A Drug Issue, Not A Black Issue?: Cannabis Psychosis and Black People’s Drug Use in Britain, 1982–1992
Jamie Banks
Social History of Medicine June 18, 2026 DOI: 10.1093/shm/hkag057 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Cannabis |
| Key points | Argues that elevated rates of "cannabis psychosis" diagnoses among young Black men in British psychiatric care during the mid-1980s did not reflect higher drug use in Black communities, using sources such as the British Crime Survey to support this. The author contends that psychiatrists' beliefs about greater Black drug use drew on broader contemporary British portrayals of drug use among Black communities. |
Abstract
Abstract During the mid-1980s, British psychiatry erupted into a vehement debate about the disproportionate use of ‘cannabis psychosis’ as a clinical diagnosis amongst young Black men admitted into psychiatric care. Assessing contemporary suggestions that these unequal rates of diagnosis reflected elevated rates of drug use in Black communities more generally, this article uses sources such as the British Crime Survey to show that this was not the case. The article also questions why some psychiatrists nevertheless believed that Black communities were more likely to use drugs, locating such assumptions in the broader presentations of drug use amongst Black communities circulating in Britain at the time.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on cannabis, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta-8, Delta-10, HHC, THC-O, THCP, and THCV: What Should We Call These Products? | 2023 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Model Psychoses Induced by LSD-25 in Normals | 1956 | Historical analysis | |
| Is there a specific ‘cannabis psychosis’? | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Peak-experience and the entheogenic use of cannabis in world religions | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Out of Harm's Way?: Illicit Drug Use, Medicalization and the Law | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |