PRESS RELEASE - 22nd NOVEMBER, 2003

Edition 21.

Cannabis News Items From Around the World

NSW GETS CLINICS TO HELP CANNABIS "ADDICTS" QUIT

Pubdate: Mon, 10 Nov 2003
Source: West Australian (Australia)
Copyright: 2003 West Australian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@wanews.com.au.
Website: http://www.thewest.com.au

Cannabis clinics designed to curb use of the drug by young people and help heavy users quit will be established in NSW.

Detoxification, counselling and psychological assistance will be available for clinic patients, but cannabis will not be provided as part of the treatment.

Special Minister of State John Della Bosca said the Parramatta clinic would open by the end of the year. It would be the first of four such facilities to be set up under a $2.4 million program.

The clinic would become a flagship for clinics planned for southern Sydney, the central coast and the central west.

"The clinic is aimed at people who are highly dependent on cannabis and who want treatment to help them reduce and eliminate their drug taking," he said.

"This is part of a comprehensive response the Government's been taking to the emerging problem of links between cannabis use and cannabis overuse and various health, psychiatric and social problems affecting young people."

Mr Della Bosca said the clinics were the latest Government initiative highlighting the serious health consequences of cannabis use, particularly to young people.

"The people coming to this clinic will be seeking treatment for serious mental health, fitness and social problems caused by their cannabis use," he said.

"This clinic will provide the medical expertise, surroundings and encouragement to help cannabis users maintain the personal motivation required to beat the addiction."

The Western Sydney Area Health Service will run the Parramatta clinic in collaboration with the Salvation Army.

The NSW Government initiative was backed by the Opposition.

"I'm very pleased to see any initiative that makes it easier for people who put their hand up to get off marijuana to do so," Opposition Leader John Brogden said.

The 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey reported that one in three Australians aged 14 or older had used cannabis at some time in their life. The highest prevalence age group for cannabis is 14-24.

Schizophrenia by cannabis the new myth.

Schizophrenia by cannabis new myth. by our reporter Koen van Eijk.
Translated from Dutch

Castricum - During the 1930´s, you would ´become homophilia´ from cocaine use. In the 1970´s, schizophrenia was caused by failed parenting by the mother. It all turned out to be a hoax. Again, a new medical myth appears to be born: Now you become schozophrenic from hash and weed.

Psychiatrist Daniel van Dijk was surprised when he heard the news last week: The use of hash and weed, cannabis, would be the cause of 200 more schizophrenia patients in the Netherlands each year. The media reported this on basis of a Trimbos-Institute research. According to Trimbos, even people without genetical indications would become psychotic from the intensive use
(smoking) of cannabis. The underlying message: Softdrugs are not as innocent as being claimed. Coffeeshops are places that threaten the health of the youth.

Dr. van Dijk, who works at the Duin en Bosch Psychiatric Hospital in Castricum, could hardly believe the Trimbos-Institute came up with a research containing such explicit results, out of the blue. If anyone knows what is going on in the area of schizophrenia and drugs, in Holland and far
beyond, it is van Dijk. At the Duin en Bosch hospital, he is working on a research into the connection between psychiatric diseases and cannabis for years. He does not want to be called an authority, but he belongs to a group of experts in this area in the Netherlands.

¨I started to investigate it. It appearred it was no such thing as a new research, but a combination of several old researches. The conclusions attached to all this are extremely short sighted.¨ said van Dijk. ¨I have told that to Harald Wychgel of the Trimbos in a radio transmission. He
replied that he did not say that cannabis causes schizophrenia, but that the mediadid. OK, but he did not say it was not so either. Now, the harm has already been done.¨

Van Dijk brings up the examples of cocaine use and homosexuality, and schizophrenia and the mother. ¨In the 1930´s there was a lot of cocaine snorting going on in the circles of the artists, authors and journalists, the so-called bohemians. Together with this, the people within this group
did not have a problem with showing their sexual stances than other Dutch people. There was a connection between cocaine and homosexuality, but not any substabtial connection.¨

The idea that mothers are responsible for causing schizofrenia in their child, took place according to the same mechanism. Van Dijk: It was discovered that mothers of schozphrenics could not let go of their children. That was supposed to be the reason the kids would go schizophrenic. It
turned out to be the contrary, afterwards. The children got a lot of extra attention because they were already not well. It was adeqaute, and not damaging behaviour by the mother.¨

If an image is already being sketched, it is difficult to undo this. A lot of mothers have been tormented by feelings of guilt, in case their son or daughter were diagnosed to have schizophrenia. This effect lasted quite some time. Eventhough the story was considered untrue by medical science, this was not the case in the surrounding of the suffering families of schizophrenics. The ´schizophrenogen mother´ has been the topic of rumours and slander for a long time.

