we should make that easier for those to have access to it in a straightforward legal way in order to alleviate the symptoms that you clearly have that you know as a user are alleviated by the use of cannabis.'

He said Skunk was very different, because it had a link to psychosis.

Mr Clegg: 'If you are anti the harm drugs do you should be pro-reform.'

'This slightly bone-headed approach which says you treat all drugs in exactly the same way, you treat everyone who's ever had access to drugs in exactly the same way – you chuck them in jail.

'We chuck 500 people a year for using cannabis for personal use into jail. Yet, we allow the Mr Biggs who paddle the really nasty drugs, we let them walk scot free?

'Let's take a more intelligent approach – where there is a clear medicinal use, make sure you have access to that in a regulated way.

'Come down much, much more heavily on the people who paddle the really harmful drugs – bring drugs out from the shadows.'

Mr Clegg's remarks come just days after bombshell academic research revealed the true damage caused by cannabis abuse.

According to research carried out by King's College London the potent form of the drug – known as 'skunk' – is so powerful that users are three times more likely to have a psychotic episode than those who have never tried it.

Skunk is thought to account for around for 80 per cent of the UK drug market and is believed to be more addictive than normal herbal cannabis or its solid form, hash.

According to Crime Survey figures for England and Wales, more than a million youngsters aged 16 to 24 smoke cannabis.

Regular users are most at risk of a psychotic episode, prompting experts to warn that youngsters need to be aware of the dangers of skunk, which has been cultivated to be four times as strong as cannabis smoked by previous generations.

The researchers, led by a team at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, conclude there is an 'urgent need… to inform young people about the risks of high-potency cannabis', despite a worldwide trend towards relaxing drug laws.

They will reveal there is a key difference between potent skunk strains and ordinary 'hash'. Those who used these 'weaker' forms did not seem to suffer the same increase in risks.

Home Secretary Theresa May has rejected calls for cannabis to be legally available for medicinal use

Psychosis is defined as a form of mental illness where people experience delusions, hallucinations, or both at the same time.

Associated with conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, some victims are so badly affected that they end up committing suicide or seriously harming others because they believe they are being ordered to do so by voices in their heads.

The findings will add substance to a 2012 report by the Schizophrenia Commission, which recommended the need for 'warnings about the risks of cannabis' to mental health.

Last year Mr Clegg pledged to abolish prison terms for users caught with any drugs, including class A substances such as cocaine and heroin.

It was 'utterly senseless' to lock up the 1,000 people a year convicted of possession, he said.

The law currently allows drugs firms to develop medicines based on cannabis under a licence granted by the Home Office. One such medicine, Sativex, is already authorised for use in the UK for the treatment of MS.

However, a Home Office spokesman said: 'This Government has no plans to legalise cannabis or to soften our approach to its use as a medicine.

'There is clear scientific and medical evidence that cannabis is a harmful drug which can damage people's mental and physical health. Our cross-government strategy remains clear.

'We must prevent drug use in our communities, support users through treatment and recovery, and tackle the organised criminals behind the drugs trade.

'There has been a long-term downward trend in drug use over the last decade.