IS CANNABIS A DRUG? - A DISCUSSION
WHETHER OR NOT CANNABIS IS A DRUG POSSESSION, CULTIVATION ANS SUPPLY OUGHT BE LEGALISED.
When we talk about cannabis we are not talking about
what is not cannabis
Spain: 'Cannabis is not a drug': Spain's anti-drug czar:30 Sept 2013
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the cannabis plant and its
derivatives which contain THC are classified as a Class B Drug and
prohibited. Some parts of the plant, such as seeds, roots and stalks,
do not fall within the Act. On the question of leaves, forensic
scientists look for the presence of THC and other active cannabinoids,
and if found, the substance falls within the Act. Some argue that
cannabis is a drug in any case, as it can be used as a constituent in a
medicine. Others argue that parts of the cannabis plant cannot correctly, semantically be called a drug at all,
especially as it is neither physically addictive nor toxic in any
conceivably consumable amount. The correct meaning of the word 'drug'
as applied to cannabis continues to be debated; nevertheless, in British
law, cannabis is a drug.
Safety
Cannabis has been described as one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man, and safer than most common vegetables -
DEA Judge Young, 1988. Others describe cannabis as "remakably safe, but not completely harmless" - Prof. Lester Grinspoon MD1997). Some even claim that cannabis is completely harmless
and beneficial to man. Yet other scientists have inferred health risks
involved the smoking of cannabis, mostly based upon the results of
experimentation with THC extracts and synthetic THC carried out on mice,
rats and monkeys. It is generally accepted that cannabis is safer than
alcohol and tobacco. The question of the risk element attached to the
use of cannabis will continue to be a matter for the experts, but
irrespective of the answer there exists no just reason to punish
cannabis users or those who grow it.
Campaigners, scientists and doctors cannot agree. Cannabis has been
used for centuries, both medicinally and for the high, as well as for
rope etc, long before the days of drugs and synthetics. Much of the
discussion is based on dictionary definitions which change with time.
Tell a Rastafarian that his sacrament is a drug and you will be in
trouble! Look at a bale of hemp fibre, hemp seed oil soap, paper, cloth
or seedcake - they are all pure cannabis - and then tell me it is a
drug.
CANNABIS IS NOT A DRUG.
Drugs are associated with addiction, habit and problems. Cannabis is
associated with none of these. "Cannabis is not dope, it's everything
from rope to hope!"
The following article is an extract from
The Report of the FCDA Europe
Although on average approximately 75 people per annum in the U.S. are
revealed by post mortem (autopsy) examination to have cannabis in their
system at the time of their death, their deaths were induced by causes
not associated with cannabis. In all the long history of its use of
which the record dates back approximately 5,000 years, cannabis has
never been cause to a single fatality. Medical records and study of
worldwide pertinent writings over the millennia show that
at no time has any person died from the ingestion of any amount of cannabis, ever.
Cannabis is a NON-TOXIC substance. One hundred per cent of the scores
of studies by American universities and research facilities show that
toxicity does not exist in cannabis. (U.C.L.A, Harvard, Temple, etc.)
All the in-depth medico-scientific clinical studies conducted (for
example, US-Jamaican, US-Costa Rican, LaGuardia, etc) have revealed that
cannabis contains
no addictive properties in
any part of the plant or its smoke, so, unlike and in contrast to
tobacco, alcohol, and all the legal or illegal 'recreational' substances
cannabis is both non-habit-forming and non-toxic. Therefore cannabis
is uniquely safe. In this Report, let it be unequivocal and clearly
understood that the use of "safe" in the context of cannabis use, by
definition means,: "free of danger, risk or injury".
Cannabis Is Not A Drug: Accurate Language.
From all the medico-scientific aspects, harmless cannabis is not only
wrongly defined as a "drug" in any meaningful (semantic) definition of the word but also, by definition and empirical reality,
wrongly proscribed as a "drug" (or other substance) under legislation regulations.
Although dictionaries vary slightly in their definitions of "drug", virtually
all refer to, and rely for definition on, a drug's habit-forming, addictive properties.
Webster's New World Dictionary, for example, defines "drug" as: "a
narcotic, hallucinogen, especially one that is habit-forming." As is
confirmed by the aforementioned medico-scientific research, cannabis
contains no habit-forming properties in the plant itself or its smoke.
