Cannabis in the United Kingdom.

Scruff · 07-03-2008, 04:28 AM

As many of Britain's stoners may be aware, Cannabis is being reclassified to a class B drug. Meaning, the possession alone can warrant a jail punishment. But really is Cannabis a threat to our health or our society? It appears to me that given the binge drinking culture in the UK, cannabis (given it's effects on our health) is the least of our problems.

I wrote the following about the Cannabis legalization argument.

' Legalization of Marijuana.

One of the questions which has puzzled Governments, medical institutions and the public alike over the years is; ‘Should the public use of Marijuana’ be legalized? There are various arguments both for and against, but it is my personal opinion that those campaigning for stricter punishment of cannabis users are nothing but overly conservative idiots that prefer to place their trust in the Government to spoon feed them false facts to make them feel secure rather than exercise their basic rights and individual freedoms. For this argument, I would like to compare two substances which both have had plenty of controversy surrounding them as to whether they should be legal, or whether large Government should impede on our freedoms to make us feel ‘secure’. The two substances I am referring to are alcohol and marijuana.

Before marijuana was considered a ‘threat to our society’ it was openly used in various medicines and painkillers, interestingly enough this lasted all the way up to around the same time that prohibition of alcohol plagued the United States of America. However, in today’s America and the rest of the modern world alcohol is legal to buy and consume from the private sector. Why is this? Perhaps the Government realized that the effects of alcohol on people’s health were too minimal to make such a large fuss about. No, it was because the prohibition of Alcohol was an infringement on the basic liberties of the American people. There are various other reasons of course why the catastrophe of Prohibition fell through, but those only came to light after the American economy collapse of 1929.

Interestingly enough however, Marijuana has been illegal for private use and consumption for many years in most modern societies. Everyday the Government finds new ways to scare us with inaccurate facts about the use of marijuana which I can only refer to as scare tactics. But, why is this exactly? Does – (as most uneducated, indoctrinated people seem to believe) marijuana have a more harmful effect on the human body and society than alcohol? Well, let’s look at the facts;
The United Kingdom has a massive problem with a new culture which appears to have risen out of nowhere; I’m of course talking about binge drinking. The use of alcohol in the UK has put continuous strain on the economy, health system and law system in order for us to cope with the irresponsible idiots that go out on a Saturday night and get completely ‘bladdered’. In 2003, the cost of binge drinking on the NHS was estimated as £20 billion. In January 2005, it was reported that one million admissions to UK accident and emergency units each year are alcohol-related; in many cities, Friday and Saturday nights are by far the busiest periods for ambulance services. In addition, alcohol-related problems are responsible for up to 15,000 deaths per year, this figure does not include the 1.3 million children who have their lives ruined by an alcoholic parent and the 560 people were killed in crashes in which a driver was over the legal limit in the last year alone. The facts suggest that alcohol-related accidents and illnesses land around 150,000 people in hospital each year in the UK and about 2 in 100 women and about 6 in 100 men are alcohol dependent. Now that we’ve seen the figures to show what exactly the consumption of alcohol does to society and our bodies we can begin to understand why more than 2,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with liver cancer each year, most of which are alcohol related.

When we compare these facts to those of marijuana users in the UK we begin to understand the scary contradiction that the Government is making by enforcing strict punishment on cannabis users. According to the 2007 UN report on drugs 8.7% of England and Wales smokes cannabis on a regular basis, interestingly enough this figure is higher than use in Holland. Meanwhile, in the United States 12% of the population smoke cannabis and in Canada 17% of the population smokes the drug. How many Canadians, Americans and British people have died from a direct use of cannabis in the past 7 years? The CIA factsheet which has recorded these facts finds that 0.00 people have died from a cannabis related death in almost a decade. I quote; ‘An exhaustive search of literature finds there are no credible reports of deaths induced by marijuana. - Marijuana alone has not been shown to cause death by overdose.’ Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that Cannabis is directly biologically addictive, it’s suggested that cannabis is psychologically addictive but this can neither be proven nor disproven. Cannabis users suffer no withdrawal symptoms and marijuana has been proven to be less addictive than nicotine, alcohol and even caffeine. Furthermore, the chemical THC in cannabis has been shown to have a negative correlation to lung cancer and as a whole, the drug has a soothing effect which makes it highly suitable for medicinal use.

While I accept that the use of cannabis amongst children and very young teens can lead to psychological effects. Particularly in the case of educing psychosis, we also need to take into account that youths aged 12 to 17 who reported they consumed alcohol on a regular basis were more than twice as likely to commit suicide during this time period. Girls aged 12 to 16 who are current drinkers are four times more likely than their nondrinking peers to suffer from depression, not to mention of course the sharp increase in the chance of developing an alcohol related illness and developing cancer amongst young-drinkers.

I’m not suggesting that cannabis should be used by everyone, especially not young people and children. I do however find it largely hypocritical that substances like marijuana which has been proven time and time again to be less harmful that most legal substances, not only to our bodies but our society in general, should be illegal. As I said at the beginning of this essay, it is my personal belief that the anti-cannabis legality movement consists of idiots who buy into Government scare tactics and overly conservative toffs, who refuse to accept that the urge to alter ones mental state is a basic human instinct, similar to that of the urge for sexual fulfillment. It appears that the Native American Indians who farmed cattle and smoked the peace pipe were considerably more intelligent than the Government and right wing, not only in this country; but all over the world. If it harms you, don’t do it. If it doesn’t – go right ahead. I’m not against the consumption of alcohol. You’ll have to forgive me if my argument comes across that way, but I am someone who believes in an individual’s right to choose, but to be responsible with that choice. I don’t think children should smoke pot, but I don’t think they should be consuming alcohol either. I don’t think alcohol should be illegal, but I don’t think cannabis (which I hopefully just proved is less harmful that alcohol) should be illegal either.'

I am a cannabis user, and I feel strongly about the 'scare tactics' I mentioned in the above essay..
Opinions?