Professor Robert Power

Professor Power was responding to the World Health Organization after they identified home brew and cannabis being major causes of mental illness.

He told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program that health professionals and researchers were collaborating to try and attach the problem.

“There’s a major concern around cannabis use and home brew use, which is very different to other areas of the Asia-Pacific region, where injecting drug use has been the major problem,” he told Radio Australia.

“But in the Pacific Islands it’s really cannabis, home brew alcohol that are causing the main issues in terms of drug use.

“We don’t have sufficient data either in the Pacific region or in PNG specifically to actually be confident about an increase in prevalence rates.”

CLICK HERE to listen to the full interview at Radio Australia’s Website.