Pubdate: Fri, 31 May 2002
Source: Hull Daily Mail (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Northcliffe Newspapers Group Ltd
Contact:  http://www.thisishull.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1181
Author: Carl Wagner

LITTLE PROFIT IN CANNABIS CURE

The answer to the question that asks whether cannabis is an illegal drug or 
a medicine is, of course, that it is both of these things.

Geoff Ogden, anti-drugs co-ordinator, would have us believe that cannabis 
is illegal because it's dangerous, and tries to justify the Government's 
immoral stance by insisting more research is needed. This is nonsense.

Unlike many of today's synthetic alternatives, cannabis has stood the test 
of time and has been used by millions for thousands of years without ever 
being held responsible for a single death - despite endless 
Government-sponsored research to try to prove that cannabis causes anything 
from cancer to baldness.

Cannabis is not an addictive substance; it's not a gateway to hard drugs, 
and health-related costs of cannabis use are negligible when compared to 
those of alcohol and tobacco.

Billions of pounds are wasted each year providing ineffective medicines to 
people who claim to experience more benefit from cannabis.

There are thousands suffering from cancer, Aids, multiple sclerosis, spinal 
injury, epilepsy, asthma, insomnia and stress-related illnesses who admit 
to needing to resort to cannabis to relieve their pain. And many of these, 
bizarrely, are taken to the courts!

The truth is that herbal cannabis in natural forms would yield little 
profit for pharmaceutical corporations, while eliminating in the long term 
profit-driven patent drugs. Why allow people to use a safe plant for 
pennies when you can sell them a pill for a pound?

Carl Wagner, Legalise Cannabis Alliance, Victoria Square, Hull.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens