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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: Xenalyte
Ah, yes. I can almost smell the...incense.

Gee, now I'm reminiscing about when I used to glide through rooms full of fellow students sitting in circles on the floor, listening to "Bleeker Street Theatre" on KAAY...

It's better than thinking about Boone's Farm. Just the thought of it makes me want to, er, run for the border.
241 posted on 01/26/2004 7:45:57 PM PST by Devil_Anse
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To: Huck; Monty22
Introduction to The Assassin Legends

"The Assassin legends, rooted in the general hostility of the Muslims towards the Ismailis and the Europeans’ own fanciful impressions of the Orient, evolved persistently and systematically during the Middle Ages. In time, these legends were taken, even by serious western chroniclers, to represent accurate descriptions of the practices of an enigmatic eastern community."
242 posted on 01/26/2004 7:47:51 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: mac_truck
"A direct link is indicated" is a long way from proof. I don't buy that from the environmentalists or the food police, either. I've got reason to doubt the veracity of the article, and have provided it. You haven't given me any reason to take it at face value.
243 posted on 01/26/2004 8:01:39 PM PST by tacticalogic (Controlled application of force is the sincerest form of communication.)
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To: LittleJoe
Yeah, right. Drug addicts are an emblem of "freedom". Did you notice my comment about ending the social welfare "safety net" and most drug addicts will either quit drugs or die. Add elimination of my money going to those who don't want to work, and that will go a long way to ending the drug problem.

I like my solution, druggies can still have pot and opium.

Freedom and license aren't the same thing.
244 posted on 01/26/2004 8:12:11 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: Xenalyte
What about those of us with black thumbs?

Then learn to garden. Good for the character.

245 posted on 01/26/2004 8:14:55 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: AdamSelene235
"GASP!!"--

You MAY HAVE "Stumbled Upon" one of the "Great Mysteries" of Life!!

Doc

246 posted on 01/26/2004 8:15:21 PM PST by Doc On The Bay
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To: Huck
Ha! Yeah, the BS is flowing hot and heavy in the UK, due to the reclassification upcoming on Thursday. More reefer madness, but then, what can you expect?
247 posted on 01/27/2004 5:24:27 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: quidnunc
‘After a couple of weeks, I found it was addictive’, she said.

Significantly less addictive than alcohol, actually. Shall we ban that, too?

248 posted on 01/27/2004 8:01:34 AM PST by Land of the Free 04
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To: mac_truck; jmc813; *Wod_list
I found this at the BMJ website More evidence establishes clear link between use of cannabis and psychiatric illness

"Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most common co-occurring disorder in people with schizophrenia."
Co-Occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and Schizophrenia
Robert E. Drake, M.D., Ph.D., and Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D.
Alcohol Research and Health, Volume 26, Number 2, 2002
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/99-102.pdf

Shall we ban alcohol, too?

249 posted on 01/27/2004 8:05:05 AM PST by Land of the Free 04
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To: Land of the Free 04
Cannibis and Mental Health:

"In the 1990s the use of cannabis increased much among young people so that it is now becoming more common than tobacco smoking in some countries.1-2 The ready availability of the drug, the increasing social disapproval of cigarette smoking, stern drink driving laws, and perceptions that cannabis is safe or less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol may explain these changes. The increase in use is of concern because cannabis may be a gateway to other drugs,3 and it may cause psychiatric illnesses. The link between cannabis and psychosis is well established, and recent studies have found a link between use of marijuana and depression."

There's a causal relationship between pot and schizophrenia. Sorry if that ruins your buzz.

250 posted on 01/27/2004 8:21:00 AM PST by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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To: quidnunc
The person cited in this ridiculous article was a loser long before weed appeared in her life.

I'm a Scotch and beer man myself, but this is pure hogwash.

251 posted on 01/27/2004 8:25:41 AM PST by wireman
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To: mac_truck
Cannibis and Mental Health:

You didn't answer my question:

"Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most common co-occurring disorder in people with schizophrenia."
Co-Occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and Schizophrenia
Robert E. Drake, M.D., Ph.D., and Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D.
Alcohol Research and Health, Volume 26, Number 2, 2002
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/99-102.pdf

Shall we ban alcohol, too?

"The link between cannabis and psychosis is well established"

Bunk. The first of the citations for this claim says quite differently:

"While this study provides some of the strongest evidence for a link between cannabis and psychosis, methodological concerns have been raised. These include the temporal gap between self-reported cannabis use at conscription and later schizophrenia, the potential confounding role of other substance use (particularly as amphetamines were a major drug of abuse during the study period), the adequacy of psychological assessment at conscription, and the reliability of self-reported drug use at conscription. [...]

"A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the prevalence of cannabis use in schizophrenia. Apart from the causation/precipitation role, it has been suggested that cannabis is used as self-medication for psychotic or dysphoric symptoms, or to ameliorate the side effects of antipsychotic drugs. Alternatively, the relationship may reflect the common peaks of onset of schizophrenia and cannabis use (particularly as prevalence samples are seldom compared with age- or sex-matched general population controls), or the role of underlying factors such as demographic differences."

252 posted on 01/27/2004 8:28:30 AM PST by Land of the Free 04
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To: Land of the Free 04
Facts are pesky things, especially for the propagandists.
253 posted on 01/27/2004 8:30:16 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: mac_truck
The nice folks over at HCI tell me the link between having a handgun in your home, and an increased probablility of someone in your home committing suicide is well established. They seem to think this entitles them to claim a causal affect between gun ownership and suicide. Can you tell me people should buy your arguments, but not theirs?
254 posted on 01/27/2004 8:37:17 AM PST by tacticalogic (Controlled application of force is the sincerest form of communication.)
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To: tacticalogic
Obviously, some are ignorant of the meaning of the term "causal".
255 posted on 01/27/2004 8:38:53 AM PST by Wolfie
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To: quidnunc
My 2 cents?

I smoked pot daily when I was 17. I quit cold turkey to enter the military. I got all of the withdrawal symtoms; insomnia, lack of appetite, DEPRESSION-- Major depression.

Maybe depression was latent in me? Maybe being so young I was hit harder by the effects? I don't know.

What I do know, is that that feeling/experience of depression has always been with me since. Like a smoker of cigarettes who quits, KNOWING what smoking feels like is always there and therefore so is the danger of relapse.

Say what you will, I believe if I had never started smoking pot, I would not have had such and intense depressive episode, and would not be prone to them currently.

Am I just like that, or did pot make some connection/disconnect that could have otherwise never surfaced? No clue, but I wish I never started...
256 posted on 01/27/2004 8:51:34 AM PST by CygnusXI (Where's that dang Meteor already?)
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To: Cultural Jihad
And Paul is barefoot and out of step with the other Beatles which means ..... HE'S DEAD!

Remember that one?

257 posted on 01/27/2004 10:30:22 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Land of the Free 04
"A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the prevalence of cannabis use in schizophrenia."

No doubt. But isn't this about the prevalence of schizophrenia in cannabis users?

258 posted on 01/27/2004 10:44:49 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: robertpaulsen
"Perhaps the more worrying question is whether cannabis causes chronic psychosis, particularly schizophrenia."
259 posted on 01/27/2004 10:50:11 AM PST by Land of the Free 04
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To: LittleJoe
Is he a reefer smoker?
260 posted on 01/27/2004 1:59:27 PM PST by justshutupandtakeit (America's Enemies foreign and domestic agree: Bush must be destroyed.)
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