There are WORSE crimes in the world (Should cannabis be legalised?)

Member Name: LittleEwok

Product:	Should cannabis be legalised?
Date:	08/03/05 (1029 review reads)
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I may be biased. While I don’t use cannabis, I am occasionally known to indulge in use of other drugs. I’m not out of control, I’m not addicted to anything, and I have been occasionally using drugs for a few years now. I know many recreational pot smokers, all of whom hold down good jobs or degrees, have their heads screwed firmly on their shoulders and are firmly in control of their lives. Most of them don't smoke cigarettes and are pretty healthy people, despite their nasty habit.

Its not users that are the problem its abusers, and all drugs are at risk from abuse, including the legal ones like alcohol. Every drug is a risk in the hands of some people, and this includes all the legal ones that our hypocritical government happily hands out. I honestly believe that if people know the risks of what they are taking, inside and out, it is truly their choice what they choose to do with their bodies. The fact of the matter is that most people with serious drug problems are those living in poverty…making poverty a bigger issue than drugs themselves-one that perhaps the government should tackle instead. The vast majority of drug users are recreational, and there are so many of them that they are a majority. I feel its wrong to lump all drugs into one category, as they are all just too different... Comparing pot to heroin or to LSD or to pretty much any drug is like comparing an apple to a cloud. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on the legalisation of pot…


1. Prohibition doesn’t work. Education might.

Did you know that Britain has the largest heroin seizure rate in Europe, and the third highest number of addicts? It also has the highest rate of amphetamine use and the third highest level of ecstasy use in Britain. Cocaine use had stabilised in Europe in 1998 but levels of use in Britain are on the rise. If this tells us anything, it tells us that prohibition of drugs doesn’t work., give the strictness of our drug laws compared to some other places. When you ban something, you simply give it such status that the usage of it shoots through the roof. Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. ..its likely for most of them it will have been cannabis, and that up to one and a half million people take ecstasy every weekend. In my own experience, I know more people who take the drug than who don’t, and that includes respectable adults in full time jobs and clever students studying for degrees.

What this shows is in a very obvious manner is that the “War on Drugs” is NOT working. I truly feel there should be less legislation and more information. People should realise that no matter what the teachers and the parents and the government officials say, people are going to take drugs…therefore there should be more information on how to minimise their risks. The reason Leah Betts died is because she drank too much water…the official inquest found this, and also that Leah had used ecstasy previously, she wasn’t a first time user like the press said. The reason she drank so much water is she was told to do such if she felt unwell whilst on ecstasy…the person failed to tell her that too much water is as dangerous as too little. While this isn’t strictly to do with cannabis, it does have a lot to do with our culture, in which all drugs are taboo…and in which misinformation can cost lives.


2. Marijuana and its medical uses.

An elderly arthritis sufferer was recently jailed for growing cannabis plants. He took the drug to ease his pains, because very little eases it as well as cannabis does for certain illnesses, and grew his own because he didn’t trust getting it from a dealer…and who can blame him? Is it right that this man will probably end his life in jail?

The list of illnesses marijuana can be used to help is enormous. Cancer patients and sufferers of aids can benefit from its prescription to aid appetite, and other uses include treatment for glaucoma, injury or disease of the spinal cord, arthritis and epilepsy. Crucially, it is one of the most effective painkillers for sufferers of MS…I believe it is truly wrong to deny people something which eases their pain. Some sources even state it may be useful for certain mental problems, although I’d argue this given the possibility of it triggering schizophrenia.

Of course we don’t truly know how effective marijuana would be for all these conditions, because its difficult to find out what with the prohibition and all. I truly believe its time to find out. Marijuana is not chemically addictive…and given that people can become psychologically addicted to anything from the internet to shopping, I don’t believe risks of psychological addiction are particularly relevant. It is a natural product that has far less side effects than many of the seriously heavy drugs used for the same purposes.


