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".
That's just from having Alcohol as a legal drug. Do you really want to compound these problems by making drugs legal?
None of that happened prior to prohibition then I assume and returning to prohibition would reduce all of those. And muslim countries, where alcohol is prohibited, with death as punishment in some cases have none of those things happening i guess.
And France, where alcohol consumption is far higher than ours and people start drinking far younger than here must have a society so awash in those problems that it is nearly anarchy.
And how did the legalization of alcohol, when prohibition pratically built the Mafia in America cause organized crime to increase?
How is the legalization of alcohol the reason for higher hosptial costs and higher taxes? I think BIG GOVERNMENT is the cause of those.
The highest level of unemployement in American history happened during prohibition. So, to use your twisted logic on this thread, the legalization of alcohol was GOOD for unemployement as it decreased after it was legalized.
Your logic is more flawed and unfounded in reality than Johnny Toke after a night with his four footer.
Just admit it, you are just "opposed" to MJ being legal and you care not one bit as to why you are opposed and need no reasons nor will listen to anything that might upset your world view. You've been spoonfed your entire life that MJ is wrong, bad for you and that only evil people and druggies use it so it has to remain illegal. The movie Reefer Madness is more full of lies than a Clinton campaign speech, yet you seem to have bought it hook line and sinker.
You still have yet to give any reasons that MJ should continue to be illegal, and you havent even attempted to justify your opposition to MJ legalization on a legal or constitutional basis.
How about also listing other things that are currently legal that should be illegal because they might contribute to the items listed above by you or because someone might use them and then drive.
Your "stoned driver" argument died along time ago and you have yet to come up with anything else.
And just why did America "have to" legalize alcohol? And please, be specific and do your darndest to not use anything that could also be used as a reason "America had to legalize pot" because you dont want to continue to defeat yourself.
You leaned heavily on the notion that cannabis was psychologically addictive, physically addictive being out of the question. So I asked you why, if a person took care of his family, worked, ect, would you care. You said, "I don't."
Now, if you don't care, why do you not want it to be legal? Habit?
You think that your drug use doesn't have any impact on the world around you, and you're wrong. Drugs finance, or contribute to Terrorism, Organized Crime, Prostitution, Pornography, Murder, Rape, Street Crime just to name a few things.
It doesn't. Why do I say that? Because before all these drugs became illegal there was no terrorism to speak of. Organized crime wasn't organized (it became organized in the way you mean during alcohol prohibition). Pornography wasn't a problem. Murder, rape, street crime were there as always in human civilization but nothing like we have today.
It appears that all these things you mentioned had their genisis with the scheduling system for substances. That may be correlation, not causation, but nevertheless it's a fact.
You keep bearing down on the aspect of driving while stoned. You have enough knowledge of the central nervous system effects from drugs to know that alcohol is a CNS depressant and cannabis is a CNS stimulant, right?
Evidently you're not aware of the numerous studies that prove conclusively that cannabis actually makes a driver more careful and cautious. Why don't you read up on the topic before you generate fear based on ignorance? Fear based on ignorance led people to burn others at the stake. You don't want to be in that crowd, do you?
Educate yourself before you expound on a subject. Learn how to question your aassumptions and learn how to separate notions put into your head by conditioning using emotional triggers and that which arrived there by study, consideration and rational conclusion based on solid objective evidence.
I tried that gum as well but I couldn't afford to keep it up. Plus it didn't really work that well for me.
I'm going to have to suck it up and just stop here pretty soon though. My cheeks and gums have just about had it and I don't want to start losing teeth.
EBUCK
"If you think your 'rough and tumble' got to me, we have obviously not met before."
Apparently it did.
"See you at nut-cutting time, Mr. Transformer."
Maybe that will give you time to actually grow some!
I had to have that done when I got braces. Sorry to say this, but it hurt like hell!
What it all boils down to is that you dope users don't just want your chosen lifestyle accepted- you want it celebrated! God help us if that ever happens. America will go the way of the Roman Empire!!
How about cutting and pasting a post that says pot and pot smokers should be celebrated.
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