Let us now in our maturity have a more serious debate about marijuana.Moral arugment and work ethic (tax revenue)Cannabis ‘has rarely been regarded simply as a substance with effects and side effects’. Instead, it has been equated with morality and the debate about its use portrayed as one of good versus evil. Marijuana has been linked with the pursuit of pleasure and with idleness rather than the work ethic. So no tax revenue there, Liberal arguementWhile it is less habit-forming than heroin, nicotine and cocaine, Current recreational use of cannabis has less adverse effect on public health than either tobacco or alcohol Scientific viewIverson and colleagues point out that ‘as many as 10 per cent of regular users will become dependent on the drug.’
Tax argument
The profits from trafficking in illegal intoxicants are always ‘black economy’: they fall outside the supervision and authority of governments. As Gerritsen argues, ‘since a country’s sovereignty stands or falls with its monopoly on taxation and the obligation of its citizens to pay taxes, the illegal drugs trade forms a fundamental threat to the system of national states.’ Political interests Since 1985, under the insistent leadership of the US, there has been a concerted campaign to control the international laundering of black-market money derived from drugs. This aspect of the War on Drugs, he writes, is leading ‘to something that was never intended: a uniform global regulatory regime. Repressive climates and counter culturesThe ‘silent majority’ (a phrase Nixon borrowed from Homer, who was referring to the dead) refused to acknowledge that prohibitionist legislation and its enforcement are indispensable preconditions for the growth of illicit supply. ‘In a repressive climate of this kind, more informal modes of regulation – which certainly exist among users – are by definition confined to a twilight subculture that is a natural breeding ground for crime and other expressions of counter-culture,’
Present day use - the increase in cannabis use
Illegal drug use remained a minority pursuit well after the 1960s. But by the late 1990s, the majority of people aged between 16 and 29 admitted to having tried illegal drugs; the estimate is that up to one third of this group may have used cannabis or other drugs within the last year. Cannabis accounted for between 70 and 85 per cent of all offences under the MDA, of which there were more than 110,000 in 1997. A proposed viewThe best chance of formulating a workable policy lies in viewing drugs as commodities within a hugely lucrative, dynamic and expanding illicit economy. An interesting analogyForty years ago, before the reform of gambling laws, bookies’ runners presented a major challenge to a bad law: they convinced the authorities that they would not go away, could not be suppressed and had better be regulated. The cannabis users of 2000 are in the same position as the off-course gamblers of 1960. The science on marijuana as a medicineIn The Science of Marijuana, Leslie Iversen has produced the most authoritative and up-to-date scientific assessment of the medical uses of cannabis now available. He recalls that cannabis was recommended for the treatment of constipation, gout, malaria, rheumatism and menstrual problems in a Chinese compendium of herbal medicines published around 2800 BC. It was a medicament in many subsequent cultures. Difficulties in standardising cannabis preparations meant, however, that it was not widely used in 19th-century Western medicine. Even so, in 1937, when its medical use was suppressed in the US, there were 28 different medicines in which it was an ingredient. In 1964 came confirmation that virtually all the pharmacological activity in hashish extracts is attributable to one compound, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Later, the existence of specific receptors for cannabinoids in the brain and other tissues was established. Iversen refers to a 1990 finding that 44 per cent of US oncologists had suggested that a patient smoke marijuana for relief of the nausea induced by chemotherapy. If the drug were really unsafe for use even under medical supervision, as its Schedule I status affirms, this recommendation would have been unthinkable. Despite the DEA’s obstruction, the discovery of the cannabinoid control system in the body has revitalised scientific research. Two synthetic cannabinoids have become available on prescription to patients in Europe and the US. The annual sales of dronabil (sold under the trade name of Marinol) in the US are estimated to be worth about $20 million: some 80 per cent of prescriptions are as an appetite stimulant for people with Aids or HIV, 10 per cent to counteract the nausea associated with chemotherapy and 10 per cent for other purposes. The Eli Lilly Company has developed nabilone: under the trade name of Cesamet it, too, is used to treat nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy, although it also gave promising results in clinical trials in the treatment of anxiety. In addition, many patients with multiple sclerosis have reported benefiting from smoking cannabis. The possibility of its use in the treatment of glaucoma and epilepsy is being looked into. During 1997, the American Medical Association recommended controlled clinical trials on the medical uses of smoked marijuana, and the BMA recommended trials of synthetic cannabinoids. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee reported in 1998 that more clinical research ‘The argument that approval of the medical use of cannabis would be tantamount to encouraging the legalisation of the drug for all purposes is clearly specious,’ Iversen concludes, ‘and is no justification for withholding an effective medicine from patients who need it.’ Such ideas were anathema to the egregious who usaully respond that There could be no worse message to young people,’ Just when the nation is trying its hardest to educate teenagers not to use psychoactive drugs . . . we are being told that marijuana is a medicine.’Source London Review of Books Finally reflections of a former cannabis user:
"It just seems so unsophisticated, so old fashioned, an insult to one's brain as are all drugs."
"So would you take anything of any kind?""Well perhaps I would take cognitve enhancers, if they were scientifically proven not to cause cognitive dissonance."
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