Holding Your Own In A Cannabis Debate

These are some of the most common quick fire questions and answers. Sixty years of Reefer Madness
lies and hystertia means that most people today who oppose cannabis law reform come from a
position of ignorance of the true facts. Use these answers to help set them straight! (See also
Marijuana Myths, Dutch Cannabis Policy, Answers to Common Questions, ).

Question: Is cannabis harmful to health?
Answer: Much research, including The Lancet and DEA Judge Young. The Merck Manual (USA), LaGuardia Commission (Canada), The Wootton Report (UK), The Shafer Commission (USA) Jamaican Studies, Costa Rica Studies, have not shown cannabis to be at all harmful to health. However, NORML NZ recognises that some people do have problems controlling their cannabis use. For these people, health education and treatment is the best solution, rather than arrest and incarceration.

Question: Is cannabis a drug?
Answer: Debatable. See earlier.

Question: Is cannabis poisonous?
Answer: There is no fatal dose for cannabis, and there has never been a recorded death in over 10,000 years of use.

Question: Does cannabis intoxicate?
Answer: Not in the sense of losing control, which is what intoxication does. Intoxication is produced by toxics; cannabis is not toxic.

Question: Is cannabis THC?
Answer: Tetrahydrocannabinol is one of hundreds of cannabinoids in cannabis. THC is not cannabis, cannabis is not THC.

Question: What are the effects of cannabis?
Answer: We'd like to simply say 'try it and see' but that would be a crime! Cannabis relaxes alpha waves produced by the brain. The effect is usually mild, relaxing and pleasant. Any undesirable or unpleasant effects of high doses or in the novice wears off as the cannabis wears off. It can produce giggles, increase concentration, stimulate appetite, help sleep etc. Many artists and sportsmen use cannabis. We must be careful to distinguish between the effects of pure cannabis and those of the doubtful substances often sold on the street, which may contain nasty drugs.

Question: Does cannabis damage the reproductive system?
Answer: No. This false claim was based on the work of Dr Gabriel Nahas who experimented with cells in petri dishes. Nahas' generalization from the laboratory dish to human beings has been rejected by the scientific community. Studies of humans have failed to reveal any damage. Moreover we all know plenty of people who have used cannabis for years and they all have plenty of normal, healthy children. See also Greek Studies.

Question: Does cannabis damage the immune system?
Answer: No. Again there is no evidence. Two studies in 1978 and one in 1988 showed that cannabis actually stimulates the immune system.

Question: Does cannabis impair short-term memory?
Answer: No. Some people may find themselves distracted whilst others find cannabis aids concentration and improves memory. That is why so many good musicians smoke cannabis and are able to remember complex series of notes and words.

Question: Is today's cannabis more potent than in the past?
Answer:No. It is about the same. In the past delays in analysis effected results. Potency cannot be determined by the amount of THC alone. The most potent form of cannabis was probably that sold as 'American Cannabis' in the 1920's.

Question: What does cannabis smoke contain?
Answer: Over two thousand different chemicals, none of which produces harm. Compare with coffee which contains over 800 volatile chemicals, only 21 of which have ever been tested on animals and 16 of those caused cancers in rats.

Question: How many convicted annually?
Answer: In 1997 there were over 22,000 cannabis 'offences' reported by the police in New Zealand, up from 5184 in 1979, an increase of almost 400%. Cannabis makes up 95% of all drug offences. Around 60% are for simple possession. 37% of all those arrested are Maori - almost three times over-represented on a population basis. Cannabis law enforcement costs the New Zealand taxpayer over $17 million every year in policing costs, and a comparable amount again in Court and Prison costs. These costs do not include prohibition-related crime such as assaults, murders, extortion, theft, or lower police efficiency resulting from the reduced respect for the law and the criminal justice system that prohibition creates.

Question: How many people die as a result of cannabis use?
Answer: None. Ever. It is not toxic and there is no overdose.

