Miracle Crop? Dangerous Drug? Political Football? Exploring America's On-again, Off-again Love Affair With Hemp. I confess that I am a user of hemp. For example, I just quaffed a Hempen Ale and a Hempen Gold beer, shipped to me by Frederick Brewing Company of Frederick, Maryland. Both beverages are brewed with the seeds of hemp-Cannabis sativa-a plant native to central Asia and grown all over the world as various selected strains, some of which are known as marijuana. I'm feeling a faint buzz, but only from the alcohol. [continues 3523 words]
READING Coun Andrew Feather's recent comments in "Mailbag" about drugs shows just how far out of touch the Conservatives are these days. We've had the "war on drugs" for nearly 30 years now and in that time the problems surrounding illegal drugs have grown and grown. We can look around the world, to the U.S., the home of drug prohibition, and see the mess there and we can look at Holland, with its cannabis coffee shops, and see a much better situation. [continues 134 words]
On the programme "On the Record BBC 1" on Sunday, Home office minister Charles Clarke (pictured) stated that by running as a "Legalise Cannabis" candidate in Norwich at the last general election, Howard Marks tried to "to disrupt the election". As Howard's election agent, I would like to ask him for a public apology, we did no such thing. The issue of the legalisation of cannabis is something this government has set its mind against, no matter how many experts, police authorities and even members of the public demand change. To present those of us who are willing to stand up against this myopic policy and are trying to make ourselves heard as "disruptive" is an indication of the desperation they must be feeling. [continues 66 words]
Miracle crop? Dangerous drug? Political football? Exploring America's on-again, off-again love affair with hemp I confess that I am a user of hemp. For example, I just quaffed a Hempen Ale and a Hempen Gold beer, shipped to me by Frederick Brewing Company of Frederick, Maryland. Both beverages are brewed with the seeds of hemp-Cannabis sativa-a plant native to central Asia and grown all over the world as various selected strains, some of which are known as marijuana. I'm feeling a faint buzz, but only from the alcohol. [continues 3523 words]
He understands, correctly, that cannabis - along with the hard drugs - is supplied by criminal gangs. He also rightly understands that ignoring the present law on possession of cannabis will allow the trade to grow. But he doesn't seem to have grasped that the trade has expanded because cannabis is illegal. Something which is demanded by such a large section of the population will be provided. If you don't allow a legal supply, then you'll have an illegal one. If he is really concerned about closing down these gangs, there is only one way to do it - put them out of business economically by allowing a legal, regulated trade to undercut the illegal market. Yours sincerely, Derek Williams, 21 Pembroke Road, Norwich NR2 3HD. [end]
I read Mairead Scannell's justification for her claims of the supposed harmful effects of cannabis 7 December 1999) with a mixture of sadness and hilarity when she cited as the source of her information the Readers Digest magazine. My sources of information tend to be rather dryer - but, I suspect, more authoritative - such as New Scientist or The Lancet. She belongs to a campaign group called Positive Action for Children, the aims of this group being to maintain the prohibition of drugs including cannabis. This seems a strange name for an organisation dedicated to supporting the massive industry which supplies illegal drugs. [continues 122 words]
I of course welcome The Examiner's giving space in its letter column for anyone to express their own personal opinions, even if they support the continued prohibition of drugs, as Mairead Scannell clearly does in her letter published on November 20, 1999. Is it asking too much however, that when a claim is made which can be easily verified, that you do so? In her letter Mairead wrote of "13,000 technical studies on cannabis" held by the University of Mississippi "which showed that young people who were regular users developed head and neck cancers". [continues 102 words]
Cannabis sativa is a low-maintenance crop that can be used in paper, clothing, rope - even cars. So why, when it's grown in 32 other countries, is hemp still illegal in the United States? I confess that I am a user of hemp. for example, I have just quaffed a Hempen Ale and a Hempen Gold beer, shipped to me by Frederick Brewing Company of Frederick, Maryland. Both beverages are brewed with the seeds of hemp - Cannabis sativa - a plant native to central Asia and grown all over the world as various selected strains, some of which are known as marijuana. I'm feeling a faint buzz, but only from the alcohol. [continues 3520 words]
An Anti-Drug advertisement in The Roanoke Times said "Illegal drugs are estimated to cost America over $110 billion each year." It should have said "Illegal-drug policy is estimated to cost America over $110 billion each year." What could you do with a better policy? Well, you could replace the thousands of acres of alfalfa that the government pays farmers to grow with a taxable, capital-producing crop with hundreds of uses. Or you could begin a factual, straightforward drug-education program rather than a $180 million campaign of worthless ads. Reagan D. Williams, Blacksburg [end]
