Scientists Look at Marijuana Policy
In the May issue of Current Opinion in Psychiatry, two noted researchers weigh in on the marijuana debate with an article titled, “The Challenges in Developing a Rational Cannabis Policy.”
Australian Wayne Hall and American Michael Lynskey urge that international treaties be rewritten to allow nations more freedom to experiment with policy changes, and more research aimed at weighing the costs and benefits of prohibition. Along the way, they make a number of noteworthy observations, including this:
The public health impact of contemporary patterns of cannabis use is modest by comparison with those of other illicit drugs (such as the opioids) or with tobacco or alcohol. In the case of illicit drugs, this reflects the absence of fatal overdose risk from cannabis. In the case of alcohol, it reflects the much lower risks of death from cannabis-impaired than alcohol-impaired driving, fewer adverse effects on health and lower rates of regular cannabis use to intoxication.
Would that U.S. policies were based on such a calm, rational assessment of the facts
Tagged with: alcohol and marijuana and science by the author
13 comments
there are 110 countrys that singed that treaty and it was singed 20 to 30 years ago now 10 to 20 %of them are gone I heard about this treaty but have no idea of who are on it MPP could you help and let’s put pressur on them as citizens leave the rest of the drugs on there but reclassify pot if the U.S.A. whould reclassify pot as a scedual 2 or 3 drug whould go a long way
Who can we contact to urge the dissolution of this bogus treaty? Please post online… or perhaps nothing can be done, which I will find very hard to except!
I’m glad that scientists are looking into the subject rationally, but it seems they have some initial misconceptions. Their claim that cannabis use “probably” leads to poor education is ungrounded. It is likely true that poorly educated cannabis users are more likely to be caught or convicted than the well educated cannabis users as a result of their economic conditions. This is probably what has led some scientists to such a conclusion.
From my own observations, cannabis leads to better memorization and learning IF the user is in fact interested in learning the subject matter. Because cannabis allows the user to focus solely at the task at hand, without interference of the stressful thoughts that are pervasive in modern life, it becomes much easier to take in and remember information when you actively attempt to do so. This ability of cannabis to shift a user’s focus to that which is interesting and temporarily “forget” that which is currently not useful is the same as the claimed “short-term memory loss and psychosis” caused by cannabis. In reality, the ability to regulate which information your brain is processing at any given moment is a major benefit, and not a deleterious effect.
Of course when the cannabis wares off, so does the effect. This can often lead people to desire more cannabis when they need to regulate their brain activity again. Is the desire to have steady access to the extremely useful tool called cannabis that some have incorrectly interpreted as addiction.
More scientists need to pressure the issue of investigating any benefits marijuana may provide. President Obama has insisted his administration will rely heavily on science as a determining factor for American policy. Let’s make sure he does this with every issue, especially when examining our country’s failing drug policies.
With the founding of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine (announced April, 2009) and the availablity of government polling sights such as Open ForQuestions and Open Government Dialogue (both of which showed legalization as a top 10 issue), it is only a matter of time before such rational assessments of facts is the norm rather than the exception.
As for our Mr. Obama, I think he cares about this issue more than many give him credit for. He is after all a politician with no desire to commit political suicide, so he waits for us, his electors to do our part to progress this issue so that he can get SAFELY behind it and help us push for and accomplish change. He wants, needs and expects us to get very, very loud so that he can say…”Look, this is what the people want”…..
Any entity that assumes authority to either grant or deny permission to engage in any normal human activity, has evolved from servant to master. The function of government, in a free society, is to DEFEND freedom not to define it.
BTW – Here is what the President has said about Medical Marijuana….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvUziSfMwAw
“I think the basic concept that using Medical Marijuana in the same way, with the same controls, as other drugs prescribed by doctors… I think that’s entirely appropriate.”
SO MR. PRESIDENT….this doesn’t take an act of Congress to get done. All you need to do is tell the DEA to appropriately schedule marijuana so that doctors can go ahead and prescribe it!
52% of Americans suport the outright legalization of Marijuana for recreation use (recent Zogby poll)…. so what political capital are you going to use up by simply dealing with Medical Marijuana? I promise you that the statistics are much higher for those that support allowing marijuana to be used with the recommendation of their doctor!!!
Let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards.
$100 per year for a permit for 12 plants.
Would anybody support a plan like that?
yes i would support that plan wholehearted and I gladly pay my taxes for the license and smile at the same time.
I came across this recently released report from the Congressional Research Service through the Federation of American Scientists on medical marijuana:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33211.pdf
It’s more even-handed than most research associated with the federal government. For instance, those pharmacy yahoos in Iowa (reported elsewhere here) should have read it before they made their blanket ignorant statement about medical cannabis. Instead, Iowa pharmacy board gave its citizens bad policy dressed up as objective science.
Prohibitionists have almost everything except the facts on their side. As long as freedom loving American patriots continue to sit on the sidelines, the government we have allowed to turn into our master and ruler, will continue treat us like the sheeple we have become. If you had the money to live in any country in the world, which country would it be?
To have the freedom to get drunk, beat your wife and possibly want to get in a car is harmful, but when people smoke all that might happen is they will drive 10 miles below the speed limit and forget to feed their dog.
It’s all about the money,and until we can buy as many supporters as big pharmacy and the alcohol lobby,all efforts to legalize,decriminalize,or even change the law on medical marijuana will die in committee,and never be debated on the
floor of the house or senate. The pharmaceutical companies will
lose millions to marijuana as a medicine,just on sleeping pills and stress relief pills,and many more of the man made medicines will be replaced by a medicine that was a medicine before the first pill was even thought of.
And alcohol pays to avoid the competition for Americans favorite way to unwind at the end of the day.
And the private prison system lose most of their income if all the nonviolent drug prisoners are released,so they are probably lobbying against legalization also.
Never underestimate the power of greed,these people don’t care how many peoples lives they ruin,how many tax dollars are wasted, as long as they show a profit to their stockholders.
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