Posted by SLS on January 24, 2004, at 10:25:02
In reply to Re: Finally--REAL cannabis-based med well on the way!! » Ame Sans Vie, posted by NikkiT2 on January 24, 2004, at 9:26:12
From Reuter's via Medscape:
British Medical Association Attacks Cannabis ReclassificationBy Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) Jan 21 - The British Medical Association (BMA) attacked the government's decision to downgrade the legal status of cannabis, saying on Wednesday that regular use of the drug can kill.
Cannabis will be reclassified as a low risk, category C drug next week, making discreet possession of small amounts of it or smoking it in private a non-arrestable offense.
The downgrade, while maintaining the drug as illegal, will put cannabis in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.
The BMA said the reclassification would mislead the public into thinking the drug was safe.
"Cannabis is a drug that can kill," Dr. Peter Maguire, deputy chairman of the BMA's board of science told Reuters. "People are making the conclusion that it is safe where in fact it is actually more dangerous than tobacco.
"People tend to start smoking joints in their youthful years... and they don't appreciate the damage it can cause to their chest, their heart and all the other organs in later life."
A cannabis joint without tobacco contains a third more tar than a normal cigarette, Maguire said, while the blood of someone who smoked a cannabis joint contained five times more carbon monoxide than that of a person who smoked a normal cigarette.
Mental health charity Rethink has also called for more health warnings to be issued over the link between developing schizophrenia and cannabis use.
Britain has an estimated five million cannabis users and government figures suggest that its use has grown sharply in the last 20 years.
On Tuesday, a coroner recorded that a British man had died as a direct result of smoking the drug. Lee Maisey, 36, smoked up to six cannabis joints a day and is thought to be the first Briton to die as a direct result.
Home Secretary David Blunkett introduced the reclassification, saying the government's priority was tackling the most serious Class A drugs, which wrecked people's lives.
The government will launch a campaign on Thursday aiming to highlight the damage caused by cannabis and the fact that it remains illegal.
British media, senior police chiefs and the United Nations have criticised the reclassification, saying it will lead to widespread confusion.
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