Re: They're Not Going There Just to Get High, Sept. 2. I have just read the article by Mitchel Raphael concerning raves in your online edition. He made the point that its better to have these events in licenced clubs where there is running water and the emergency services can get to them should something go wrong. He went on to say that if they are banned they will simply be driven underground and therefore become very much more dangerous. How right he is. [continues 104 words]
If he answered, he might prompt a useful discussion about the wisdom of our War on Drugs. George W. Bush is in a tough spot. He did some things when he was young that have come back to haunt him. He acknowledges that, but won't talk about it in detail. What he particularly won't talk about -- what he in fact seems indignant that anyone would bring up -- is whether as a young man he used drugs. Unfortunately for him, he also wants to be president, so he has to face nagging inquisitors who refuse to let the past stay buried. [continues 746 words]
Khalada Salaam Wants To Set The Record Straight. Her son, former Bears first-round draft pick Rashaan Salaam, startled the sports world during an ESPN interview Sunday, admitting he smoked marijuana excessively during his stint in Chicago, especially after he broke his ankle. "When I got hurt, I knew (marijuana) was a problem because it pretty much consumed all my time," he said in the interview. "I wasn't going to practice or anything like that, so I pretty much spent a lot of my time sitting around and getting high, and that's when I knew I had to let it go. I wasn't outgoing. I was just to myself. All I wanted to do was go home and do what I wanted to do. I wasn't a social person. I was an outcast." [continues 489 words]
The consumption of alcohol and illicit substances is increasing among medical students in the United Kingdom[1] and is also excessive among junior house officers.[2] These findings emphasise the need for a comprehensive approach towards health promotion in medical schools, with locally negotiated and applied drug and alcohol policies being integrated within this approach. The Working Group on the Misuse of Alcohol and Other Drugs by Doctors has recommended that every medical school should have a drug and alcohol policy,[3] and in view of this I attempted to discover the number of such policies that have been implemented in the United Kingdom's medical schools. [continues 387 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) Two Mexican bankers and a lawyer have been convicted of conspiring to launder millions of dollars for a Colombian drug cartel in what prosecutors say is the largest such probe in U.S. history. Three others were acquitted Thursday in the first federal trial stemming from Operation Casablanca, a three-year sting in which agents and an undercover informer posed as money launderers for the Cali cartel. Dozens of people were arrested in the case that strained U.S.-Mexico relations when Mexican officials learned that U.S. agents were working in Mexico without notifying them. [continues 284 words]
One of the more emotionally gripping performances in a movie in 1998 was Robin Williams in "Patch Adams." Williams played a misguided, well-intentioned, cyclothymic medical student who reveals the inadequacies of modern medicine, and medical doctors in particular who fail to listen to and demonstrate empathy towards their patients.Notwithstanding the positive message and reminding physicians of their primary duties to patient care, the cheerless parts of the movie were Adams' passion to advance socialized medicine and his revulsion at all conventional medical thought and empirical medicinal therapies. [continues 313 words]
KALININGRAD, Russia - Alexander Dreizin runs an AIDS cafe for drug addicts. He serves up tea, sympathy and clean needles. His is a one-doctor battle against an epidemic that is marching through Russia on the back of a dramatic surge in drug use. From the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, AIDS has made speedy inroads against the futile resistance of underfunded hospitals and clinics. By year's end, officials at the federal AIDS Prevention and Cure Center in Moscow predict, at least 500,000 Russians will be infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. [continues 611 words]
AT LAST there is a realisation that the problems of drug use cannot be solved by enforcement. Perhaps it won't take too long before the politicians realise that enforcement of drug prohibition actually causes most of the problems. I welcome the EU-wide campaign of demand reduction, designed to make drug use less appealing, but it should always be remembered that any publicity is good publicity. Unless the dealers are removed, the selling will continue and all the negative advertising the state may like to produce will only serve as product awareness. [continues 100 words]
