Pompo

Europe: Marijuana Less Harmful Than Alcohol or Tobacco, Says British Drug Think-Tank
10/3/08|StoptheDrugWar.org|Drug War Chronicle, Issue #554

Smoking marijuana is less harmful than smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, said the British think-thank the Beckley Foundation in a report announced Thursday. (The report is not online -- it will be published by Oxford University Press -- but see the foundation's Cannabis Commission web page for its outlines.)

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," said the report. "Many of the harms associated with cannabis use are the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment," it said.

The report comes as the British government is moving to reschedule marijuana from a Class C drug to a more heavily-punished Class B drug. British officials have expressed great concern over the potency of marijuana, especially "skunk," which is apparently their generic name for any high-potency, home-grown weed, and its links to mental health problems in some users.

Rescheduling marijuana is the wrong way to go, said the foundation. "It is only through a regulated market that we can better protect young people from the ever more potent forms of dope," it said.

Now, we will see if the British government pays any attention. So far, it has resolutely ignored repeated reports finding that marijuana should be a Class C drug, or even legalized and regulated.

SpiralArchitect

Wow. It looks like they are finally getting it.

Or not....

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Buzzby

It's interesting how "cannabis psychosis" has become accepted as part of reality by Brits who are not part of the prohibitionist crowd, while no exemplars of this "disease" seem to occur anywhere but in the UK and some of its former colonies.

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dirtbomb

The first time I saw any references to it was in Harry Shapiro's book "Recreational Drugs A Directory". (Salamander Books, 2004)
Published in the U.K.
I wonder if Gordon Brown and his henchmen read it in the same place and just consider this B.S. to be fact?
This misinformed tome also states that Marijuana causes Lung Cancer.
More crap presented as truth.

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byrned

I think its finally time that some intelligent, unbiased people started to realize that marijuana actually isn't that bad, ESPECIALLY in comparison to other, legal, substances (alcohol and tobacco).

420lovethatCHRONIC

YES!!! Finally they realized the truth that 2 things that are legal are more harmful than something thats illegal.... now to get everyone else to see it that way and make some changes......

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Long you'll live and high you'll fly and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry and all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. - Pink Floyd

When you smoke the herb it reveals you to yourself - Bob Marley

Victor_vicious

The think tank people have always gotten it, they have been saying this for years. VV

420lovethatCHRONIC

Well my bad this is the first ive heard of it

Bexie

It`s simple, marijuana is best for me. No laws can stop me from smoke it!

Getzhighnakd

legalize it and tax it. billions of dollars saved trying to fight it, billions of dollars made available via taxes from sales. use that tax money to better fund america's schools and help eliminate poverty. im just saying, the priorities of our country are seriously fubar