Van Dijk warns for a false interpretation of the facts in this current discussion around cannabis and schizophrenia. ¨These kinds of statements cause a lot of damage and unrest. I have been called by parents of schizophrenic children three times, this week. One Mother even asked me: Would my son not be sick if I would have managed to keep him away from the coffeeshop?

In the meanwhile, it is known there is a connection between cannabis and schizophrenia. Everybody working in the psychic health care will confirm that schizophrenics are heavy cannabis smokers. Van Dijk´s research proves that scientifically. Out of mentally healthy Dutch males between 20 and 40, 5 to 10 % smoke cannabis. Schizophrenic males in the same agegroup smoke a lot more cannabis: 60%

But if smoking cannabis in early puberty will subsequently trigger schozophrenia at an older age, can not be proven by van Dijk. It seems more that many patients use it as self medication, a theory that is being in doubt within psychiatry. From his own research amongst 176 schizophrenia
patients, van Dijk discovered that a lot of the patients smoke cannabis to combat the side effects of psychosis preventing medication. By smoking cannabis they feel less stiff, experience more emotions and in some cases the can enjoy having sex again.

Van Dijk gives an example of one of his seriously psychotic patients, who would go wild over the smallest causes. He was put on an other medication and received psychotherapy, through which he managed to decrease his drugs consumption. The results are encouraging. The boy is more relaxed and wants to start working in a normal job. He has not been in isoltion for a long time. Finding a job might just give him the last little push in the right direction.

Van Dijk notices how in the current political climate the tolerance policy is being up for discussion, with mixed emotions. ¨If a drug free world were possible, I would be in favor of that. Unfortunately, our society is not like that. Everything prohibited attracts criminals. As a doctor I say: In favir of natinonal health all bad things should be legalised. In several cities in the Netherlands, free heroin was issued to a group of junks during a research. These junks started to take good care of themselves, they became healthier, started working and quit stealing. And take the situation on the premises of Duin en Bosch. We had a housedealer from Bakkum here. That went fine, until that man ended up in jail for a while. Then, pushers came calling here. They gave the patients a freebie the first time. They came back the next day, and turned to one of the patients, a young boy: Pay up now, or we´ll rip your head off. This really happened. Such a vulnerable boy, who already thinks he is being followed by the KGB, sees all his fears
confirmed like this.¨

REVIEW SHOWS THAT CANNABIS USE IS A RISK FACTOR FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

The opposite view.

Public health researchers in the Netherlands now believe that there is "converging evidence" to show that using cannabis is a risk factor for schizophrenia.

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction warn that cannabis approximately doubles the risk of schizophrenia and that the risk increases in proportion to the amount of the drug used.

The researchers draw their conclusions from a review of five longitudinal studies recently published in four medical journals, including the British Medical Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor
Geneeskunde 2003;44:2178-83).

Data from these studies, which were carried out in the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, and Israel, made it possible to clarify the sequence of events over a long period of time. They discounted the possibility that schizophrenia increases subsequent use of cannabis, the "self medication" hypothesis.

The researchers excluded people with a previous history of psychotic problems from the analysis, and they controlled for the effects of other confounders, such as the use of other drugs. Thus they were able to show the specific influence of cannabis.

The Swedish and Dutch studies also showed that the amount of cannabis used was associated with the risk of schizophrenia, supporting the causal hypothesis.

In the Netherlands five in 10 000 adults a year develop schizophrenia. The researchers say that a conservative estimate based on consistent results is that using cannabis doubles the risk of developing the disease.

They conclude that although the risk may be numerically small it is "serious in clinical terms" and that ignoring the message of the recent research "is not an option."

According to the 2003 national drugs monitor, a systematic collection and analysis of data carried out by the institute, the number of cannabis users in the Netherlands increased from 326 000 in 1997 to 408 000 in 2001.

By the age of 18 years half of Dutch men and a third of Dutch women have used cannabis at least once. Of the people who say that have used it in the past month, half say they have smoked more than five joints.

