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? - --- MAP posted-by: Beth