cannabisnews.com: Get Off The Pot





Get Off The Pot
Posted by CN Staff on July 14, 2003 at 07:07:11 PT
By Jody Paterson, CanWest News Service 
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist 
Marijuana was just catching the interest of the Canadian public 34 years ago when the federal government asked law professor Gérald LeDain to head up an investigation into recreational drug use in the country. A growing number of people were being caught with marijuana in their possession, and Ottawa wanted to know what to do about it. The reports that came out of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs are still considered the gold standard on the subject, and its recommendations around cannabis are mocking reminders of how far we haven't come.
Whatever you might think of marijuana use, it's clear after reading the commission's cannabis report - you can find it on the Web - that three decades on, Canada's pot laws have failed everybody. We're running in place at great cost, and all because no government has had the guts to face down the small but vociferous reefer-madness crowd whose uninformed laments continue to shape drug policy.So little has changed that the commission's recommendations from 1971 would be every bit as progressive if they were made today. Having looked under every rock, reviewed the literature and traced down all the historical references to cannabis, the LeDain commission concluded the risks posed by marijuana use simply didn't justify the extreme measures being taken by the state to prevent it.Legalize simple possession and cultivation for personal use, it recommended, but crack down on trafficking and import/export. Don't suggest to people the drug is harmless when nobody knows for sure, but launch the longitudinal studies that will clarify that, one way or the other. Discourage its use among adolescents but not by arresting them. (One commission member went even further, writing in a dissenting opinion that the government should regulate, produce and market marijuana.)The aspects of criminalization that most concerned the LeDain commission have all come to pass. Young people are still being arrested in great numbers, and saddled with criminal records that hang over them for the rest of their lives. A drug that other studies had by then already deemed to be less dangerous and definitely less "criminogenic" than other drugs, including alcohol, remains lumped in with the worst of them.The organized crime that was barely involved in the trade in those years, the tax dollars that were just beginning to be spent on policing and prosecutions - all of that has increased dramatically in the intervening years. The long-term health studies never did get started.Nationwide, 8,389 people were arrested for possession in the year of the LeDain report; in 2001, more than 11,000 were arrested for the same offence in B.C. alone. Despite a common perception that nobody is jailed for marijuana possession in Canada anymore, about 2,000 people a year still are. Chasing and punishing illicit drug use now costs Canadians more than $400 million a year."Persons using this narcotic smoke the dry leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them insane," the Los Angeles chief of police told Maclean's magazine in the early 1920s. "The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Immune to pain, the raving maniacs are liable to kill using the most savage methods of cruelty."The chief's comments figured heavily in the country's decision in 1923 to make marijuana use illegal. Some well-informed dissenting voices were already out there; a few European doctors were praising the health uses of marijuana as far back as the late 1700s, the LeDain report noted. But then, as now, government found itself in the sway of the scaremongers.And here we are in 2003, a federal decriminalization bill dead on the order paper, and the debate still raging over what to do about marijuana. This country has received reasoned, thoughtful input on this subject time and again but still can't get it right.Note: More than thirty years after the LeDain commission on drugs, the Canadian government is still controlled by reefer-madness zealots.Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)Author: Jody Paterson, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, July 14, 2003Copyright: 2003 Times ColonistContact: letters times-colonist.comWebsite: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmJudge Says Pot No Worse Than Alcohol http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16680.shtmlPot Growers No Worse Than Martini Drinkers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16670.shtmlJudge Allows Marijuana Ruling To Stand http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16592.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on July 14, 2003 at 21:34:45 PT:
Flashback--So Long Ago--25 Oct 2002 
Global Television: Tolerance for Legal Pot Higher Pt.1 http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1594.html
Newshawks with Pot-TV http://www.pot-tv.net/ram/pottvshowse1594.ram
Running Time: 5 min 
Date Entered: 25 Oct 2002 
Viewer Rating: 9.35 (28 votes) 
 