3. Don’t do drugs…except the socially acceptable ones

Alcohol now kills as many people as cigarettes. Besides the massive health risks of excessive alcohol usage, which include several cancers and cirrhosis, there are also the dangers of being intoxicated. In the US, one person dies every 33 minutes in an alcohol related crash, and some US statistics 70% of drowning deaths and 55% of suicides are alcohol related. Many people become blindly aggressive on alcohol…we all know the majority of domestic violence is drink-related, and apparently a large proportion of reported rapes are too, along with a massive proportion of murders. Why is no-one taking steps to ban this awful drug? Why is it socially acceptable to get so s***-faced you have to be carried home, or wake up forgetting where you have been and what you have been doing, but not OK to smoke a joint at a party? In the words of Bill Hicks, “I have never seen anyone on marijuana get into a fight, because its f***ing impossible”.

And how about all those medically approved drugs we take? We know that Benzos such as Valium, and anti-depressants such as amytriptyline can be highly addictive, far more so that marijuana, yet they are still being doled out like candy by most doctors. I recently got prescribed a small dose of a heavy duty Benzodiazipine to help me sleep. I was in the doctors office for about five minutes…that was all it took for her to prescribe me four weeks worth of this highly addictive drug with its medley of dangerous side effects. After four weeks I went back and I was prescribed it again…despite the fact that doctors are strictly not supposed to prescribe it for over four weeks. How about legal opiates like codeine being prescribed for their painkilling effects when they are known to be addictive? A friend of mine got given a dose of codeine for an EARACHE! Overkill much?

Here’s a story for you. I had a wonderful boyfriend who was the sweetest person I’d ever met in my life. Sadly he had had a horrible life and he was a bit messed up, and took too many drugs. One night he took a bong hit of a dried plant, and it nearly killed him. For months afterwards he was having flashbacks, and at one point he had a flashback combined with a panic attack that lasted for days. He tried to kill himself several times, self-harmed frequently and very nearly avoided a hospital. Eventually he pulled himself together, but now he is totally dead inside. He’s lost his heart, his soul, his wonderful personality and all the good things about him. He’s become harsh and cold and cruel. I had to leave him for these reasons, and it nearly killed me having to leave him after what he‘d been through. This drug ruined him totally. I also know of three other people who have been seriously messed up by the same drug, and heard tell of many more on and off the internet. Want to know what it was? It was called salvia divonorum. It is a completely legal psychedelic drug that can be bought by under eighteens at “head shops” and in markets. Why is this drug legal? There is no way marijuana does the harm that that drug does.

How about some more frightening information? GHB, one of the most common drugs used for date rape, is still legal in certain places in the US. Ketamine, an animal tranquilliser commonly used for date rape, is also legal here (albeit for prescription on animals). And lastly, Rohypnol, another common date rape drug, is legally prescribable in the UK. Of course many legal drugs could be used for date rape, things like Valium and Halcyon…but these are three of the top suspects and they are all shockingly easy to get hold of in the UK.

Why are we so hypocritical about our drugs? Marijuana isn’t chemical like most of the drugs above, it has far fewer bad effects than the side effects of the drugs listed above, and it doesn’t make some people go on killing sprees like alcohol does. If we are seriously for prohibiting drugs, shouldn’t we start prohibiting some of those listed above, and also cigarettes?


4. Marijuana’s side effects and health problems associated with it

I have to be the first to say I don’t think anyone should be a heavy duty marijuana smoker. It simply knocks the spirit out of you…many people cease to have any ambition beyond watching the Simpsons when they smoke heavy amounts of marijuana. But then I don’t think anyone should overindulge in ANY sort of drug, whether it is the legally sanctioned kind or not.

Most of the health risks associated with pot smoking are related to the tobacco its usually smoked with. According to some sources there is a very low risk of developing cancer or bronchitis from smoking pure grass joints. However I fully believe that smoking anything is not really good for you.

Marijuana can exacerbate existing mental health problems. I truly believe this one and people should watch out for this when they smoke marijuana. However, marijuana is a mild drug and if you find it has disturbing effects on you, you shouldn’t take it again, its not the sort of drug that takes you over instantly and makes you lose control, as a heavy-duty psychedelic might, so you should be able to tell quickly. Other substances that can exacerbate mental health problems include alcohol, coffee, amyl nitrate, salvia divonorum and fresh magic mushrooms, all of which are legal.

