UK to Investigate Alleged Link Between Marijuana and Mental Health Problems
The UK has agreed to investigate studies which state there is a causal link "between cannabis and psychosis." The Department of Health states that most doctors believe this link exists. A review will now be set up with the health select committee.
Last year the UK reclassified cannabis so that police could spend more time targeting hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. Arrests for cannabis fell by a third during 2004. Those who want to legalize the drug say it alleviates mental health issues.
Mental health group Rethink believes in the last 5 years there has been a 60% increase in people contracting mental illness because of marijuana use. Rethink says the drug makes symptoms of schizophrenia worse and thinks it can trigger psychosis.
What Britain needs to do is have a "War On Drugs." They should spend millions of pounds of tax payer’s money on trying to keep it off the streets. If they find a young black kid selling pot they should go to jail for about 15 years.
Then a new government department could be started that costs a fortune to run and puts out misinformation about drugs and hard hitting commercials implying that smoking weed makes you drive fast and shoot your friends.
Britain just needs to keep this up for a few decades and all of societies problems will melt away, just like they have here in America.
All it will cost is millions of pounds, and countless people guilty of nothing but possession of some dried leaves spending years in jail. Sounds like a perfect idea.
You know, they should just go to the Netherlands, where we have already done these researches. Don't know what the results were, I think it was something like that it didn't influence mental diseases, though it did cause a nasty initial reaction to people that already had a mental disease like schizophrenia.
LaGuadia's (New York's most famous Mayor) Commision on Crime recommended decriminalization.
Carter's Commision on Narcotics recommended it be decriminalized.
George Washington is quoted as saying hemp was "one of the most useful plants..." and that "it should be planted everywhere..."
He was a noted pipe smoker, and one would be of terribly unadventurous intellect to assume that he would not sample the bounty of the New World beyond simple tabacco.
I've smoked it. Nearly everyone I know save for a few people at one point tried it.
Statistically, about 70% of the adult population has tried it at one point in their lives.
It's not a minority thing. People don't die from Marijuana. It is harmless aside from some expected disassociative neurological effects. Some are residual, most are transient dependant on frequency, intensity, and length of the usage according to the two prior factors.
Anyway, the first poster hit it on the head.
End the War on the American people over dead plants and inanimate objects.
Law deals with people, and that is who is being very materially harmed here.
They are talking about increasing it to include; Random checks at schools During stops and searches If you are breaking..... Only joking but it won't be long...
That's absolute BS, to say weed brings on psychosis ("A severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning.")
I smoke weed every damn day and my most recent marks from university are B+, A-, A, B+. Weed helps me to find ANYTHING interesting, even the tedious parts of my studies.
It's is RIDICULOUS for alcohol to be legal and weed not. Friggen elite, making their poison of choice available with insane taxes. The status quo needs serious improvement.
first, let me say that i am all for the decriminalization of marijuana.
second, it's not harmless. nothing is. in people with pre-existing mental issues or tendancies towards certain mental issues (schizophrenia, panic/anxiety disorder) then marijuana can trigger or make these worse. i believe that education influences proper choices. people should know in advance all the possibilities so they can decide if pot (or any drug) is right for them. for example... if someone with alcoholism in their family takes a drink, they know they're at an increased risk of addiction and they're accepting that risk. the same kind of information about effects and side-effects should be made available for everything.
third... okay, this is an exception. but marijuana makes me extremely sick, i can't be around the smoke at all. my son had a severe allergic reaction to our neighbors smoking pot, went into shock, and we had to take him to the hospital for treatment. this is undeniably rare, but possible. to say "it's totally harmless for everyone" is just as narrowminded as saying "it's bad and should be banned for everyone".
start smoking Kudzu and getting high off of it. The government would ban it and pull up all the Kudzu vine in the South. We'd finally be rid of that invasive weed once and for all!
According to the government, it's a gateway drug. Teenagers who do heavy illegal drugs usually start with pot. After realizing that pot isn't so bad, they develop a mistrust of the lying government and start to think that other illegal drugs must be ok too.
Therefore, it's illegal status makes it a gateway drug. The fact that it's a gateway drug makes it illegal. The government has created a perfect cache-22, a paradox even. Even though alocohol is probably a thousand times more harmfull, it is not illegal, therefore not a gateway drug, and therefore should be legal.
So basically it's illegal because it's illegal. That is the government's official stance. Welcome to politics!
Ok. Let's face facts. Most of us that frequent Shortnews.com are a little more shrewd and open-minded than the average Joe Citizen that believes every damn thing they read. Everyone here has made good valid points.
There are stupid people everywhere and some of them get in positions of power where they can influence small government organizations just so they can get their tenure or some grant money. These people are corrupt.
I used to smoke pot daily for a few years. In that time my career blossomed, my social-contacts were never better, my state of mind was more postive, and I ate too many Twinkies. Now I no longer smoke and I am dealing with depression, lack of focus, and my social life is negligent. Thank god for this website or I would be a total social outcast. ;P
There are downsides to everything-- such as some people are allergic to smoke, others are already schizo and shouldn't mix anything with their meds. Alchohol is a far deadlier substance and it is worshipped by governments because it brings in so much money and nobody cares that it destroys families.