Evident from the most fundamental and widely inferred meaning, by definition based on empirical fact, cannabis is not a drug.
The word 'drug' derives from Old Dutch meaning dried
herbs, as used in food, for healing and in the dyeing of textiles.
There was no connotation of addiction. (viz: the Wealth of Nations,
1776, Adam Smith; Book One, Chapter One). In the twentieth Century,
that meaning has been transformed by the specious pseudo-philosophy of
Prohibition.
The invalidity of linking cannabis with "drugs" is further confirmed by
the U.S. government's Bureau of Mortality Statistics. The table, below,
demonstrates in the most obvious manner that cannabis by any meaningful
definition, traditional or modern, is not a drug and cannabis cannot
(correctly) be categorised or referred to as a drug.
COMPARISON OF CANNABIS TO OTHER SUBSTANCES
BY OFFICIAL MORTALITY STATISTICS
Sample year 1988. U.S. federal government Bureau of Mortality Statistics.
SUBSTANCE............................................
NUMBER OF DEATHS PER ANNUM.
TOBACCO................................................................................ 340,000 to 425,000
ALCOHOL (not including 50% of all highway deaths
And 65% of all murders).......................................................150,000 +
ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdoses) ................................................180 to 1,000 +
CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, triggering irregular heartbeats etc) ..................1,000 to 10,000
LEGAL DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental from legal, prescribed
Patent medicines and / or mixing with alcohol) ......14,000 to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental from all illegal drugs).........3,8000 to 5,200
THEOPHYLLINE (Prescribed asthma drug) ..........................................................50
CANNABIS
To those people in whose (financial) interests it is to perpetuate the
Prohibition of Cannabis the semantically incorrect use of the word
"drug" where cannabis is concerned, is a premeditated misuse of
terminology. This serves strategy advantageous to Prohibitionists, and
comprises a simple but effective mechanism of disinformation, by putting
the harmless herb into an unjustifiable association with addictive and
harmful drugs.
The reality is clear: cannabis and those pernicious substances, the
drugs, are wholly unalike. As the word "drug" is wrong and inapplicable
to cannabis, it is necessary to establish a correct word, veracious
vocabulary, which is fitting.
From The Report of the FCDA
Because cannabis has been loosely, widely and incorrectly referred to
in the past as a "drug" does not mean that this basic untruth can
become acceptable. On the contrary, since the introduction of
Prohibition the legal situation compels veracity and clarity more than
ever, for not to articulate the truth accurately involves perjury. Yet
truthful language, the truth, exposes the mendacious basis to the Crime
that is this Prohibition of Cannabis
The Australian Government Report says "Cannabis has been erroneously
classified as a narcotic, as a sedative and as an hallucinogen.
Cannabinoids represent a UNIQUE PHARMACOLOGICAL CLASS OF COMPOUNDS"
CANNABIS IS NOT A DRUG, AND NEITHER IS IT AN INTOXICANT.
According to the Oxford Pocket Dictionary to intoxicate is to make
drunk, excite, elate, beyond self-control. Unlike alcohol cannabis
users do not lose self-control. Massive amounts just send them to
sleep.
Intoxicants are potentially toxic, that is poisonous, with a certain
overdose level often dependent on the individual. There has never been
a single death directly attributed to cannabis use, in 5000 years of
history, with hundreds of millions of users in the world. There is NO
TOXIC AMOUNT OF CANNABIS. One theory states that an amount of 2 pounds
eaten in ten minutes, an impossible feat and not certain to cause death.
No animal has died of an overdose of cannabis.
Many substances which are mind-altering or mood changing are not drugs : hormones, endorphins, adrenaline.
Conscious-altering substance which we consume but which are not
generally regarded as drugs include sugar, caffeine and chocolate.
CANNABIS IS NOT THC
THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol is one of many active ingredients in
cannabis. It can also be produced synthetically. Organic cannabis
contains over 1000 other substances; like any herb it is the holistic
use of the whole herb or medicine which is vital. 30 or 40 cannabinoids
have been identified. Any judgment of cannabis based on the supply of
THC to patients is unfounded.
Cannabis contains THC but cannabis is not THC. It is incorrect
methodologically to mix in extraneous, irrelevant THC findings, or data
from isolated cannabinoids, and then make false claims relating to
cannabis.
WHETHER OR NOT CANNABIS IS A DRUG IT OUGHT BE LEGALISED.
