Last weekend, a leading psychiatrist suggested that not only was legalised cannabis bad but that supporting it was like believing the earth is flat.

Dr. Brendan Kelly made his comments came at the Irish Medical Organisation’s annual Doolin lecture.

Dr. Kelly is the Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin as well as consultant psychiatric to Tallaght Hospital.

“The more cannabis you smoke, the more chance of a severe mental illness,” Dr. Kelly said. “It is as simple as that. And people who deny this link, are really akin to denying smoking causes cancer, who say climate change isn’t happening, who say the earth is flat and stuff like this. And they are valid viewpoints but they are also wrong.”

He did suggest that there should be a more socially responsible approach to correcting cannabis-use.

“It needs to be taken into account that cannabis is bad for mental health, end of story. But there is a bunch of other considerations, to be taken on board, such as, for example, what are the pluses and minuses of our current policy regarding cannabis?”

Despite his belief that cannabis activists are akin to flat earthers, Dr. Kelly does believe that there should be a move towards decriminalisation.

“What are the costs of our current policy in terms of criminalisation, and so forth. What would be the costs of legalisation? There should be a degree of decriminalisation, however, legalisation would be a step too far.”