Posted on 04/18/2009 7:55:20 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Advisers manning the “Frank” helpline are informing callers they believed to be children as young as 13 that alcohol is a “much more powerful drug than cannabis” and that using the illegal drug recreationally is not harmful because it “doesn’t get you that high”.
Callers are also being told that taking ecstasy will not lead to long-term damage and that if they are in doubt, to “just take half a pill and if you are handling that OK, you can take the other half.”
The advice, given to reporters who rang the helpline posing as young people, has alarmed anti-drugs campaigners who branded it “scandalous” and “irresponsible.”
After being presented with the findings, the Government last night said it had launched an immediate investigation into the Frank service, which is funded by three separate departments, and said it would be taking action advisers involved.
Chris Grayling, the shadow Home Secretary, said: “The idea that the Government’s helpline should be saying to young people “go for it” and that cannabis should be class C when it has just been classified by the Government as class B, shows that the Home Office is all over the place in its approach to drugs.”
Professor Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research, at Glasgow University, said: “Having read one of the transcripts, it is extraordinary that the Frank councillor seems more concerned to place cannabis smoking in some kind of comfort zone of acceptable behaviour rather than address the risks of such drug use on the part of a 13-year-old child.”
Mary Brett, a spokesman for the Talking About Cannabis charity, said: “It is scandalous. These people are talking to kids, for goodness sake. Taking drugs can trigger all kinds of psychosis in people that have a genetic predisposition to it. Why are they
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
A Monty Python sketch, right?
Fwank? As in Bawney Fwank?
Kids shouldn’t do anything until they’re adults.
It is.
“From 2001–2005, there were approximately 79,000 deaths annually attributable to excessive alcohol use. In fact, excessive alcohol use is the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for people in the United States each year.”
Center for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/
When I was a kid LSD was legal. You could go into the local headshop/waterbed store and get a fist full of sugar cubes free from a box always kept on the checkout counter. Each was supposed to have 100ug ...at least that is what was on a little index card taped to the counter.
Took a hand full once...never had the courage to try them...eventually just tossed em away.
How is that inaccurate? It is possible to sit down and drink enough alcohol to kill you. I don't think anyone has ever found a fatal dose of THC.
It's highly damaging to every organ system in the body if chronically abused, can kill you if you overdose on it acutely, and is one of a surprisingly small number of substances that is proven to cause birth defects. Moreover, it causes loss of judgment and inhibitions that leads to a much higher risk of violence and accidents.
Really, there is no comparison at all. It is far more dangerous than marijuana by any reasonable medical standard.
Indeed, alcohol is deleterious to every organ system it touches. I would rather see alcohol banned and cannabis legal. Drunk driving deaths alone would plummet.
I've been guilty of all of the above. I smoked a lot of weed back in the day, and also drank a lot back in the day.
Marijuana is much safer - not even close.
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