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Question of the week: Should cannabis be regraded to a class B drug?



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Published Date: 06 January 2008
WELCOME to Scotland on Sunday's online feature, Question of the Week.
Each week we will ask the readers of scotlandonsunday.com for their views on a burning issue from the past seven days. The best responses will be reproduced on the Online Forum page in Sunday's print edition of the newspaper on January 13.

If you wish to appear in Scotland on Sunday, then, along with your response, please leave a first name and surname, as well as your location - eg Tom Smith, Edinburgh. We welcome all comments.

The question this week is...

Should cannabis be regraded to a class B drug in the wake of fresh health concerns?



The full article contains 122 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 10 January 2008 2:04 PM
  • Source: Scotland On Sunday
  • Location: Scotland
  • Related Topics: Drugs policy
 
1

Adam Moniz,

Southampton 10/01/2008 16:51:41
No it should not. Cannabis is more harmful when it's illegal. Effects on mental health are exagerated, for example, the international rates for schizophrenia and related serious mental illnesses have not changed since records began, 1% schizophrenia and 2% related serious mental illness. Whereas the use of cannabis has sky rocketed. These rates are also lower in Holland where it has been decriminalised. Research by Zammit et al (2007), at the university of cardiff has shown that genetic variations don't modify associations between schizophrenia and cannabis use, meaning those who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia are not at greater risk of it by smoking cannabis.

It's also impossible to die of a cannabis overdose unless you inject pure THC. There has never been a conclusively reported case of death from cannabis toxicity. Compare this with deaths from alcohol and tobbaco which cause millions of deaths wordwide, there is no call for these to be prohibited. Alcohol and tobbaco are also far more addictive, and alcoholism can in itself cause death from withdrawal and overdose.

The home office state; "The potency (THC content) of skunk has increased but the potency of sinsemilla type cannabis – the highest potency herbal cannabis - has increased about 2 to 3 fold over the last 10-15 years. The FSS data show that the average THC content of sinsemilla increased from about 6% in 1995 to about 14% in 2005." So, cannabis strength has at best, doubled in the last 10 years or so. The media have lied to the public, stating cannabis is now 10/20/50 even 100x stronger. It's no wonder the public and ministers are concerned, but they should be more concerned the media have lied to them.

The prohibition of cannabis is a serious health issue. The cheapest form of cannabis is known as soapbar. Soapbar contains lots of contaminents to increase it's weight. These may include, Beeswax, turpentine, ketamine, boot polish, henna, pine resin, aspirin, animal faeces, barbi
2

Adam Moniz,

Southampton 10/01/2008 16:53:19
barbiturates, glues and dyes plus carcinogenic solvents such as Toluene and Benzene. Millions of people smoke cannabis and some of the poorest people smoke this dangerous form. It's only dangerous in this way because of prohibition.

The media have reasoned that cannabis should be made class B, because the number of cannabis factories are on the increase. They should be reminded that, less people smoke cannabis since it was made class C, therefore demand is down. The penalty for cultivation and trafficking increased from 7 to 14 years when it was made class C. There is therefore no logic in making it class B for this reason. It also proves that cultivaters pay no attention to what class the drug is. Making it class B will acheive nothing but criminalising people for making the scientifically proven safer choice of using cannabis instead of alcohol or tobbaco. And crimalising people wrecks lives, and the govenmernt is also at risk of criminalising those who use it medicinally.
3

mac1888,

10/01/2008 17:07:23
alcohol cause's far more mental heatlh problems than cannabis,then your liver disease ,violence etc etc...if cannabis was legal there would be less heroin addicts.lowlifes who sell cannabis usually sell heroin !
4

Tomdonald,

10/01/2008 18:00:17
Many medicines originated in plants until pure forms of the active ingredients could be synthesised industrially.
Aspirin is one example. Cannabis appears to have a therapeutic effect. Using it with alcohol, as with any drug, can produce a good deal more than a "trip". Making its use legal might well remove it from the drug scene,its worth a well monitored trial.
5

john-boi,

10/01/2008 19:19:08
The recent Rowntree report showed that the classification of Cannabis is irrelevant to those that use it.This can be seen by the facts that Class A use of cocaine went up last year yet the use of Cannabis went down as a result of it being downgraded.


The forensic reports for Cannabis seized in 2006 showed only 4% of cannabis seized to be so called skunk with levels of THC only 2 to 3 times that what our cabinet members smoked, the vast majority being the same strength Jacki Smith smoked in the 70's.

We massively increase the danger of any drug by making it illegal and putting the control and supply in the hands of organised crime.

The risk to mental health to a small minority of users who use Cannabis is by the Lancet authors themselves small they estimate that well over 95% of users will suffer no problems with its use.Although obviously regrettable to those that do suffer this pales into insignificance when compared to alcohol with over 8,000 people directly killed by alcohol last year and 126,000 in long term care with mental health problems due to alcohol. Any sane person can see it is far a safer alternative to alcohol for adults.

To reclassify it back to B will only make matters worse, the ABC classification has already been deemed unfit for purpose by an all party review and this move will only highlight the fact.That we will criminalise many of our citizens for something that most of the cabinet did in their youth shows the hypocrisy and paucity of ideas on drug Policy.

The only way forward is to take over the control and supply of all drugs from organised crime by the Government.In the case of Cannabis this will ensure control over quality and strength and remove many of the dangers to the small minority.It will stop our children being targeted by dealers.Then we can move to the use of drugs by our citizens to be one of Public health and not law enforcement an approach that works and does not damage all levels of society that the current L
6

,

10/01/2008 19:26:09
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
7

Boojum,

Brighton 10/01/2008 19:49:52
The reclassification is a nonsense. It has nothing to do with anything other than the cynical playing of politics that is plaguing the so-called democratic process of this country. The classification of cannabis is entirely irrelevant as a preventative measure (and why should there be prevention anyway, cannabis use is not morally wrong, cannabis use in not dangerous, despite what all the tabloid reefer madness stories claiming links with mental illness despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary would have you believe). In fact the illegality of cannabis encourages young people to take the drug, it is one of the fundamental behaviours of the young, to misbehave, to do what people tell you not to, to break the rules. The reclassification will have no effect with regards preventing cannabis use. What it WILL do, however, is lead to increased harder drug use, as young people smoke cannabis, discover that it is relatively harmless, and realise that they have been lied to. They will then begin to wonder if they have been lied to about the dangers of cocaine and heroin as well. This just demonstrates that Mr Brown has absolutely no understanding of human nature whatsoever.
8

an interested party,

11/01/2008 09:11:08
to buy your illegal drug you must fraternise with criminals. which puts you on the other side of the tracks (so to speak) and effectively teaches you to stick two fingers up to the system.

the vast majority of our youth are disenfranchised with the polis and the laws that seem to have little relivance to there way of life. no wonder they dont or wont listen.

it also seems that cannabis wastes a lot of polis time and alienates the youth from any community work . i.e. if you got dope in yer pocket you are less likely to 'assist' a polisman doing his burglary investigation cuase you yerself might get 'lifted'




9

ALR,

Edinburgh 12/01/2008 10:41:32
I agree with all the above comments. Reclassifying cannabis just shows that our laws are based on populist tabloid moral panic rather than pragmatic evidenced based research.
We should have a law based on the health and social aspects of drug use, not on possession or supply. That kind of law my be a bit more nuanced, however if we are to live in a fairer society we need to respect individuals right to tamper with their brain (and all research shows that the majority of drug users do not cause harm to society, only a minority of problematic drug use, RSA Report 2007.
The current laws are based on outdated moral beliefs.

 

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