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".
"Man, am I glad you're here. I've been calling myself a conservative for so long, and I'm embarrassed as all hell to find out I was wrong." "
So tell me: if I'm for Ron Paul, school vouchers, the NRA, legalization, capitalism, and Ann Coulter, and against abortion, Amnesty International, Susan Sarandon, government interference, and Hillary, am I a leftist?"
"I sure hope not. I hate to think I've been voting the wrong ticket for the last 15 years."
Good for you! At least you have some measure of good sense. Your support of legalizing drugs makes you one of the Libertarians that really ought to know better.
Forgive me for being sceptical, but I would really like to see that study. I find it hard to believe that any substance that impairs you mentally would have no effect on your driving, or your reaction time.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Personally, I don't want to share the road with drunk, or stoned drivers.
Destructor
Speaking of incomprehension I think that last one went over your head, so I'll explain. It does you no good to be literate and cultured, if you're stoned. You might think you're brilliant, but your thought process is impaired. You come off looking foolish at best.
Unless you happen to be doing cocaine.
No I'm not for legalizing cannabis, but I know that people are going to use it anyway. I can't sit around and worry about all of the fools that want to destroy themselves with drugs. Just stay out of your car. Don't make some innocent person pay for your stupid decision.
"Are you still so sure you hate it?"
I guess that could be construed as a benefit, if you have to be mentally impaired to express love.
I think you're ingnoring the fact that the lack of inhibitions can also lead to a lack of caution. Drugs can cause people to engage in risky behavior that leaves them open to catching sexually transmitted diseases such as: AIDS, Herpes, Hepatitis, etc.
As can alcohol. Far more than so than MJ.
"As can alcohol. Far more than so than MJ."
Not so Phantom. Alcohol and Marijuana both impair your thought process, and your ability to reason.
Last I checked, the favored tool of college guys to get girls in the sack was alcohol. Not pot. While used in conjunction may work even better, but when only one is ingested, alcohol would be the way to go.
While we're on different sides as far as decrim/legalization are concerned, I don't see making absolute assertions in either direction as constructive. As far as driving impairment goes, they're just now looking at the impairment levels caused by under-DUI levels of alcohol in combination with many OTC drugs and finding that the impairment level may be as bad as that from DWI levels of alcohol. IMHO, someone trying to talk on a cell phone in a car full of screaming kids can be just as dangerous as a drunk.
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