CHILDREN as young as 10 are getting stoned in Cape York communities, a James Cook University cannabis researcher will tell a mental health conference in Cairns today.

Cape kids are also making bucket bongs from discarded drink bottles, while cannabis-dependent youth are refusing education or job opportunities outside communities because they "don't want to leave the dope".

The concerns - told to JCU researchers during consultation in Cape and Torres Strait communities over the past year - will be presented at the Creating Futures Conference today by Associate Professor Alan Clough, from JCU Cairns' School of Public Health.

But Prof Clough said that, unlike in the Northern Territory where detailed studies into indigenous pot-smoking had been done, little was really known about the scale of usage on the Cape and in the Torres Strait.

For that reason, he is pressing for a four-year study in Cape communities to start in January, for which he is hoping to get funding approval from the National Health and Medical Research Council within the next month.

The study is to be done in partnership with local police and indigenous councils and will also involve introducing strategies to reduce the flow of marijuana into the communities as well as reduce its harmful effects such as acute psychosis, depression and suicide.

"At the moment, all we have are anecdotal reports but there are a lot of concerns," Prof Clough said.

"The communities are worried that the younger age kids are starting, the mental health effects - especially cannabis-induced psychosis - and that cannabis use seems to have become normal."

Detailed studies in Arnhem Land communities in 2005-06 showed 61 per cent of males and 58 per cent of females (aged 13-36 years) were using cannabis weekly and most reported symptoms of dependency, he said.

The average intake was seven cones a day, compared with a three cones a day average nationally.

"According to Cape York and Torres Strait people, rates of cannabis use in their communities 'will be the same or higher here'," he said.

Among community concerns was that cannabis was being more openly used, that kids were starting to use it earlier, its effect on career pathways and that use would increase as alcohol became more restricted.

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