How prohibition-based policies caused a cannabis problem | Letters

Your article correctly raised concerns about the harms of higher-strength cannabis on people vulnerable to psychosis (‘I’d run down the road thinking I was God’: a day at the cannabis psychosis clinic, 16 November). However, it didn’t explain how previous prohibition‑based policies designed to reduce cannabis use have driven up the strength of street cannabis, the source of most cannabis for people with psychosis, thus making the problem worse.Furthermore, growing data from the Drug Science T21 project and other prescription databases globally shows that medical cannabis can alleviate a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, without inducing psychosis. Any suggestion that rates of cannabis-related psychosis could be reduced by limiting medical cannabis access is flawed and is likely to harm patients currently benefiting from it.Prof D Nutt and Prof Ilana CromeDrug Science Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section

Labour is privatising the NHS in plain sight | Letter

Gaby Hinsliff is right to ask if the government’s reorganisation of the National Health Service will be the final nail in its coffin (Wes Streeting’s gamble with the NHS is greater than any play for Downing Street, 14 November). Such large‑scale redundancies are bound to create problems.There are other threats to the delivery of NHS services too. The privatisation of the NHS is happening in plain sight. Last month, the government proudly announced that “A total of 6

Krysty was diagnosed with breast cancer months after getting the all-clear. New Australian guidelines aim to help women like her

When Krysty Sullivan had a routine mammogram in 2019, she was given the all-clear.Eleven months later, she felt a lump.Doctors discovered two tumours, each more than 2cm in size. Sullivan, then 48 years old, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a type that can be challenging to treat as the cancer cells do not respond to typical targeted treatments.“It’s always a shock to hear that you have breast cancer, but to learn that I had it months after I had a clear mammogram … it was like the Earth shifted,” Sullivan said

Ultra-processed food linked to harm in every major human organ, study finds

Ultra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health, according to the world’s largest review.UPF is also rapidly displacing fresh food in the diets of children and adults on every continent, and is associated with an increased risk of a dozen health conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and depression.The sharp rise in UPF intake worldwide is being spurred by profit-driven corporations using a range of aggressive tactics to drive consumption, skewer scientific debate and prevent regulation, the review of evidence suggests.The findings, from a series of three papers published in the Lancet, come as millions of people increasingly consume UPF such as ready meals, cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks and fast food.In the UK and US, more than half the average diet now consists of UPF

Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’

The puffy, artificial look is rising in popularity - thanks to Maga elite such as Kristi Noem and Matt GaetzPicture a plastic surgeon’s office. You might imagine a sleek Los Angeles practice, with discreet entrances meant to conceal celebrities from the paparazzi. Maybe a Dallas high-rise, where monied housewives spend on postpartum “mommy makeovers”. Or a Miami location, where influencers and OnlyFans stars film TikToks of their BBLs. One city you might not think of is Washington DC

Nearly half of sexually active young people in UK have experienced strangulation, study shows

More than two in five sexually active under-18s in the UK have either been strangled or strangled someone during sex, research has found, despite the serious dangers of the practice.“Choking”, as it is commonly known, has become normalised in young people’s sexual habits, the study by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (Ifas) showed, with 43% of sexually active 16- and 17-year-olds having experienced it.More than half of people under the age of 35 have experienced it, with nearly a third wrongly believing there are safe ways to strangle someone.The survey also revealed a crisis of distress among those on the receiving end, with 36% saying they felt scared during the experience and 21% suffering dangerous physical symptoms, including dizziness and even loss of consciousness.It also showed a consent gap, with more perpetrators of strangulation believing their partner had consented to it in advance than those who had experienced it, with 1% saying they had explicitly not agreed to it the last time it happened