Number of Views: 2307 
 
"In the first of four stories, The Gazette, Global Television and Canada.com examine the place of marijuana in Canadian society. Go to the link below and vote for the herb on Global!" ego transcendence follows ego destruction, but ego destruction speaks in a louder voice and carries a big stick.
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on July 14, 2003 at 09:13:57 PT:
Tod Mikuriya -- Connect the Dots 
Tod Mikuriya, MD, former director of non-classified marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies --cited in comment #2The same Tod Mikuriya is being accused of writing marijuana recommendations for 7,500 of his patients without conducting sufficient medical examinations by the Medical Board of California, which has moved to revoke or suspend the doctor's license. Marijuana Doctor Facing Revocation of License http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread16847.shtmlTod Mikuriya, once director of NIMH Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies! Can anyone possibly see this Medical Board of California action as anything else than a political ploy?ego transcendence follows ego destruction, stop the lies, connect the dots, the truth will out! 
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on July 14, 2003 at 08:22:05 PT
Thank You Binky
I appreciate the report.
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Comment #2 posted by Binky on July 14, 2003 at 08:15:09 PT
Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain
The organized crime that was barely involved in the trade in those years, the tax dollars that were just beginning to be spent on policing and prosecutions - all of that has increased dramatically in the intervening years. The long-term health studies never did get started.Here is a long term study that I ran across, most recent I've seen. If it has been posted before, sorry. (snip)Analysis of Studies Finds Little Effect From Long-Term UseBy Sid Kirchheimer
WebMD Medical News  Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 
 
July 1, 2003 -- Long-term and even daily marijuana use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers. The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term marijuana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke marijuana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies. In those studies, some 700 regular marijuana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information. Surprising Finding "We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD. "I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal." The marijuana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked marijuana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs. "All study participants were adults," says Grant, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. "However, there might be a different set of circumstances to a 12-year-old whose nervous system is still developing." 10 States OK Marijuana Use Grant's analysis, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, comes as many states consider laws allowing marijuana to be used to treat certain medical conditions. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 10th state to allow marijuana use to relieve pain and other symptoms of AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, and other conditions -- joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Medicinal marijuana is available by prescription in the Netherlands and a new marijuana drug is expected to be released in Great Britain later this year. In the U.S. and elsewhere, Marinol, a drug that is a synthetic form of marijuana and contains its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription to treat loss of appetite associated with weight loss in AIDS patients. Grant says he did the analysis to help determine long-term toxicity from long-term and frequent marijuana use. His center is currently conducting 11 studies to determine its safety and efficacy in treating several diseases. "This finding enables us to see a marginal level of safety, if those studies prove that cannabis can be effective," Grant tells WebMD. "If we barely find this effect in long-term heavy users, then we are unlikely to see deleterious side effects in individuals who receive cannabis for a short time in a medical setting, which would be safer than what is practiced by street users." Grant's findings come as no surprise to Tod Mikuriya, MD, former director of non-classified marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies and author of The Marijuana Medical Handbook: A Guide to Therapeutic Use. He is currently president of the California Cannabis Medical Group, which has treated some 20,000 patients with medicinal marijuana and Marinol. 'Highly Effective Medicine' "I just re-published a paper of the first survey for marijuana toxicity done in 1863 by the British government in India that was the most exhaustive medical study of its time in regards to possible difficulties and toxicity of cannabis. And it reached the same conclusion as Grant," Mikuriya tells WebMD. "This is merely confirming what was known over 100 years ago, as well as what was learned by various government findings doing similar research -- marijuana is not toxic, but it is a highly effective medicine." In fact, marijuana was available as a medicinal treatment in the U.S. until the 1930s. Lester Grinspoon, MD, a retired Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who studied medicinal marijuana use since the 1960s and wrote two books on the topic, says that while Grant's finding provides more evidence on its safety, "it's nothing that those of us who have been studying this haven't known for a very long time. "Marijuana is a remarkably safe and non-toxic drug that can effectively treat about 30 different conditions," he tells WebMD. "I predict it will become the aspirin of the 21st century, as more people recognize this." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------SOURCES: The Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, July 2003. Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; director, UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center. Tod Mikuriya, MD, president, the California Cannabis Research Medical Group, Oakland; former director of non-classified marijuana research, the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies. Lester Grinspoon, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston; author, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine and Marihuana Reconsidered. 
http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/70/80972.htm
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on July 14, 2003 at 08:11:52 PT
Why are you saying that to us?
Don't suggest to people the drug is harmless when nobody knows for sure, but launch the longitudinal studies that will clarify that, one way or the other. You should be talking to Walters and the other plutocratic puppets that tell the Big Lie the way Hitler intended. Like "marijuana is a dangerous drug" and "marijuana has no medical value." Well cannabis is a beneficial plant and a miracle plant. I do not use the word harmless. Its best adjective is beneficial.So why are you saying that about people outraged by the governments reefer madness. There are medical experts in the field and it would be fine with me if they were on the evening news and the health channel and the talk show circuit. If it were within my ability Dr. Russo would be on Oprah tomorrow. You are talking crap. If you had a brain you would be commenting how the experts, as Richard Cowan could explain, do not interviewed by the media outlets.If you are not going to talk sense, then shut up. You are sending mixed messages. Cannabis is a beneficial plant. Try that path for an article and please somebody, address the corruption issue using a cannabis perspective.
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