The researchers accept that epidemiological cohort studies do not offer complete proof, as there may be other underlying social or biological factors.

But a co-author, public health researcher Filip Smit, said that public health officials don't require the same degree of certainty that scientists do. He said, "From a public health perspective we do not want to take the risk, especially with something as serious as schizophrenia." The institute says its conclusions have implications for health education, and it wants more preventive health projects, especially ones that are geared towards teenagers at school.

The paper has initiated a debate in the Dutch media, where a spokesman for the institute said, "Soft drugs have lost their innocence."

Philipino Senator wants Firing Squad Executions for Druggies

Pubdate: Thu, 13 Nov 2003
Source: Manila Bulletin (The Philippines)
Contact: bulletin@mb.com.ph
Website: http://www.mb.com.ph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/906

'EXECUTION THRU FIRING SQUAD' PRESSED

Senator Robert Barbers urged yesterday President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to consider death thru "firing squad" as the most effective deterrent to quash the drug menace in the country.

Barbers said that under the death penalty law, those convicted of heinous crimes are executed by way of lethal injection. However, since its inception in our penal system, only rape offenders such as the highly-celebrated Leo Echegaray went into the gallows and no one thereafter.

"With a susbtantial number of drug lords and pushers falling into the hands of our law enforcement authorities, the government should be more aggressive to weed out the illegal drug problem. It's not just enough to file proper charges against collared drug suspects in court. We have to line them up against the wall and shoot them. It's been since martial law years that a convicted high-profile Chinese drug lord was put to a firing squad, and now we have 38 convicts awaiting restitution for their drug crimes," he said.

Citing statistics culled from the PNP Narcotics Command, Barbers noted that Filipinos hooked to drugs have "astronomically multiplied" since back in the 70s, there were only 250,000 confirmed drug users nationwide.

Today, however, the estimated drug addicts ballooned to 1.7 million of which an alarming portion are "street criminals" compulsively using illegal drug substances.

"How many more of our youth would be lured to intense drug addiction before the government could finally put a lid to the dangerous drug trade," Barbers said, adding that "in no way can the State protect their welfare if the government does not implement drastic measures."

Barbers argued that the government actually has more than sufficient legal arsenal at its command, in the exercise of its inherent police power, to counter the proliferation of drugs.

As a matter of fact, the anti-drug law (R.A. 9165) imposes the maximum penalty of death for convicted high-profile drug lords and pushers. And on top of that, capital punishment is applied to heinous crime offenders.

But paraphrasing Shakespeare, Barbers said that the government's intensified crackdown against drugs would amount to mere "sound and fury signifying nothing" if the moratorium on the death penalty law is not officially lifted.

"While I personally defer to the Chief Executive's constitutional prerogative, I just hope that President Arroyo would reconsider this option." (RF)

WARNING ON THE DANGERS OF CHOPPING UP WITH SPIN

Author: Michael Baulderstone
Date: 17-11-2003

As another round of anti-smoking concern resurfaces, the Nimbin HEMP Embassy wants to remind everyone of the ingrained Australian youth culture habit of smoking cannabis with tobacco. It's not so in America, Canada or New Zealand, but in most Australian states, and certainly NSW, Aussie youth are addicted to chopping up their mull with spin for a bong session. It's a major ritual and right now, as you read this, dozens of young people have their scissors out, cutting up their probably hydro pot and mixing it with a tailor made cigarette.

The main reason for doing this is to make the expensive $20 per gram cannabis go twice as far, though we suspect the habit originally began with smoking imported hashish, which needs tobacco to burn. The spin, as youth call tobacco, smoked through the bong, is sucked deep and hard into their lungs.

Of course, after a little while, they wake up in the morning with nicotine cravings. Most don't recognise it for what it is, a tobacco addiction. They just want another bong and so the daily smoking cycle begins, often starting before school. Many parents don't realise the overuse (abuse) of cannabis by their children is driven by nicotine cravings. It's important smokers are educated to smoke cannabis alone.

Nimbin HEMP Embassy spokesperson Michael Balderstone says, "we have lobbied both the Federal and NSW Governments for years on this important subtle issue, saying with regulation and education, the habit can change. They'd rather keep their heads in the sand and trot out the same old 'just say no' line, which obviously isn't working. We also think they don't respect
advice from potheads but obviously we know what's going on in the culture".