Question: Is cannabis addictive?
Answer: No. It is habit-forming only in the sense that it is natural to wish to repeat a pleasant experience. There is no withdrawal. One simply returns to whatever state one was in before consumption. See LaGuardia, and Shafer for more information. But we must remember that those people with addictive personalities can come to psychologically depend on anything, and those using cannabis to ease their suffering may depend upon it as a medicine. This does not mean that the hundreds of millions of people using cannabis worldwide are cannabis addicts.

Question: Is cannabis a 'gateway drug'?
Answer: No, otherwise the 500,000 smokers in NZ in 1990 (Black & Casswell, Drugs in New Zealand 1990) would be addicts of other drugs by now. The situation in Holland has confirmed that cannabis use does not lead to drug use. In any case a huge percentage of the population takes drugs of one sort or another. The fact that a lot of heroin users previously took cannabis does not suggest that most cannabis users will ever take heroin. Rather than the 'gateway' effect being a result of cannabis use, it is a result of the prohibition-created black market. See LaGuardia, Jamaican studies.

Question: Do you advocate the use of cannabis?
Answer: We would like to be able to advocate the medicinal use of cannabis in preference to many prescribed drugs, as well as advocate the preferred use of cannabis for hard drug users and alcohol addicts. Unfortunately if we did this we would be subject to arrest for incitement.

Question: When was cannabis made illegal?
Answer: In New Zealand in 1961 under the Narcotics Act, as a result of the mis-classification of cannabis as a narcotic. Cannabis was 'properly' banned with the passing of the current Misuse of Drugs Act in 1975.

Question: How many cannabis users in the world?
Answer: An estimated 600 million - but this probably far too low.

Question: How many cannabis users in New Zealand?
Answer: The most reliable study, Drugs in New Zealand 1990, by Black & Casswell of Auckland University's Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit showed:
12% of the entire population aged between 18 and 45 are regular users.
43% of the entire population aged between 18 and 45 have tried cannabis at least once.
18% of the entire population aged between 18 and 45 have tried cannabis at least once in the past year.
Half of all those who had ever tried cannabis had done so by their 17th birthday. Use was highest amongst 20-24 year old males; 65% have tried cannabis.

Question: Is cannabis fat soluble? Does it stay in your system?
Answer: Yes, for from 14 to 40 days. But this is long after any effect has worn off and it causes no harm. Vitamin A and DDT are also fat soluble and linger in your body; this does not mean they necessarily cause any harm or create any benefit.

Question: What are the other uses of cannabis?
Answer: Besides social use and medicinal use, as a fibre for paper, rope and cloth, as a building material and board for furniture, packing material, animal bedding, foodstuff, prevents land erosion, to make plastic, paints, varnish, and sealant, as a fuel as a lubricant etc. There are over 25,000 different uses for industrial hemp (cannabis fibre), the cultivation of which without a permit is currently prohibited in NZ.

Question: What are the penalties for cannabis?
Answer: For possession, in NZ, anything from a caution to three months in jail with or without a fine of up to $1000. For cultivation, supply, possession with intent to supply, importation and conspiracy (including being concerned or knowingly involved with any of these offence), up to 7 years in prison with an unlimited fine and confiscation of assets. In Holland the sentences for even huge amounts are relatively light. In some countries even the death penalty is a possibility.

Question: What are the dangers of smoking cannabis?
Answer:

• Getting arrested.
• Being expelled from school or fired from your job.
• Health hazards from impurities.
• Being offered hard drugs.
• Mixing it with tobacco.
• Becoming a social outcast and/or persecution.
• Convictions, a criminal record, banned from entering some counties (eg USA, Japan etc)
• All prohibition created problems (eg, violence, police corruption)

Unless stated otherwise, copyright © 1998-2005 by NORML New Zealand, working for marijuana law reform

Published on: 2003-03-09 (3445 reads)