The narcotic debate is still based on the 1920s approach that was based on grounds of morality and deviance. Even the most dim-witted teenager will identify that alcohol is easily as culpable on these grounds, yet enjoys legal and taxable status. Drugs use has to be tackled primarily on grounds of health risks and should target those substances that are demonstrably addictive or fatal and are at least more dangerous that alcohol or tobacco. If you apply this test to existing proscribed substances many will fail despite over half a century of effort to link them to the proven effects of narcotics like heroin and cocaine. With their big majority, there is no excuse for the Government not to raise the level of debate on drugs. Dan Williams, Southend-on-Sea, Essex [end]
COMMENTING ON the large number of underage smokers at the recent pot rally ("No Token Presence," Sept. 8), Sgt. Garet Bonn of the Edmonton police said: "Our liquor laws don't allow anyone under 18 to drink in public, but here, we're noticing a lot of teens doing illegal drugs and I don't have the resources to do anything about it without starting a riot." That's because liquor is legal and pot is illegal, Sgt. Bonn. May I suggest if the good officer is genuinely concerned about this issue, then he take his head out of the sand and joins the calls to legalize this herb? Derek Williams (Is that a smoking pot calling the moonshine kettle, black?) [continues 4 words]
A letter has been handed into the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, signed by thousands of international signatories including, from Britain, judge Anthony Tibber, Colin Blakemore (president of the association for the advancement of science) Edward Ellison (ex-head of Scotland Yards drug squad), the Bishop of Monmouth, Ian Sparks (chief executive of the Children's Society) and MPs Paul Flynn, Austin Mitchel and Brian Iddon. They point out how the war on drugs is not only lost, but is causing more harm than drug use itself could ever do. [continues 66 words]
The comments made by Jack Girling and Paul Betts illustrates how this debate has so far been a conversation of the deaf. On the one hand Jack thinks cannabis is not only harmless but always beneficial in every aspect, whereas Paul Betts accused it of just about everything, including shrinking the brain. Of course, both of these opinions are just that, opinions, and the truth lies somewhere in between. Cannabis is an integal part of many peoples lives and we, as a society, have to come to terms with that. Unfortunately, the Government, its so-called "drug tsar" Keith Hallawell and head-in-the-sand Home Secretary Jack Straw are doing nothing to improve the situation. [continues 112 words]
Ecstasy research Sir: The research in your article "Proof positive. Taking ecstasy permanently alters your brain" (6 November) proves no such thing. What it shows is that taking illegally procured "pills" causes changes in the brain. Because Ecstasy is illegal, the content of illegal pills is hardly ever MDMA, the substance which clubbers seek. So, if this research was conducted on real life clubbers, it certainly cannot be concluded that MDMA causes any such effect. Illegal pills are often related chemicals, such as MDEA or MDA or cocktails of these and other drugs. No conclusions can be drawn about the health effects of using dance drugs whilst they remain illegal. Derek Williams, Norwich [end]
So, if this research was conducted on real life clubbers, it certainly cannot be concluded that MDMA causes any such effect. Illegal pills are often related chemicals, such as MDEA or MDA or cocktails of these and other drugs. No conclusions can be drawn about the health effects of using dance drugs whilst they remain illegal. Derek Williams Norwich [end]
Sir, In your editorial (20 May) criticising the call from the Church of Scotland for the decriminalisation of cannabis, you say the "Kirk finds itself at odds with the new Government, which believes that pot smoking can lead to harder and more harmful drugs and should therefore be banned". This is not the case, as the Government does not claim that using cannabis leads to harder drugs: the "progression theory" has long been discredited. You go on to state that "there is no evidence that decriminalisation alleviates the drug problem". Again, that is simply not true. The experience in the Netherlands is precisely that; indeed, decriminalisation there has reduced hard drug abuse substantially. [continues 387 words]
Sir, - In your editorial (20 May) criticising the call from the Church of Scotland for the decriminalisation of cannabis, you say the "Kirk finds itself at odds with the new Government, which believes that pot smoking can lead to harder and more harmful drugs and should therefore be banned". This is not the case, as the Government does not claim that using cannabis leads to harder drugs: the "progression theory" has long been discredited. You go on to state that "there is no evidence that decriminalisation alleviates the drug problem". Again, that is simply not true. The experience in the Netherlands is precisely that; indeed, decriminalisation there has reduced hard drug abuse substantially. [continues 106 words]