Many of the other health risks attributed to marijuana are largely unproven and over-hyped. Respiratory disorders and mental problems by no means make this a harmless drug, but compared to the side effects of many of our legal drugs, both recreation and medical, they are miniscule.


5. Britain’s first direct cannabis death

“Lee Maisey, a 36 year old, is claimed to have been the first person to die from cannabis poisoning” shouted the headlines. However the facts behind the story are rather different. No conclusive cause of death of this guy was found, all the coroner said was something along the lines of “we may be looking at the first cannabis death in Britain”. No direct evidence that cannabis killed the guy was found, it was simply stated that he had a high level of THC in the blood…and very interestingly, this first “cannabis death” occurred not long before the drug was declassified. How…um…coincidental. Add this to the fact that this gentleman was smoking six joints a day, which is a pretty big amount, and this story proves a bit on the suspect side. Drugs don’t just kill you because you take them…they have an effect on you, I.e, cocaine might give you a heart attack or certain drugs mixed might induce coma…you have to establish cause and effect and none was established here.


6. A WASTE of police time

I don’t have the facts to back this one up, but I truly feel there are better uses for police time than chasing dope smokers. As a rule they are non-violent, non-addicted and very often otherwise law-abiding citizens. What they are doing is harming no-one but themselves. If you ask me police should be targeting big-time dealers of more dangerous drugs like coke, heroin and date rape drugs…the last one is one of my main concerns, given I have two friends who have been drug raped and have myself been spiked three times, and most of the women I know have been spiked at one time or another, and several of the blokes. Why aren't police spending more time and money tackling this, because in my mind its a far more pressing drugs issue...these people dont choose to take drugs or, possibly, to be raped...thats a bigger issue than a person who knowingly smokes a joint. Why do we have to put up with dealers hawking heroin to kids barely out of school while policemen chase after a harmless hippy growing a pot plant in his cupboard?


7. Cannabis leading to other drugs?

That couldn’t be anything to do with the fact that its illegal and bought from a dealer could it? Cannabis is a world away from other drugs, which are in turn a world away from the likes of heroin, and you could argue that alcohol could lead you on to other drugs because it clouds your judgement. If cannabis leads to other drugs, it is only because A- its bought from dealers who have access to other drugs and might encourage people to use them and B- it clouds your judgement…just like alcohol does…but again, we don’t see anyone rushing to ban booze!


8. So why is it still illegal?

I suspect two reasons for this…the main one is you can grow it in your cupboard so if legalised would be pretty impossible to tax. Come on, do you honestly think the government cares THAT much about your health? If that’s the case why are we having cancer-causing additives discovered in our food every day, and why are unhealthy foods advertised at us 25/7, and why are booze and fags legal? Cannabis is also traditionally associated many minorities, although this is more of an issue in the US, and also perhaps those slightly to the left on the political side. I’m not saying this is a direct cause, but I’m sure its certainly a factor. I suspect another huge factor is misinformation…people tend to lump all “drugs” into one category (neatly forgetting the legally sanctioned taxable, and socially acceptable ones of course) without distinguishing between a weekend smoker and a heroin addict.

I’d imagine most people on this site are going to disagree with my view, and some might demonise me for being a drug user, but I simply ask what can be achieved with the continued prohibition of a drug that has far fewer side effects than most of the ones we have already legalised; and moreover and FAR more importantly, may in fact have important medical benefits for our community, and with far less side effects and in a much more natural way than most of the stupidly strong, chemical-based drugs that are currently acceptable to prescribe. I believe a certain charming gentleman who left the planet a few years ago can sum this up quite nicely for me, better than I can…

“My final thought, about alcohol, about drugs, about pornography…what business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see or take into my body as long as I don’t harm another human being on this planet? And for those of you having a little moral dilemma on how to answer this, I’ll answer for you. NONE OF YOUR F***ING BUSINESS”.

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