I just read an american study, made on 27 000 students. When the state in question legalized medicinal cannabis, the study observed an increase of 60% consumption of heroine and 160% cocaine.
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Is that legalising cannabis, for any use, or medicinal as you stated? If medicinal only I am struggling to see a link to affect usage of other drugs?
Itâs basically the same thing IB there are many Drâs in these U.S states prepared to write you a prescription for âmedicinalâ cannabis if you pay their fee of course.
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Interestingly in Britain, at least where I am, there was resistance to the legalising of medicinal cannabis from GPs precisely because they could envisage problems separating out bone fide need from people actually wanting it for recreational use, and they didnât want to be put in that position.
Medicinal cannabis largely makes use of the CBD component in cannabis. Itâs THC that is the psychotropic component. Medicinal cannabis, properly prescribed, is likely to contain a much greater CBD to THC ratio and consequently would be unlikely to be much use to smokers looking to get high. Conversely, âskunkâ cannabis has been specifically developed to contain very high levels of THC (15-20%) compared to hashish (around 5%). CBD is the component that generally causes drowsiness and relaxation whereas THC gives you the buzzy high. Thatâs what leads some psychiatrists to link the use of skunk cannabis with psychosis.
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My initial response to such a study would be highly sceptical. However, some studies have shown, in countries/ states where cannabis has been legalised/ decriminalised, there is an initial spike in use (perhaps due to curiosity) but tends to fall back to lower levels of use than countries where possession is illegal.
There is an argument to be made that prohibition does have a degree of efficacy. For example the banning of alcohol at football matches in England did lead to a reduction in violence. Drink driving laws reduce road traffic accidents, and, in Scotland, research into the recently introduced minimum pricing of alcohol does seem to show a reduction in overall alcohol consumption. However itâs far too early to extrapolate any long term trends from that initiative. However, most studies would support the theory that legal and regulated supply of a drug overall generates fewer social, medical and legal problems.
In any case, illicit drugs are, along with coffee, oil and armaments, one of the most valuable commodities in the world. That (illicit) industry simply cannot exist without a vast infrastructure to support it; cultivation, processing, distribution etc (necessitating massive corruption at government levels). Illicit drugs are irreversibly woven into global society. The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances has been in force for over thirty years yet drugs are still widespread and easily available, with organised crime being the main beneficiary. Countries like Morocco, Afghanistan and Columbia pretty much depend on the cultivation and export of illicit drugs. The war on drugs was lost before it even began. I once read that the Californian economy would have collapsed if the importation of cocaine from Columbia had been seriously pursued and eradicated.
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As someone who has close association with those with mental health challenges, I fear for the day cannabis is ever legalised in the UK for recreational use. The damage it can do to your mental health I find disturbing if not carefully controlled or prescribed where it can be clinically risk assessed. It makes me angry to see people destroying themselves in this way⊠I assume they expect others to pick up the pieces for them, and itâs often the families. Why burden society with yet more issues?
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Apparently the study points that itâs very easy to have a prescription for medicinal cannabis in the States.
The same for â Vicodine â, âoxycodoneâ. ( dĂ©rivĂ©s opiacĂ©s), which kills thousands of us people each year.
Publié le 31 octobre 2018 à 23h33 Mis à jour le 1 novembre 2018 à 10h57
When marijuana is legalized, public health officials should work harder to prevent the use of hard drugs and help those who are addicted to them. This is the conclusion of an American study that analyzed the behavior of 27,000 adolescents. In states that legalize medical cannabis, cocaine use increases by 60% and heroin use by 160%.
Medicinal and recreational pot
Is this analysis relevant to the legalization of marijuana in Canada? âThere were too few states that had legalized the recreational use of cannabis when we did the study,â said Hsien Chang-Lin, epidemiologist at the University of Indiana, who is the main author of the study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors. "But in both cases, we are witnessing a normalization of this drug. Consuming it is no longer a transgression. It is the impact of this standardization on the consumption of other drugs that interests us. "
Jean-SĂ©bastien Fallu, a drug specialist at the University of Montreal, agrees with this interpretation. âPeople trust that the drugs are safe,â says Fallu. They are often unaware that they can have negative effects. So when we say that cannabis can have a medicinal effect, they are reassured that it is safe. The line between medicinal and recreational cannabis can also be thin if you donât need a prescription, like in Colorado. Chang-Lin believes the main lesson from his study is the need for public health officials to pay attention to a possible increase in the use of hard drugs.
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I donât specially state that cannabis should not be legalized. Just found that study.
There are a lot of pros and coins, so itâs not easy to know really what should be better. Perhaps legalized, but with strict conditions ( quantities, ageâŠ).
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FR, could you please attribute this quote. I have translated (via google translate) for the benefit of members here.
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When I first clicked on the thread name it was out of curiosity to find out what was being said about receivers, as I had only ever come across rx being used with tx, meaning receive and transmit⊠It was enlightening to find it somehow meant cannabis or drugs generally!
@Richard.Dane, thank you for allowing this thread (so far). It is interesting, and educational both through learning different personal views and their reasoning, and whatever hard data people may provide.
Sources : Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, JAMAPediatrics
Mathieu Perrault, La Presse.
Thanks for having translated that. I apparently not pasted the source in my post.
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Interesting, thank you. Iâm unfamiliar with the Journal Of Addictive Behaviours. But, as with any report, you have to have clarity in relation to who commissioned it and why? The tobacco industry spent a huge amount of effort and money commissioning âscientific reportsâ that sought to undermine the link between smoking tobacco and cancer. Likewise the oil industry has commissioned reports seeking to discredit issues around climate catastrophe. The methodology employed is vital as different methodological study of the same subject/ phenomenon can produce strikingly different conclusions. A report also needs to be substantially peer reviewed if it is to gain credibility. It should also be cited in other research projects. Finally, it has to measured against reports that conclude the opposite or different findings. Thereby a scientific consensus may be reached that becomes generally accepted amongst both the specialist and lay communities.
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I started reading this thread
But now Iâve forgotten what itâs aboutâŠ
It will come to me in a minute or twoâŠ
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I totally agree. Itâs just a study amongst many others and we donât know which credibility we can accord to it.
Maybe others here can post studies which demonstrate a decrease of hard drugs consumption when and where cannabis was legalized.
Perhaps I will find myselfâŠ
I would bet the house there are a lot more people who have gone from alcohol use/abuse to harder drugs than from cannabis.
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Plenty of people with mental health challenges have difficulty with alcohol as well. So should we criminalize alcohol sales, so that if you want a pint you have to got over to the heavy metal kid whoâs a dealer and uncomfortably hang out to get your glass filled (which turns out to slightly stale and only 16 ounces vs a full imperial)?
Itâs all relative - and if somebody really wants to get something - legal or not - theyâre going to get it. I have no problem using large amounts for my chronic pain - it can actually help me work out, ski black diamond slopes, get work done, etc - but if my schizophrenic younger brother uses even just a puff he can, and has, ended up in trouble, like jail. So I know intimately the risks involved in regard to mental health, but would opt for legalization every time.
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I know - i thought about putting that in my post - hence my point of creating another burden.
So if we were starting again, I guess its questionable whether tobacco and alcohol would likely be legal - at least strong alcohol.
Two wrongs donât make a right.
I have no issue in using medical grade cannabis for prescriptions - after all we use medical grade heroin/opiates⊠but tightly controlled. My post was about recreational useâŠ
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Not all people who enjoy a drink turn into drunk idiots and not all people who smoke hash are peace loving hippies.
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