"No wonder our youth tobacco smoking figures won't go any lower. All of us in the cannabis culture know that most tobacco smokers picked up the habit from smoking their pot with spin."

"Mr Della Bosca's new cannabis clinic in Sydney will discover, as we already have, that 30 cone-a-day habits can be changed to three, simply by taking the tobacco out of the mix."

"Once cannabis smokers are allowed to grow their own plants and real drug education is respected, only then can youth tobacco smoking be successfully addressed."

The Truth about Marijuana - facts from the U.S.

Date: Friday, November 21, 2003 6:03 AM
Subject: The Truth about Marijuana - facts from the U.S.

Are people actually arrested for marijuana?

Yes. In 2002 alone, there were 697,082 marijuana-related arrests in the United States. [1] (Eighty-eight percent of these were for possession alone.) [2] That's larger than the populations of Las Vegas (478,434) and Reno (180,480) combined. [3]

How much does marijuana prohibition cost?

Marijuana prohibition costs American taxpayers an estimated $12 billion annually. [4]

What is the gateway theory? Is it true?

The gateway theory states that marijuana use leads to the use of harder drugs. This theory is incorrect. Marijuana, as a substance, does not lead to the use of harder drugs.

According the Institute of Medicine (in a report commissioned by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy), "There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone [to other drugs] on the basis of its particular physiological effect." [5]

The same report also explained why the gateway theory appears to be true.
"There are strikingly regular patterns in the progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug that most people encounter.
Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs used marijuana first.
In fact, most drug users do not begin their drug use with marijuana--they begin with alcohol and nicotine, usually when they are too young to do so legally." [6]

The World Health Organization noted that any gateway effect associated with marijuana use may actually be due to marijuana prohibition because "exposure to other drugs when purchasing cannabis on the black-market, increases the opportunity to use other illicit drugs." [7]

Is it really that easy for teens to buy marijuana?

Yes. Teens can buy marijuana much more easily than beer and almost as easily as cigarettes.

In a survey by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, published in August 2003, teens were asked, "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer or marijuana?" Thirty-five percent of teens said that cigarettes were easiest to buy,
followed by marijuana at 34%, and beer at 18%. [8]

I've heard that 60% of teens in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis. Doesn't that prove that marijuana is very addictive?

The Institute of Medicine found that: "Compared to most other drugs ... dependence among marijuana users is relatively rare." "In summary, although few marijuana users develop dependence, some do. But they appear to be less likely to do so than users of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine), and marijuana dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs." [9]

It is a problem when any teen uses marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, or any other drug. But use and addiction are not the same; most of the teens in drug treatment are there for use rather than for addiction. The majority of those "marijuana dependent" teens were referred to drug treatment by the criminal-justice system (53.6%), by schools (10.5%), or by "other community" sources (such as defense attorneys who are trying to save their clients from criminal convictions) (8.1%). [10] Drug treatment often serves as an alternative to criminal punishment or penalties at school.

If anything, the 60% statistic proves that marijuana is too easy for teens to acquire. It does not prove that marijuana is addictive.

Has anyone ever died from marijuana?

In all of recorded medical literature, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.

In 2001, a detailed examination of the health and psychological effects of marijuana use from the National Drug and Alcohol Centre at the University of New South Wales in Australia noted that marijuana "makes no known contribution to deaths and a minor contribution to morbidity [illness]."
[11]

In a 1998 editorial, The Lancet, an esteemed British medical journal, wrote, "On the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill-effect on health." [12]

Does marijuana use cause cancer or early death?

Contrary to popular belief, marijuana smokers do not have an increased risk of premature death or cancer.

In its exhaustive review of the scientific literature, the Institute of Medicine found that: "There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including cancers usually related to tobacco use." The same report concluded that: "Epidemiological data indicate that in the
general population marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality." [13]

In 1997, Kaiser Permanente released a 10-year study of 65,171 men and women in Northern California. The study interviewed patients on their drug and alcohol use and found no statistically significant association between marijuana use and death. [14]

I've heard that today's marijuana is stronger and more dangerous. Is this true?

