The Immediate effects
Taken for euphoria, usually smoked with or without
tobacco, or eaten in “hash” cakes. (But enhances the mood you’re in so you may
well feel worse).
An intoxicant, like alcohol, so people should not be
driving.
If you have a joint today you
should not be driving tomorrow. (Airline pilots
on flight simulators could not ‘land’ their planes properly even 24 hours and
more after a joint and had no idea anything was wrong.)
One 20mg joint has the same effect as being just over the
legal alcohol-driving limit. The combination of cannabis and alcohol
is 16 times more dangerous when driving than taking either drug alone.
Panic attacks and paranoia can occur immediately
after a joint.
The long-term effects.
Just one joint per week or even once a month will ensure a
permanent presence of THC. Since the other neurotransmitters are affected,
new nerve connections cannot be made properly.
Concentration, learning and memory are all
badly affected. School grades fall, some students miss out on university
places. A cannabis personality develops. Users become inflexible,
can’t plan their days properly, can’t take criticism and struggle to express
themselves. They feel lonely, miserable and misunderstood. Apathy,
amotivation and dropping out are all common.
Few children, using cannabis even occasionally, will achieve
their full potential.
Dependence.
Psychological addiction,
the
craving for cannabis is very strong.
Physical addiction occurs. As more and more THC is consumed,
more receptor sites are made, tolerance builds as more THC is
needed to get the same effect. All the receptor sites need to be satisfied,
this is physical addiction. Withdrawal symptoms are not so dramatic as they are
for heroin as THC persists in the body. More young people now are treated in the
USA for marijuana than alcohol dependence.
There is no foolproof cure for any type of addiction.
Mental Health.
Cannabis psychosis
has been
reported in scientific papers for decades. Cannabis causes far more mental
illness than drugs like heroin.
The increased risk factors for psychosis, anxiety, and
depression range from 3 to 5. Schizophrenia is triggered or worsened
by its use, it may even be caused. Cannabis increases the amount of the
neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. Schizophrenics have an excess of
dopamine in the brain, sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, too little.
One in four of us carries a faulty gene which controls
the release of dopamine. If a child inherits a copy of the gene from each
parent, and if they then use cannabis, the chance that she/he will
develop schizophrenia rises from 1 or 2%, the norm in the population, to 15%).
The presence of one gene increases the risk by 5 to 6 times.
Violence and Suicide A Swedish study found more suicides
among pot users than those who used alcohol, amphetamines or heroin. The
manner of death was more violent.
A study in 2001 from Dunedin found that young male cannabis
users were nearly
five times
more likely to be violent than non users, the risk for
alcohol users was around three. Violence seems to occur
with the psychosis or during withdrawal.
Other Effects on the body
Cannabis contains more cancer-causing substances than
tobacco, its smoke deposits
three to four times
as much tar in the lungs and airways. Cases of
lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema have been reported.
Rare head and neck cancers are now being found in young
pot smokers. The average age for these conditions in tobacco smokers is 64.
The immune system is damaged. Fewer white blood cells
are produced, many are abnormal and can't fight off infections. People are
more
vulnerable to disease, their illness is
more severe and they stay sick longer.
Sperm production
is decreased.
Infertility and even impotence have been reported.
Babies born to cannabis using mothers are smaller,
hyperactive, have behaviour and learning problems and are 10 times more
likely to develop leukaemia.
THC interferes with the production of new cells being made in an
adult body - white blood cells, sperm and foetal cells. (It causes faulty
copying of DNA, and hastens cell death.)
Blood pressure and heart rates rise to the levels of
real stress. Heart attacks have been reported. Two teenagers had
strokes and died after bingeing on cannabis, another was left paralysed.
The Medical Argument
Medicines
by law, have to be
pure substances, single chemicals, so that their actions are predictable and
controllable. Heroin and cocaine fall into that category. Cannabis contains
around 400 chemicals.
The BMA is currently testing more of the 60 or so purified
cannabinoids (substances unique to the cannabis plant) as potential
medicines and that is correct procedure.
Synthetic purified THC, Nabilone, (Marinol in USA) is
already available on hospital prescription but has many side-effects and is not
popular among doctors.
