Pubdate: Tue, 12 Mar 2002
Source: Dominion, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2002 The Dominion
Contact:  http://www.dominion.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/128

CHILD ABUSE THROUGH POT

In moments of clarity, even advocates of decriminalising cannabis must be 
appalled bu the revelation that in the past six years 33 children under 
21/2 years have been treated in North Island hospitals for cannabis 
poisoning. Causing comas and muscle spasms in toddlers, they will insist, 
is not at all what they want.

Repugnant as it may be to them, they are part of the problem. The spread of 
cannabis among mature users gives the drug a spurious respectability, makes 
ot somehow socially acceptable to smoke it and, perhaps most importantly, 
greatly increases its availability. their demand encourages growers to 
cultivate their crops and distributors to keep up the supply. The fact that 
most adults probably do not want to make it readily available to teenagers, 
still less to send comatose babies to hospital, does not diminish the part 
they play in creating a climate where that is bound to happen.

This is still an illegal drug, and for good reason. Stoned parents who 
leave cannabis oil capsules lying around where infants can reach them, or 
dopey parents who puff smoke over their children or fail to keep them out 
of smoke-filled rooms, are irresponsible beyond belief. This is child abuse 
by means of cannabis.

Wanganui doctor John Goldsmith fears that the number of hospital admissions 
revealed in his survey of five hospitals gives only a hint of the extent of 
the abuse nationally. He is also concerned that lack of medical awareness 
of the problem, compounded by parents' embarrassed reluctance to disclose 
the full circumstances of the illness, may lead to inappropriate treatment. 
Again, the adverse effects fall on the child.

Dr Goldsmith's timely warning is only one in a series in the past 
fortnight. Equally distressing is the news that idiotic adults are using 
children to smuggle cannabis and other drugs past prison guards to gratify 
the cravings of inmates. If this is the level of care and responsibility 
they show, their children would be better growing up away from their 
baleful influence.

Harm to teenage users is also so well documented that it takes a special 
kind of defiance, ignorance, insecurity or stupidity - or possibly all four 
- - even to have a puff. Regular use prevents the cells of the maturing brain 
from making connections, clouds short-term memory, dampens the ability to 
think and plan ahead, and impairs learning. Teachers despair when pupils 
lose their way and waft out of the knowledge society in a weedy haze. Idle 
chatter about making the drug legal, or at least removing the criminal 
stigma, confuses the issues by conveying the impression that there is 
nothing to worry about.

There is - including for adults. Wellington Coroner Garry Evans warned this 
month about the danger of smoking pot before driving. Mixing its use with 
alcohol makes it worse. Pregnant women who smoke it can damage the brain of 
the developing foetus. For people with schizophrenia, it increases the 
likelihood of psychotic episodes. In some settings it may expose users to 
even more harmful drugs. It makes most sense to steer clear of it - and not 
to relax the law.
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