A quarter of people who smoke pot as teenagers are genetically vulnerable to psychotic illnesses later in life, scientists have found. The study, conducted by the Institute for Psychiatry at King's College London, found a common genetic profile has been identified that makes people five times more likely to suffer from cannabis-induced mental diseases, such as schizophrenia. Neither cannabis nor the gene, named COMT, raises the risk of psychosis in isolation, the Times of London reported Tuesday. Anti-drug activists are using the findings to pressure the British government to reinstate cannabis's previous and more serious categorization as a Class B drug. The government downgraded cannabis to a Class C drug in 2001. Some 15 million British citizens have tried pot and between 2 million and 5 million are regular users, the Times reported, leaving a quarter of those people at risk according to the study. The findings are to be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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