XPost: uk.legal, uk.politics.drugs   
   From: bliss@sfo.com   
      
   Blah wrote:   
   > sobriquet wrote:   
   >> On 29 jul, 13:26, Blah  wrote:   
   >>> agnon wrote:   
   >>>> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:58:38 -0800, Pete nospam Zakel wrote:   
   >>>>> In article  agnon   
   >>>>>    
   >>>>> writes:   
   >>>>>> Fair enough.  I know many mentals, and many cannabis users, and I   
   >>>>>> firmly   
   >>>>>> think that there is a clear link.   
   >>>>> The link may be that they are self-treating.   
   >>>> For most people that is probably the case.   
   >>>> There's a few people who have existing, known, mental health problems   
   >>>> whose problems are probably made worse by cannabis   
   >>>> There might be a few people with underlying mh problems whose condition   
   >>>> is brought to the surface by cannabis use, especially heavy cannabis   
   >>>> use.   
   >>>> There's a possibility that people with no underlying mh problem have   
   >>>> a mh   
   >>>> problem that's caused by cannabis use, especially if that use is heavy,   
   >>>> and especially if they are young when they start, but the evidence   
   >>>> is far   
   >>>> from clear about this.   
   >>>> Note that even though I think cannabis may cause mh problems I'm still   
   >>>> strongly in support of legalizing all drugs.  I'm very much against   
   >>>> piss-   
   >>>> poor reporting like that in the Mail, which makes common sense harm   
   >>>> reduction harder.   
   >>> My gf has bipolar syndrome, and her pshycologist is quite insistant that   
   >>> it was caused by her canabis abuse during her teens. There is no other   
   >>> bipolar history in her extensive family.   
   >>>   
   >>> The psychologist also tells us that a growing number of mental health   
   >>> problems he sees are cannabis related.   
   >>>   
   >>> Perhaps the Mail reporting might come across as sensationalist, but   
   >>> don't shoot the messanger just because you don't like the tone,   
   >>> legalising something with many outstanding questions about what it   
   >>> really can do to the mind is just plain foolish.   
   >>   
   >> The facts are crystal-clear: Cannabis is not particularly harmful nor   
   >> risky for   
   >> well-informed adults. There is no reason whatsoever to waste time and   
   >> energy   
   >> protecting adults against themselves as far as cannabis is concerned,   
   >> especially   
   >> given that the government entrusts them with lethal quantities of   
   >> alcohol for   
   >> recreational purposes.   
   >   
   > Well there is lies the point - MOST cannabis is being smoked by   
   > uninfomed teenagers (and into the twenties), whose brains are still   
   > developing and prone to damage.   
   > And to say 'ah, but alcohol is dangerous and thats allowed' is lame - we   
   > now allowed to let kids do MORE dangerous things, just because one exists?   
   >   
   	Well the fact is that prohibited drugs far deadlier than cannabis are   
   available despite severe penalties while in the case   
   of alcohol it has to be acquired from licensed dealer who are   
   protective of their licenses.  So they have to steal from parents   
   or go to third parties.   
      
      
   >> Cannabis prohibition is very harmful and counterproductive. It means   
   >> drug education is   
   >> ineffective, because the emphasis is not on responsible use as opposed   
   >> to abuse, but   
   >> on a rather arbitrary distinction between legal and illegal drugs,   
   >> with no scientific basis whatsoever   
   >> for that legislative bias.   
      
   	Also the drug education of the present day doesn't attend to   
   practical reasons to not use but threatens the students and lies to   
   them about the effects of various drugs but particularly cannabis.   
      
   >   
   >   
   > There is NO responsible use for a teen.   
      
   	According to previous information in the era of the LaGuardia   
   Report, 1940s say, the student that used cannabis were likely to be   
   at or near the top of their classes and eschewed other vices.   
         The LaGuardia Commission The studies leading to the La   
      Guardia Report in New York in the early 1940s recorded nine   
      psychotic outbreaks, of varying duration, among a sample of 200   
      studied intensely. Most of these were found to be cases of   
      already psychotic personalities, and one one of the   
      psychiatrists involved in the study wrote, in 1942, 'Marijuana   
      will not produce a psychosis de novo in a well-integrated   
      stable person.' The team who observed New York's marijuana   
      smokers for the period found them to be a rather passive,   
      peaceful, and friendly group, distinctly not prone to violence   
      (though above average perpetrators of petty crimes).   
      
   	Selah!   
        later   
        bliss -- Cacoa  Powered... (at sfo dot com)   
      
   --   
   bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco   
      
         "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.   
         It is by the beans of cacoa that the thoughts acquire speed,   
         the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.   
         It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."   
            --from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)