Posted on 07/02/2002 8:56:30 AM PDT by WindMinstrel
Health officials in Geneva have suppressed the publication of a politically sensitive analysis that confirms what ageing hippies have known for decades: cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco.
According to a document leaked to New Scientist, the analysis concludes not only that the amount of dope smoked worldwide does less harm to public health than drink and cigarettes, but that the same is likely to hold true even if people consumed dope on the same scale as these legal substances.
The comparison was due to appear in a report on the harmful effects of cannabis published last December by the WHO. But it was ditched at the last minute following a long and intense dispute between WHO officials, the cannabis experts who drafted the report and a group of external advisers.
s As the WHO's first report on cannabis for 15 years, the document had been eagerly awaited by doctors and specialists in drug abuse. The official explanation for excluding the comparison of dope with legal substances is that "the reliability and public health significance of such comparisons are doubtful". However, insiders say the comparison was scientifically sound and that the WHO caved in to political pressure. It is understood that advisers from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse and the UN International Drug Control Programme warned the WHO that it would play into the hands of groups campaigning to legalise marijuana.
One member of the expert panel which drafted the report, says: "In the eyes of some, any such comparison is tantamount to an argument for marijuana legalisation." Another member, Billy Martin of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, says that some WHO officials "went nuts" when they saw the draft report.
The leaked version of the excluded section states that the reason for making the comparisons was "not to promote one drug over another but rather to minimise the double standards that have operated in appraising the health effects of cannabis". Nevertheless, in most of the comparisons it makes between cannabis and alcohol, the illegal drug comes out better--or at least on a par--with the legal one.
The report concludes, for example, that "in developed societies cannabis appears to play little role in injuries caused by violence, as does alcohol". It also says that while the evidence for fetal alcohol syndrome is "good", the evidence that cannabis can harm fetal development is "far from conclusive".
Cannabis also fared better in five out of seven comparisons of long-term damage to health. For example, the report says that while heavy consumption of either drug can lead to dependence, only alcohol produces a "well defined withdrawal syndrome". And while heavy drinking leads to cirrhosis, severe brain injury and a much increased risk of accidents and suicide, the report concludes that there is only "suggestive evidence that chronic cannabis use may produce subtle defects in cognitive functioning".
Two comparisons were more equivocal. The report says that both heavy drinking and marijuana smoking can produce symptoms of psychosis in susceptible people. And, it says, there is evidence that chronic cannabis smoking "may be a contributory cause of cancers of the aerodigestive tract".
FYI: On a serious note: I hope you don't ever lose a friend, because they make a bad/irresponsible decision. I sincerely hope that you never lose someone you love to a DUI, or DWI!
It's ashame that you can't make an argument without speaking ill of the dead. It reflects poorly on your parents, and your general upbringing!
12. No one has ever died of a marijuana overdose
This is true. It was put in to see if you are paying attention. Animal tests have revealed that extremely high doses of cannabinoids are needed to have lethal effect. This has led scientists to conclude that the ratio of the amount of cannabinoids necessary to get a person intoxicated (i.e., stoned) relative to the amount necessary to kill them is 1 to 40,000. In other words, to overdose, you would have to consume 40,000 times as much marijuana as you needed to get stoned. In contrast, the ratio for alcohol varies between 1 to 4 and 1 to 10. It is easy to see how upwards of 5000 people die from alcohol overdoses every year and no one EVER dies of marijuana overdoses.
EBUCK
I think the IFG should have NO say on the matter. If some states want MJ to be legal and others illegal, as a constitutional matter, that is the way to go in my opinion.
Smoking a joint deprives no one of their life, liberty, or property through either force or fraud. Therefore, in my febile grey matter, I think it should be legal.
I also think it should be treated like alcohol in a legal sense. Minimum purchase and use age, along with harsh penalties for driving under the influence.
Are you still so sure you hate it?
Mr. Atomic Vomit
With THC, there is no such fundamental change. With long term, heavy usage, THC can build up in certain portions of the brain affecting short term memory and cognative functions. Cessation of usage and time clean out this build up.
Alcohol destroys portions of the brain via swelling of the tissues due to displacement of water with alcohol. This swelling is where the hang-over comes from.
From a purely physiological stand point, dope is definately better for recreational usage than tobacco or alcohol.
I am not sure about the 'more addictive than cocain and heroin' stuff, but I do notice that many former cocain and heroin addicts continue to not be able to quit smoking after quitting the other drugs. But thats just what I have observed and have never seen any scientific study on the matter.
I'm sorry your friend died. I lost my best friend in a car wreck because he was too tired to be driving, and wasn't wearing his seat belt, but I don't see mandatory seat belt laws, or "felony driving while tired" laws as a solution.
Sorry about telling it like it is but..that is the way it is. Your friend is just lucky that he didn't kill someone else as a result of his actions. I'd have much worse to say about him.
I'm also sorry that you don't have an argument. None of those that agree with you do either. The proof/evidence has been on display for years yet you thick-headed folk won't give in. A testament to your stubborness but nothing else.
EBUCK
So what? So are hot fudge sundaes, and about as easy to kick and so is "social security" and is harder to kick. So long as the person raises his children, works his job, takes care of his family, respects the rights of others and minds his own business, why should you care? 
Someone who thinks cannabis contains more nicotine than tobacco has no business wielding that parenthesized comment.
...and SOBER!!!
EBUCK
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