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The Cannabis Catastrophe (Pot softens brains: Stoners don't care)
The Daily Mail [UK] ^ | January 26 2003 | Melanie Phillips

Posted on 01/26/2004 2:36:49 PM PST by quidnunc

As David Blunkett contemplates the chaos and fury triggered by his decision to downgrade the law on cannabis, he could do worse than consider the case of Dominique Lansdowne.

Eleven years ago, when she was 18, the former care assistant from Swindon started smoking cannabis once a week. ‘After a couple of weeks, I found it was addictive’, she said. ‘As soon as you start you get the feeling you’re completely relaxed and calm, but then you crave it. I used it more and more until I was smoking it every day. Then I couldn’t work because I was too stoned all the time. I was so paranoid I couldn’t leave the house.

‘I haven’t worked for the past six years. I lost all my friends and nearly lost my family. I couldn’t afford to pay my mortgage, my house was repossessed, I had to live in a hostel. I was in hospital three times, and couldn’t cope at all in the community. I had no social skills left. My life was in tatters. I didn’t stop completely until two years ago.

‘I still take anti-psychotics, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, and will probably have to take medication for the rest of my life. I’m positive cannabis was the cause; I became paranoid as soon as I started smoking it. I’ve known hundreds of people who smoke it; all of them have some kind of paranoia or a problem, whether they recognise it or not.’

All of which makes it truly extraordinary that this Thursday, cannabis will be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug.

The Home Secretary’s move has delighted the drug legalisers — but astonished and horrified those like Dominique, who know the truth about its effects.

Tory leader Michael Howard has boldly declared that a future Conservative government will reverse the policy. Yet Mr Blunkett’s so called ‘reform’ has already caused many people mistakenly to believe cannabis is now legal or safe to use.

Despite ministers’ desperate insistence that it remains illegal and dangerous, putting cannabis in the same category as slimming pills, painkillers, tranquillisers and anabolic steroids sends the inescapable signal that it is not very dangerous after all.

Dominique Lansdowne knows what nonsense this is. Before she used cannabis, she had not even smoked tobacco; afterwards she also tried speed, LSD and ecstasy. ‘I would never have touched hard drugs if I hadn’t taken cannabis. Reclassification is really dreadful and sad because the government is saying cannabis isn’t that bad and so people are going to take it thinking it’s not going to do them any harm.’

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at melaniephillips.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: cannabis; marijuana; needlessexcerpt; pot; wodlist
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To: mac_truck
Well, if I might stick my oar in here, it appears that there weren't any direct references in the article, although the 1987 Swiss study might be worth running down (I skimmed the 'net for it with no success so far, but what she said about it is intriguing. The November 2000 British Medical Journal isn't, alas, available online). But I did find just how wide the range of correlation is between substance abuse and paranoid schizophrenia HERE. Contrary to the article's claim, nobody can really say whether we have cause-and-effect here or simple positive correlation. The range is just too wide.

Of the drugs correlated with schizophrenia alcohol is by far numero uno, but pot is right up there. I'd guess in both cases the fact that both are much more widely available than other drugs of abuse may skew the numbers. I worked for a brief time in the mental health treatment field, and I can testify that giving a disturbed person any recreational drug is likely to make them worse. Which shouldn't be a revelation to anybody...

221 posted on 01/26/2004 6:28:40 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: mac_truck
She says she's too paranoid to go out of the house, and has no social skills, but knows hundreds of people who use pot.
222 posted on 01/26/2004 6:32:59 PM PST by tacticalogic (Controlled application of force is the sincerest form of communication.)
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To: Billthedrill
SO now all the recreational drug users form the 60's 70' 80' are nut cases???
223 posted on 01/26/2004 6:33:59 PM PST by missyme
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To: NYC GOP Chick
heh heh.

I'll get to blogging that story tommorrow. Then I'll send a link to dubyaismypres and Dan.
224 posted on 01/26/2004 6:37:09 PM PST by Oschisms (What happens at CPAC stays at CPAC .)
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To: Billthedrill
But I did find just how wide the range of correlation is between substance abuse and paranoid schizophrenia HERE.

I agree. The scientists interviewed for the article were pretty clear that the causal realtionship is specifically between cannibis and mental illness, as opposed to the broader catagory of substance abuse.

As far as direct references go I found this one with no problem An Interview with Dr Nadia Solowij , and there are plenty of others available.

225 posted on 01/26/2004 6:40:52 PM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: Billthedrill
Apostasy(leaving Islam) is punishable by death. Mohammed said, "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him." Surah Vol. 9:57

Islam has a strong murderological base... ACT LIKE YOU BELIEVE IT OR DIE!... so most act, to do less is to be ostracized by your family and friends OR WORSE... Islam is organized chaos.

IN ISLAM--->> NO(bibical)SIN, NO responsiblty, NO real Law, No PITY, NO Mercy, NO Love, NO goodness, NO rightousness, NOthing HOLY.. basically just a gaggle of ruminations.. little wonder Islam and Sharia law are just a hyperbolic (mostly) con job by Mullahs puffing themselves up like scared cats.. proveing themselves by drinking camel piss( and worse) as Mohamaad demanded.. Islam is SO nasty most western minds can't even GRASP the whole of it all.. well, maybe Bill Clinton... Nah! its even beyond Klintoon..

Ayatollah Khomeini taught the proper way to have sex with babies and to perform beasitality CORRECTLY, a seriously sick individual, a TRUE BELIVER...

226 posted on 01/26/2004 6:50:28 PM PST by hosepipe
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To: missyme
Well, that would be me, for one, so make your own estimation. The voices in my head tell me I'm perfectly sane. ;-)

I think, to cut through all the wild claims on both sides, that pot is a mild psychoactive and a highly amusing diversion if playing with perception amuses you. For most people most of the time it's relatively harmless. For some people it seems to be habituating, for others it seems to precipitate conditions of real mental instability.

I used it for some time and no longer do because it became boring. Didn't find it difficult at all to give it up. That's a sample size of one, so it's entirely anecdotal. But it's the truth. Could it tip someone who's already unstable over the edge? My guess would be yes, it is a psychoactive. So it isn't either perfectly safe or a straight line to perdition, it, like practically anything else you put in your body, is somewhere in between. Just my $.02.

227 posted on 01/26/2004 6:53:11 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: jimt
"Reefer Madness" style propaganda, and just as silly.

Actually it's not. I know of many people who were effected by pot EXACTLY as the article describes. And I smoked pot regularly for over 20 years.

In fact now that I am turning 50, my friends who are still smoking pot exhibit the symptoms described in this article more and more.

I don't see where occasionally smoking pot is any big deal, but regular use can and does screw up people mentally and emotionally.

228 posted on 01/26/2004 6:53:43 PM PST by Jorge
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To: Oschisms
Let me know when it's up on the blog! Oh, and you can use my real first name (but not my last!). Maybe I'll *finally* have an interesting rep. ;D
229 posted on 01/26/2004 6:54:36 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick (Kaddafi is such a whack job that he never promoted himself past Colonel!)
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To: tacticalogic
Did you know....?

"In Australia, around one third of schizophrenia patients are daily users of cannabis, and such usage is known to exacerbate psychotic symptoms and lead to more frequent relapse episodes.

Research has also shown that long term heavy use of cannabis in people not affected by schizophrenia produces problems in memory, attention and motivation. As these are some of the attributes affected by the 'negative' symptoms of schizophrenia, a direct link is indicated between the effects of the drug and the illness." -NISAD Schizophrenia Research March 2003

230 posted on 01/26/2004 6:55:05 PM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: mac_truck
In this article the girl says she used LSD. To drop acid is to play Russian Roulette in that there is a chance that one's sanity may never return. Not a very good subject for a study to say the least.
231 posted on 01/26/2004 7:13:16 PM PST by TBall
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To: Billthedrill
The November 2000 British Medical Journal isn't, alas, available online)

I found this at the BMJ website More evidence establishes clear link between use of cannabis and psychiatric illness

how hard were you looking?

232 posted on 01/26/2004 7:13:26 PM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: mac_truck
I can't get that - sorry. Will try again from home.
233 posted on 01/26/2004 7:14:22 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: TBall
No one is suggesting tht the girl in the article was a subject of a study, or that the article was written by a scientist.

did you read the article or just the first few pargraphs?

234 posted on 01/26/2004 7:15:36 PM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: mac_truck
Well, a little diddlin' with the firewall later...

From the study you kindly linked:

Whether the use of cannabis triggers the onset of schizophrenia or depression in otherwise vulnerable people or whether it actually causes these conditions in non-predisposed people is not yet resolved.

Roughly the same about depression. It's pretty much what I suspected. Thanks!

235 posted on 01/26/2004 7:24:47 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: quidnunc
I became paranoid as soon as I started smoking it.

Maybe that should have been a clue that you should have stopped. What a circus freak !


236 posted on 01/26/2004 7:29:05 PM PST by unixfox (Close the borders, problems solved!)
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To: mac_truck
I just read the first few pargraphs.
237 posted on 01/26/2004 7:32:25 PM PST by TBall
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To: Huck
Actually, what I said was that a "A quick, cursory search turned up nothing."(post #48) Which is true.

I found a bunch. I don't see how some of can find thousands and you can't find any.

238 posted on 01/26/2004 7:37:16 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: Trailerpark Badass
I don't know, heroin's pretty darn common. You can find it virtually anywhere in this country, even rural areas. The only reason you haven't seen it is because you haven't been looking for it. If you were to look for it, you would find it, surprisingly easily.

I've seen about everything but heroin so I don't think you're right.

239 posted on 01/26/2004 7:43:53 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: F16Fighter
Are you implying smoking pot = drinking alcohol?

I'm implying that the same devastating effects can occur with alcohol... and much like many people can drink without ruining their lives, many people can smoke pot without ruining their lives.

240 posted on 01/26/2004 7:45:02 PM PST by Lunatic Fringe
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