On an early visit to Spain, I noticed a pleasant looking green plant growing in a pot on someone's terrace. I inspected it more closely and then noted with some shock that those leaves looked mighty familiar. At the time I was a criminal lawyer and I'd seen hundreds of photographs of cannabis plants. I stepped back in amazement and asked the owner of the place if the plant was what I thought it was. It was.The emotion that it stirred most in me was an odd one, fear. I realised subsequently that all of my life I have been conditioned to be afraid of even being around a real life 'drug'. Even in court cases I had handled the druggy exhibits with caution, worried somehow that mere contact with them would get me into trouble. In the U.K. mere possession of any drug is an offence, and any criminal record is employment death. In Spain things are different. Over here it seems, you are allowed to grow and smoke cannabis in your home, in moderation of course.
This is an unthinkable concept for British people, and Americans as I understand it, that you could be allowed to smoke drugs in your own house. As such, I know people here that regularly use cannabis, and they have jobs, families and mortgages. They aren't rampaging loonies nor dangerous drop outs nor day dreaming hippies. They're just like me. This is rather at odds with the propaganda that I have grown up with, but the conditioning goes deep, because on Saturday night when somebody produced a small bag of the stuff in someone's home, I was unwilling to even touch it. After checking the law, and being convinced that stormtroopers wouldn't come crashing through the door as soon as I even picked up the bag, I inspected the stuff. In all honesty it was something of a disappointment, as it resembled and smelt just like parsley.
Later on, a couple of people smoked it in my presence, and the smoke in the atmosphere had no discernible effect on me. After a while I adjusted to the situation and started to feel rather privileged, that I could sit there quite calmly, knowing that nobody was doing anything wrong. Adults were doing as they pleased, and no harm was being done. And as far as I could see the stuff had no adverse side effects on anybody, but this was no real surprise. In all my time as a criminal lawyer, I can tell you that in about 75% of violent cases the abuse of alcohol was somehow involved. I can't remember a single instance where cannabis was an issue. Alcohol is legal of course, and taxed. The same applies to cigarettes. Both of these latter things kill us in droves, indeed nearly 9000 Britons died alcohol related deaths in 2007, and worldwide 5 million people die a year due to tobacco use. That's 14,000 per day. In the U.K. in 2007, 19 people are recorded as dying from cannabis use. So why are alcohol and tobacco legal, and cannabis a controlled drug ?
It doesn't make any sense to me, having now seen the stuff up close and used in my presence. So exactly what is going on here. Is it a historical legacy, in that cigarettes and alcohol have become socially acceptable in a way that drugs never have ? Well what's socially acceptable about that level of death every year ? And merely because something is currently allowed, it doesn't mean it must always be. Mind bogglingly, heroin was legal in the U.K. until 1956, indeed it was even prescribed by GPs ! Now it is equated with the Devil himself, and offences concerning it nearly always result in heavy prison terms. But which position is right ? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating the legalisation of class 'A' drugs, because I've seen first hand the damage they can do and people these days are much more aware of how to abuse these things than in the 50's, but as for cannabis just what is the justification for demonising it, those who use it and in so doing blotting their copybooks for life ? Many times I've seen people go to jail for using cannabis, and in the same court seen people released for burglary. Which is the greater evil ? Clearly something is wrong here, and perhaps it's about time we all broke the conditioning and thought seriously and intelligently about what should and what shouldn't be legal.
9 comments:
Maybe everybody is different, but I discovered that back in my hey-day, regular pot smoking made me stupid and ambitionless. I went from the top of my class to second from the bottom. I just didn't care, was making sloppy choices. I cut back on smoking, and as my head cleared, I realized what a fog I'd been in, and stopped smoking all together. I suppose it's about moderation. Perhaps some of us don't have enough self control. I rarely drink, either. Perhaps a couple - three bottles of wine a year. You are right though. I've seen way more lives messed up by alcohol than pot.
California has legalized medical marijuana. There are pot docs who will write out a prescription for pot for basically any reason. Shoes too tight? Work stressing you out? (I am not making this up, either) This is something that turned into a huge sucking drain of health dollars.
Yet another fantastic post. And a subject I've researched a little too. There was a documentary on the box fairly recently where some clever people (scientists I believe) were testing cannabis use on mice. One of their aims was to see if there was any connection between using weed and a progression to harder drugs. A point of view that is often bounced around. Their findings led them to believe that there was no connection. Although mice that had been given extensive doses of cannabis over a set period of time that were then introduced to heroin had a higher tolerance to the class A. Although I think that this would've been obvious anyway.
One of the other findings was that when mice were given cannabis from an early age (approx 13/14 human years of age) in substantial quantities, their memory was affected heavily. However, mice given cannabis at a later stage of life didn't show the same memory loss (over mid 20's in human years).
Alcohol will kill more people per year than anything else (if you include alcohol related deaths, accidents due to drink driving etc). Tobacco contributes to the death of vast numbers of people (especially from tailor made cigarettes as they include so many chemicals). As you say, both of these are legal. The revenue generated from taxation on these 2 is huge, especially in the UK.
Personally speaking I think cannabis should be legalised, to an extent. Not only would legalisation enable the government to tax marijuana, but they would be able to monitor the "product" and improve its quality.
You don't ever hear headlines akin to "A football match was interrupted by 500 stoners going on a rampage through a city centre". In fact, I have never met anyone that became aggressive after smoking pot. Ever.
Debby - I've never taken it myself, nor do I plan to, it's just not my bag, so I can't really comment on its effects. What I don't follow however is how it's become such a nemesis for so many. You might have had similar problems if you'd been drinking too much booze too, the point is why should there be a legal distinction between the two things ?
Good old California, they can semi-legalise pot but not gay marriage. Hmmm.
Mod Cons - I think you have a point, the problem is that legalising any drug is political suicide for the politician who suggests it. So long before that can happen there needs to be an intelligent public debate (is that an oxymoron ?) about the issue without the usual resort to scare stories and moral horror. I'm not holding my breath.
The day that "The General Public" manage an intelligent debate is the same day that I cut off my foot with a spoon, lightly season it, and roast it for an hour under a medium heat until golden brown.
Like you, I won't hold my breath.
Nicely put !
I think it was the comedian Mark Thomas who pointed that drugs are such an oddly emotive issue that a rational debate about them is almost impossible; he suggested that if you say 'maybe we should think about de-criminalising marijuana use', then many people will hear the words 'compulsory heroin for six-year-olds'.
With that in mind, I'm suppose you'd be happy for crack to be handed out at the school gates, eh? Is that what you want? I think it is.
J
Oh yes of course. And I want to see them all mainlining Tixylix too.
Yes. I guess it's like discussing health care in this country. You can't have a reasonable conversation without somebody screaming 'socialized medicine' or 'they want to kill gramma' or something.
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