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Lothar121

Cannabis as Bad as Heroin, Warns UN Drugs Watchdog
Gerri Peev | Scotsman | 06/26/06

THE drugs watchdog of the United Nations has rebuked the UK government's policy change on cannabis, saying it sent a confusing message to young people.

UN experts also warned that a major increase in the potency of cannabis means it now poses health risks similar to those of heroin.

The decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug - made by the Home Secretary in 2004 - was implicitly criticised by Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, who warned of the growth in its use.

Cannabis had become more potent in the past few decades and governments that maintained inadequate policies got the "drug problem they deserve", Mr Costa said in the 2006 World Drug Report.

"Policy reversals leave young people confused as to just how dangerous cannabis is," he added. "

The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health, requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political spectrum and by society at large."

He warned governments against playing party politics with the classification of cannabis as its harmful effects were "no longer that different" to the damage caused by cocaine and heroin.

His remarks were made on UN Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

But the Home Office stood by its decision to maintain cannabis as Class C.

A spokesman said: "Cannabis is controlled as a Class C drug. It is harmful and illegal and no-one should take it. In January 2006 the Home Secretary accepted the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommendation that cannabis remain a Class C drug. This decision to retain its classification is supported by the police and by most drug and mental health charities."

The Home Office said that consumption of cannabis had fallen from more than 28 per cent to 24 per cent in 16-24 year olds.

Scotland has one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with an estimated 50,000 addicts. At least half a million Scots are believed to have smoked cannabis and 200,000 are believed to have taken cocaine.

Last week, Tom Wood, Scotland's drug tsar, sparked controversy by suggesting the nation had "lost the war on drugs".

The European Commission has admitted that drug abuse in the bloc and the deaths it causes have reached "unprecedented" levels and that in any given month, 1.5 million Europeans take cocaine and 12 million use cannabis.

Since David Blunkett, the former home secretary, downgraded cannabis to a class C, ministers have proposed much lower limits for possession of the drug before an individual is prosecuted as a dealer. In contrast, the Dutch parliament is considering allowing the controlled cultivation of cannabis while Italy has also taken a softer stance.

The European Commission is asking for input into its drugs policy review from July to September.

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Buzzby

Where is their support for this assertion? Heroin is highly physically addictive. Marijuana is usually not physically addictive at all. Heroin is highly toxic. There is no practical lethal overdose level for marijuana. As with all psychoactive drug users, marijuana users use as much as they want to reach a desired state: it doesn't matter how potent it is.


If Costa is concerned about the effects of drug use, why isn't he railing against alcohol and tobacco? (I've heard that they can now make 100% alcohol! ) They kill their millions. Marijuana kills no one.


Prohibition leaves young people confused about the real dangers of drugs because stupid officials claim that marijuana (which almost everyone knows is harmless) is as dangerous as heroin.

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nerphroll

How sneaky. As if these "unprecedented" deaths can be blamed on cannabis simply by combining this usage statistic in the same sentence as "death". Nice try. If only this and other reefer madness idiots were held to the same standards of actually citing supporting evidence for "scientific" claims.

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HELP ME IVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 13 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!
PURIFY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

InsomniacMG

How did they expect to win? I guess it would be fine if everyone using cannabis transitioned into chronic alcoholics, pill poppers and tobacco users? Then no one is technically using drugs right? (apparently once made legal a drug is no longer considered a drug?) Maybe the solution to the drug war for Tom Wood is to simply confuse the populace so much about drugs with false information and statements contradicting scientific evidence that everyone's heads just explode.

replica

Pure reefer madness.

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sleep please

Moderation is a smoker's best friend

More Rights, Please.

 

reggie_the_dog

"The cannabis pandemic, like other challenges to public health, requires consensus, a consistent commitment across the political spectrum and by society at large."

this comes from the UN, the UN considers me and folks like me to be a PANDEMIC, like the BIRD FLU, or AIDS, that needs to be eradicated.

Kofie Annan, FUCK YOU, HOW DARE YOU AND YOUR MINONS CONSIDER ME AND THOSE LIKE ME WORTHY OF ERADICATION...

do you want to kill us off as they did the American Indians????

Do you want to FORCE me to quit using cannabis??? (good luck, I got hash to last 6 months, plants in the forest and a shitload of seeds because every time I find a seed in a bag I save it (and I buy them in stores too here in France and in the Netherlands)).

WHAT STUDY SAYS CANNABIS IS STRONGER TODAY???
HERE IN EUROPE MOST CANNABIS TODAY IS HASH, MOST CANNABIS 30 YEARS AGO WAS HASH, IT ROUGHLY THE SAME QUALITY ACCORDING TO STUDIES DONE BY THE FRENCH GOVT. WHERE DID YOU DO YOUR STUDIES KOFIE????? DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT THEY SUDDENLY GROW BETTER WEED IN THE HINDU KUSH MOUNTAINS??????


"The European Commission has admitted that drug abuse in the bloc and the deaths it causes have reached "unprecedented" levels and that in any given month, 1.5 million Europeans take cocaine and 12 million use cannabis."

Here in France there are 70 million inhabitants, its safe to say that 20 percent of us (or 14 million of us smoke in a given month). So mr. UN man, how is it possible that out of the 400 million europeans only 3 percent smoke in a given month????
YOU ARE SO OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY,

even a low estimate of 10 percent would count for 40 MILLION CONSUMERS PER MONTH in Europe

THE UN IS OUR ENEMY, THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH ALCOHOL OR TOBACCO BUT CONSIDER US CANNABIS USERS A PANDEMIC; WELL PERHAPS WE SHOULD TRY TO "INFECT" NEW FOLKS WITH THE DESIRE TO USE CANNABIS.

PS KOFIE, DONT EXPECT ME TO GIVE A SHIT NEXT TIME YOU ARE TELLING THE WORLD WHY WE NEED TO SAVE SUCH AND SUCH GROUP OF PEOPLE FROM STARVATION OR GENOCIDE, SEEING AS YOU WANT TO ERADICATE ME ANYWAY I CONSIDER YOU MY ENEMY AND WILL NOT HELP YOUR ORGANIZATION IN ANY WAY

nacrypt

AMEN! What ever happened to the days when the rights and freedoms of man were self-evident?

This is really a question of personal freedom vs. the government's ability to regulate and control society. Because marijuana is clearly less dangerous than alcohol there is no argument based on pharmacology than could support banning marijuana while permitting alcohol.

Marijuana is popular enough that it is obvious that people desire the freedom to use it. We deserve a legal structure that allows us to do so. Anything less will not be acceptable.

I, for one, will NOT stop using marijuana because the UN or any other political group says they know what is good for me better than I do!

grady_tripp

Because I like all things in moderation, I can't bring myself to get all 'fuck you, UN, bastards wanna take away my right to smoke weed...' A certain righteous anger is appropriate, but I'm almost more troubled than angry at the insidious nature of the following comment:

To me, this was the most telling--and most disturbing--statement in the article. Consensus--for the sake of political efficiency--(re: making their jobs easier) at the expense of critical thought, scientific exploration, and ultimately, truth. It smacks of the current American administration's loyalty oaths and intolerance of dissenting opinions in the name of national security and patriotism. Unnerving.