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".
HOWEVER - it worked, and the tooth they did the graft on never felt better. I felt it was worth it. Just make sure you have some non narcotic (in case you have to work) pain killers. You will be more than happy with the result, as I was.
I do want to quit "the pinch". Unfortunately. the FDA had banned the latest crutch - nicotine water (probably because they could not figure out how to tax it).
I enjoy my nicotine. But the side products that surround it make me sure I need to quit. Maybe I'll try the hypnosis that someone commented on.
More power to you. When I was off, I wanted to tear a tree out of the ground out of frustration. The gum helped a bit. Now I know what my Dad went through when he quit smoking his constant Winstons. I hope you keep it up.
Sorry. No more e-mail address. If you were planning to be an asshole and send me embarassing stuff in the mail, because you don't agree with me, or I pissed you off- too bad! You'll just have to get that information somewhere else. Happy hunting Psycho!!
I'd rather blame it on Clinton.
This is a nice evening - They let us out of work early, I got my housework done, the windows are open and I hear fireworks going off all over the neighborhood. I might have to join in later.
I was ready to apply for a job near there, but Pittsburgh was a bit closer to home, and I got the job here. My old company had a contract with Bethlehem Steel, which is what I was trying to get into. Is Rendell heavily supported around where you live?
Try this.
Destructor: Have a beer, it is perfectly legal in most parts of the country and I think it would help you to put things into perspective.
How about your area?
"Don't boggart the Doritos, my friend, pass them over to me........"
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