Claims of a dramatic increase in marijuana potency are commonly based on the assertion that marijuana used in the 1960s and 1970s contained only 1% THC (the main psychoactive compound in marijuana). But, as University of Southern California psychology professor and researcher Mitch Earleywine noted in his book, Understanding Marijuana, these claims are based on very small numbers of samples that may have been improperly stored.
Furthermore, marijuana with just 1% THC is not psychoactive -- that is, it doesn't produce a "high." So if the 1% figure is true, the drug's rapid increase in popularity was based on marijuana so weak that it wasn't even capable of producing the intended effect. [15]

Earleywine further explained that the moderate increases in potency that have occurred "may not justify alarm. THC is not toxic at high doses like alcohol, nicotine, or many other common drugs. High-potency marijuana may actually minimize risk for lung problems because less [smoke] is required to achieve desired effects." [16] Thus, even if today's marijuana were stronger, it would not be more dangerous.

Citations

[1] Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States: 2002, published 2003, (Section IV, p. 4). In 2002, marijuana-related arrests accounted for 45.3% of all drug arrests. Multiply this percentage by the total number of drug arrests for the same year (1,538,815) to get the number of marijuana-related arrests: 697,083. View: Related FBI site http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/02cius.htm

[2] Ibid. In 2002, there were 1,538,815 total drug arrests, and 5.4% of these (or 83,096) were for sale/manufacture of marijuana. For the same year, 39.9% of all drug arrests (or 613,987 arrests) were for marijuana possession. These arrests composed 88% of all the 697,083
marijuana-related arrests.

[3] U.S. Census Bureau, County and City Data Book: 2000, Table C-1. View: Related Census Bureau site http://www.census.gov/statab/ccdb/cit1020r.txt

[4] In 2002, the federal government spent $18.8 billion on the "drug war." Approximately 53% ($9.964 billion) was spent on enforcement, court, and prison expenses, with the rest used for treatment and education (National Drug Control Strategy, Office of National Drug Control Policy; Washington, D.C., 2002). In 1991 -- the most recent year for which data are available -- state and local governments spent a total of nearly $16 billion, of which about 80% was used for enforcement, court, and prison costs (National Drug Control Strategy, Office of National Drug Control Policy; Washington, D.C., 1994). State and local spending is estimated to have increased to $20 billion annually in 2002 ("Drug War Retreat? The Pentagon's Double-Edged Plan to Scale Back," Daytona Beach News-Journal, Nov. 9, 2002). Hence, the total annual criminal-justice system expenditure for federal, state, and local governments is $25.964 billion ($9.964 billion + $16 billion [$20 billion x 80%]). While this total annual expenditure is not broken down by
specific drugs, marijuana crimes account for 45.3% of all drug arrests (Crime in the United States: 2002, Federal Bureau of Investigation).
Assuming that expense and arrest percentages roughly match, the war on marijuana consumers costs taxpayers $11.76 billion annually. View: National Drug Control Strategy site http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/03ndcs/index.html

[5] Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson Jr., and John A. Benson, Jr., eds., Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Health, Institute of Medicine (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) p. 99.

[6] Ibid., p. 99.

[7] W. Hall, R. Room, & S. Bondy, WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28, 1995, Section II: "Psychological Effects of Chronic Cannabis Use: Adolescent Development" (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization,
March 1998).

[8] National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse VIII: Teens, Parents and Siblings, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, August 2003, Appendix D, p. 44.

[9] Joy, et al., Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, p. 94,98.

[10] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS): 1994-1999. National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services, DASIS Series: S-14, DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 01-3550, Rockville, MD, 2001, p. 109, Table 5.2a. View: SAMHSA 1994-1999 Treatment Episode Data Set

[11] Wayne Hall, Louisa Degenhardt, and Michael Lynskey, "The Health and Psychological Effects of Cannabis Use," National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2001, p. 29.

[12] "Dangerous Habits," The Lancet, Nov. 14, 1998, p. 1565.

[13] Joy, et al., Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, p. 119, 109. View: StopTeenUse.com reference section

[14] Steven Sidney, M.D., Jerome E. Beck, Dr.P.H., Irene S. Tekawa, M.A., Charles P. Quesenberry, Jr., Ph.D., and Gary D. Friendman, M.D., "Marijuana Use and Mortality," American Journal of Public Health, April 1997, Pp.
585-590.

[15] Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., Understanding Marijuana, Oxford University Press, 2002, Pp. 128-129.

[16] Ibid, p. 140.

Military Drug Use in Darwin?

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS!