Posted on 09/28/2005 1:50:35 AM PDT by A CA Guy
“Cannabis is still seen as a risk-free drug despite mounting evidence that it can lead to serious mental health problems, particularly amongst young teenagers, people with a family history of severe mental illness and in long-term users.”
The charity called for the money to be spent on a massive public education campaign to inform users and potential users of the well-founded mental health dangers of using cannabis at a young age and over a long period of time.
Rethink chief executive Cliff Prior told the committee: “Cannabis is still seen as a risk-free drug despite mounting evidence that it can lead to serious mental health problems, particularly amongst young teenagers, people with a family history of severe mental illness and in long-term users.”
Rethink told the committee that other countries had woken up to the dangers and invested heavily in public health campaigns, despite far lower rates of usage than Britain .
“The government has a responsibility to inform people of the real risks and not hide behind a knee-jerk criminal justice response to what is a mounting health crisis,” said Mr Prior.
The committee heard from one service user about his experience of using cannabis and developing schizophrenia and was presented with testimony from other service users and family members about the impact cannabis had on their lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at rxpgnews.com ...
Rethink's evidence to the Advisory Council on the Mis-use of Drugs (Word, 237kB)
http://www.rethink.org/news+campaigns/campaigns/assets/Rethink%20evidence%20to%20ACMD%20sep%2005.doc
Rethink's evidence to the Advisory Council on the Mis-use of Drugs (Word, 237kB)
http://www.rethink.org/news+campaigns/campaigns/assets/Rethink%20evidence%20to%20ACMD%20sep%2005.doc
Nothing is risk free, but compared to alcohol and nicotine, pot is benign.
Shouldn't adults be able to decide for themselves? I have known many normal, well-adjusted pot smokers. Can't say the same for alcoholics.
The reason there are most laws at all are that many people don't have a common sense button in their head to begin with. If you live in an abandoned island, you could get away with what you wish.
If you want to live in society, you don't want to be out of your head and making irresponsible and supposedly adult decisions to use recreational drugs or to abuse alcohol.
Well, people do use alcohol and lots of other mind-influencing substances. Why should the government tell us what we can do in the privacy of our own homes? If sodomy is legal, why not marijuana?
Because people doing the recreational drugs don't have the sense of a brick and don't posses IMO the ability to know what is responsible in order to be responsible.
I do understand the ACLU does have libertarians helping them on issues like sodomy as well. I guess they like to sodomize at times while high in their recreational drugs.
I don't get that, but they should buy an island and move there to do that and even chase boys (maybe their own kids, keeping it in the family) if that is what they are into. Libertarians were with the ACLU on NAMBLA as well. That to me isn't conservative behavior or desires at all, you may differ in that view of course.
I know many people who have respectable careers and families and who also smoke pot. Not a big deal, really, except if they are caught and made into criminals. Again, why is it the business of the government what we do in the privacy of our own homes?
Why should there be ANY chance of their being subjected to law enforcement ... when an adult not caring for minors can get drunk as a skunk in his own home with no fear at all of being subjected to law enforcement?
I have no problem with that ... so long as they don't pretend it has any bearing on whether cannabis should be legal for adults.
Sure since your memory constantly fails, let me repeat an answer for you for about the 63rd time as I have on many other threads.
If adults are doing illegal recreational drugs, building bombs, screwing children, playing the radio so loud the neighbors can't have their peace... these are all logical things to stop by law. You harm others, infringe on their freedoms and can cause everyone all kinds of indirect costs from their antisocial behavior. There is nothing righteous about recreational self medication of illegal drugs.
People get addicted and terrorists in Iraq make money from it in ways like they do with cannabis.
False parallelism. All those acts ... except for using drugs ... are violations of rights or clear and present dangers to rights.
People get addicted
Ditto for the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco; shall we ban them too?
and terrorists in Iraq make money from it
Only because it's illegal; when alcohol was illegal, vicious criminals made money from it.
Not if you light that crap up near me...
It sounds like you are not benign, but pot is.
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