Pubdate: Sat, 5 Sep 1998
Source: Associated Press

A CONTROVERSIAL DRUG WHICH CAN HEAL

A "cannabis congress" looking into how the legalisation of soft drugs
could work in practice was being held in London today.

Cannabis sativa or Indian hemp, marijuana, pot, tea, weed, hash,
ganja, dope, Mary Jane and countless other nicknames is a hardy plant
which grows all over the world and has been in use for thousands of
years.

It is now the sixth most important glasshouse crop in Holland, after
tomatoes.

The active ingredient in cannabis is tetrahydrocannibol (THC). The
dried leaves of the plant are smoked and, depending on the THC
content, induce a mildly euphoric state.

Users may also smoke crumbled resinous bits from pressed blocks of
leaves and the most highly prized parts of the plant (because they
contain the highest THC content) are the flowering tops.

The decriminalisation debate is not new on 24 July 1967, 65 prominent
people signed an advertisement in The Times calling for cannabis
legalisation. The ad began: "The law against marijuana is immoral in
principle and unworkable in practice."

Cannabis sativa has been used as a medicine for centuries to treat
pain, asthma, dysentry, sleeplessness, nausea, and convulsions.
Medicinal use of cannabis was especially prominent in the 19th
century. British doctors were allowed to prescribe cannabis as an oral
tincture until 1971.

More recently it has been claimed that cannabis can prevent nausea
caused by cancer chemotherapy, alleviate muscle spasms from multiple
sclerosis, relieve chronic pain, and help in the treatment of
anorexia, epilepsy, glaucoma, and mood disorders.

Cannabis is a "dirty drug", meaning that it contains a lot of
different substances. There are more than 400 chemicals in cannabis,
some of which are hazardous.

At a conservative estimate, at least seven million people in the UK
aged between 12 and 59 have taken cannabis at some time. Around 36% of
young people under the age of 30 are likely to have tried the drug,
and about 20% will have smoked cannabis in the last year.

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Checked-by: Patrick Henry