It all started in 1979 when an American pot smoking lawyer
said, "We will use the medical marijuana argument as a red herring on the road
to full legalisation".
The Pro-legalisers.
Many pro-legalisers are users, or their children
are.
Others are libertarians who think we should be able to do
what we like with our bodies. That’s fine as long as it doesn’t interfere with
anyone else. But
stoned drivers can and
do kill other people. Addicts and
the mentally-ill need treatment at the taxpayers expense, stoned
workers are inefficient and unproductive. And passive smoking does
occur.
Cannabis as a gateway drug?
Tobacco, alcohol and cannabis
can all act as gateway drugs. A recent New Zealand study showed that weekly
cannabis users were 60 times more likely to progress to “harder” drugs.
The more they use, the greater the risk.
Almost 100% of heroin users started on pot. New research
suggests that cannabis can “prime” the brain for the use of other drugs.
Relaxing the law
Holland
turned a blind eye to
cannabis in 1987 and is now the crime capital of Europe. The country is
awash with dealers, and it is a major producer and exporter of drugs
especially ecstasy.
Health and social problems have escalated and the amount allowed
for personal possession has been reduced from 30g to 5g. The present
Dutch government wants to close all the coffee shops. Many have gone.
Since down-classification in 2001
in the UK, regular cannabis use is still rising among 11
to 12 year old boys, older teens seem to have
progressed to cocaine.
Strength
In the sixties and seventies, the average THC content of herbal
cannabis was just 0.5 - 1%.
Today’s specially bred varieties from Holland such as skunk and
nederweed, have THC contents of anything from 9-27%. These strong types
are now commonly grown in the UK and are thought to account for 60% of
the cannabis consumed here.
The rest of the cannabis used here is cannabis resin with a THC
content of around 4 to 5%.
Drug Testing
More and more employers are testing for drugs in the workplace –
cannabis will show up for weeks, and a conviction would prevent someone from
getting a visa for the USA.
Quotations from the Experts:
Mental illness:
“Five
years ago, 95% of psychiatrists would have said that cannabis doesn’t cause
psychosis. Now I would estimate that 95% say it does”
(Professor Robin Murray, Director Institute of
Psychiatry, London. October 2006).
“The mistake was that in its 2002 report, The Advisory Council
on the Misuse of Drugs denied that cannabis was a contributory cause of
schizophrenia, continued to deny this for the next two years and thus mislead
ministers into repeatedly stating that there was no causal link between cannabis
and psychosis”.
( Professor Robin Murray, letter to The
Guardian, 19/01/06).
Personality: “If the development of identity does not
progress, the teenager remains at a childish level of development characterised
by both a lack of independence and a deficient integration in the adult world”.
(Swedish researcher, Jan Ranstrom 2003)
Academic performance: “Use more often than twice per
week for even a short period of time, or use for 5 years or more at the level of
even once per month, may each lead to a compromised ability to function to their
full mental capacity, and could possibly result in lasting impairments”
(Dr Nadia Solowij, “Cannabis and Cognitive
Functioning” 1998).
Medical argument: Dr Keith Green an American
ophthalmologist, says 6 joints a day would be needed to maintain reduced eye
pressure caused by glaucoma, rendering the patient incapable of any useful
functioning.
The warning on Nabilone reads
:
“THC encourages both physical and psychological
dependence and is highly abusable. It causes mood changes, loss of memory,
psychoses, impairment of coordination and perception, and complicates
pregnancy”.
Dr Robert Dupont, founder of NIDA (National Institute for
Drug Abuse) in the USA said, “I have been apologising to the American people for
the last 10 years for promoting the decriminalisation of cannabis. I made a
mistake. Marijuana combines the worst effects of alcohol and tobacco and has
other ill effects that neither of these two have”.
He added, “In all of history, no young people have ever taken
marijuana regularly on a mass scale. Therefore our youngsters are in effect
making themselves guinea pigs in a tragic experiment. Thus far our research
clearly suggests we will see horrendous results”
Mary Brett, Former Head of Health Education, Dr Challoner’s
Grammar School (boys), Amersham, Bucks.
UK spokesman for EURAD (Europe against Drugs).
