Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jun 2005
Source: Journal, The (UK)
Section: Regional news
Copyright: Trinity Mirror 2005
Contact:  http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3752
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TRUTH ABOUT CANNABIS

Cannabis resin is a dangerous drug which, when smoked, can trigger 
psychotic mental disorders such as schizophrenia in young users whose 
brains are yet to develop fully.

This has been established repeatedly by large-scale research in several 
countries. It is cause enough for the Government to rethink the 
classification of the drug, to send a message to users and dealers alike 
that it is dangerous.

It is an irony of nature that, if early research being done in Newcastle 
bears fruit, it could also be the source of a medicine to help sufferers of 
a quite different but equally devastating mental disorder - manic depression.

Further work in this area is clearly warranted. Extracts of active 
ingredients found in the cannabis plant offer the potential to provide 
relief not just in this area but for sufferers of multiple sclerosis, where 
research is a little further advanced.

This is not just true of the cannabis plant but of many other herbal 
remedies used by our ancestors and containing medicinal properties which 
could be better exploited.

The sadness is that the vocal minority who believe the cannabis drug is 
safe and should be legalised will seize on the Newcastle research to back 
their cause.

This is a bogus argument: Heroin was developed as a painkiller but no-one 
would argue its regular and unrestrained use is anything but harmful.

Bogus or not, it is a further headache for parents trying to warn their 
children of the danger of drug use.

That is why it is so important that the Government pushes ahead with its 
review of cannabis classification with due speed, to clear up the confusion 
it has itself created.

After all, you would have to be an idiot to think the latest research means 
cannabis is harmless or good for you.

But then what kind of person buys drugs off a backstreet dealer in the 
first place?
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MAP posted-by: Beth