“Pot Is More Dangerous than LSD or Heroine”
Liberal UK Newspaper Apologizes for Efforts to Legalize Cannabis
The Independent on Sunday, a British newspaper notorious for its vigorous efforts to persuade the British government to decriminalize marijuana, has issued an apology for its previous position and announced that, due to new evidence concerning the dangers of cannabis, it will cease advocating decriminalization of the drug. ... On March 18, The Independent published an article by writer Jonathon Owen in which Owen listed some of the more detrimental effects of pot use and informed readers the newspaper would no longer continue its campaign to decriminalize pot. Owen’s article, entitled “Cannabis: An Apology” lamented the newspaper’s previous decriminalization efforts and began with the subtitle: “In 1997, this newspaper launched a campaign to decriminalize the drug. If only we had known then what we can reveal today...”Owen proceeded to summarize some of the newest data recently publicized in Britain on cannabis and the shockingly high numbers of users who are facing devastating consequences.
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According to a separate Independent article written by Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “The cannabis now in circulation is many times more powerful than the weed that today's ageing baby-boomers smoked in college. In the flower-power era, the concentration of THC, as the main psychoactive substance in cannabis is known, was typically 2 or 3 per cent. Present-day cannabis can contain 10 times as much.”
I'd always been kind of agnostic on marijuana legalization, but this does give me pause to reconsider that position. Some of the statistics in the linked article are surprising.
Comments
Remember, statistics can always be skewed to show a biased opinion.
What should be interesting is the fact that most of the people in Drug Treatment Centers are there because of a mandate by the courts. Not because they are voluntarily checking themselves into these places.
Also, it should be noted that a study from the University of California at San Francisco, found smoked marijuana to be effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/01/marijuana_as_wonder_drug/
You're free to have your own opinion but I feel as though we have cast an unfair "criminal" astigmatism to the 786,545 people who were arrested for Marijuana in 2005. Roughly 90% of those for simple possession.
I think we could use the billions of dollars spent fighting this "drug war" to a much better use.... such as providing everyone in the Country health care
Posted by: Adam | April 3, 2007 4:46 PM
Does anyone know what Lancet article they are talking about? I looked but all I could find was this: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607604644/fulltext
The above article is very recent and rates pot as one would expect it to be rated. Less addictive than tobacco, but more inebriating, etc.
Posted by: quil | April 6, 2007 5:20 PM