Marijuana can make you more insightful, inquisitive, and assists in making you question the normal method of doing things in general. Basically, it shifts gears in your brain. A good way to have a mini-vacation in an otherwise cruddy world.
Marijuana-use (in America) was first denounced because it was associated, by alchohol and cigarette lobbies, to minorities. We all know how well minorities have been treated in the USA, in general.
Thomas Jefferson himself once wrote something like... "It is wonderful to smoke a pipe at sunset and get a lift on" while watching the slaves play tunes upon their banjoes.
These are the 'words' coming from the guy that penned the US Declaration of Independence. If anyone is around UVA they can see this written in a letter in the TJ archives. (the university does not like to publicise TJ's taste for marijuana.
(and another point that I want to make is: why is that Jeb Bush's daughter can get caught smoking crack and gets no jail-time when thousands of innocent people are sent to the pen because they smoke weed?)
The U.S. government is blowing millions in taxes for that war on marijuana but in U.S. history it was legalized a couple of times before being recriminalized...if anyone don't beleive me before flaming try to find and listen to this episode of hooked...it's really informative and there is one for any illegal dopes I only found those talking about these drugs: weed,lsd,opium ,heroine, morphine ecstacy.
"Illegal Drugs - Hooked 4 - Marijuana Cannabis"
i don't remember exactly but i think that marjuana was decriminilized 4 times before being banned again. In this documentary you'll learn where weed originated from and why it was banned but there is one interesting fact in that episode. The fact is that in the prohibition of alchool there was weed pubs in the US!!!! I know it's hard to beleive but it's true according to this and this video seems to contain reliable information, from the guy that discovered the substance to why it was banned and when.
BTW if anyone knows where i can download the rest of this serie plz tell me :)
The U.K government will only waste good tax payer's money on this search...instead of checking if in countries that had weed legalized to see if there is an increase of mental illness cases AND if it's DIRECTLTY related to marijuana or to some previous unnoticed mental illness. I agree weed might be dangerous for some people with health problems etc and I don't see the harm of smoking a joint and playing some PS2 games for couple of hours. :)
Hey, if the Prince Harry smoked pot then it might explain his psychosis over the nazi-costume. heh heh.
I wish more countries would decriminalize so I could easily find some when I travel. I miss the stuff-- smoking a spliff or a few bowls, taking a long walk through a new city, going to a symphony concert, or watching Cartoon Network late at night while drawing. That's the good life.
I hope that in ten years most of the world will have decriminalized this harmless substance. There would be less crime, happier people, more interesting art, better music, and a scarcity of pizza.
I was born with 6 disabilities, one being schizophrenia. I find relief in this drug. I am seldom happy and I don't like talking to people other from my friends. However, with Marijuana, I become more uplifted in my attitude. I'm actually feeling better than when I'm sober, of course.
The government is so stupid when they try to poison those by telling them it is a gate-way drug. I have been a smoker since 1999, and I have not bothered with anything like Coke and Heroin. I've seen the effects those drugs cause and I have not been the least tempted to try them out.
Marijuana can be harmful to those allergic to smoke for obvious reasons. Hell, cigarette's are bad. Yes, I smoke on occasion. But it's so dumb how the government can push stuff and say "Marijuana is bad for you". There has not been one confirmed death from this. Yet, we are allowed to smoke cigarette's knowing that they will eventually kill you and can be bought.
The government should do something with this issue and actually tell the truth for once.
My favorite thing, concerning the U.S., is that the "War on Drugs" is so concerned with getting the "bad for you" message out there when it comes to Marijuana, despite the health benefits for certain people. Face it, marijuana was put here... and it can help some people when applied for medicinal purposes. Why is this bad? Of course, you could find plenty of reasons why "It's bad" if you rationalized it that way, but that wouldn't make a point at all, if you asked me.
Why? Because alcohol is legal... and it just amuses me so damn much. There is a balance between commercials promoting alcohol, and those speaking against it. If we all care about the safety of our children and fellow men, why not solely campaign against it? After all, alcohol is responsible for more deaths a year than all illegal drugs combined... why is it allowed to stay on the shelves, screwing up family after family? Alcoholism is a seemingly growing disease... but, hey, the government found a way to distribute it and make a profit, so... that's fine by them.
I really like hearing anti-drug arguments that regard it as a "moral" issue. Yet, we still offer over-the-counter medicines that have worse effects, and are far more addicting. Oxi-contin anyone? Thanks to that wonderful legal drug, easily obtained here in my state, my friend no longer has a mother. Now, how many people can you recall have dropped dead after taking a bong hit? ...
All I'm saying... if you're gonna act concerned about the well-being of your country, in regard to the "bad things" out there, atleast do it right...don't let the double-standard shine so far through.
