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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Nigeria: Should Marijuana Also Be Legalised In Nigeria? Winifred Ogbebo Leadership Monday 23 Dec 2013 The world woke up on December 10, 2013 to the news that the small Latin American country of Uruguay had legalised marijuana, including the growing, sale and smoking of the illicit drug. Thus becoming the very first in the world to do so. With the legalisation, marijuana, also called igbo will now be commercially available to the citizens of adult age. WINIFRED OGBEBO wonders in this report if this action will not spur other countries into toeing the same line. Its many street names include pot, herb, weed, grass, Jane, reefer, dope, and ganja. It is the most widely used illegal drug in most parts of the world. Marijuana or cannabis is a dry, shredded green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves of the plant Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana, according to medical experts, is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). A consultant neurologist, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo explained that marijuana is an illicit drug, even though the side effects are less harmful than those of most other drugs, like alcohol and tobacco. “The short-term effects of marijuana include immediate, temporary changes in thoughts, perceptions, and information processing. People under the influence of marijuana also display diminished capacity to learn and recall new information. Other effects are feelings of panic, anxiety, and paranoia which may be very frightening. Occasionally, marijuana use may produce anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic, altered sensory perceptions and feelings of being invincible,” he further explained. He gave a breakdown of the different types: Medicinal or recreational Marijuana use can be medicinal or recreational. Medicinal marijuana has been shown to be effective in reducing the nausea and vomiting induced by cancer chemotherapy. It helps to stimulate appetite in AIDS patients, and reported to help in reducing intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma. There is also appreciable evidence that marijuana reduces muscle spasticity in patients with neurological disorders. It is available by prescription from a doctor. Recreational marijuana is non processed and highly variable in potency. This is where the problem lies as this is often taken in by smoking. And you would not know until your first drag which could be quite dangerous. Marijuana use impairs a person’s ability to form new memories and to shift focus. It also disrupts coordination and balance by disrupting parts of the brain that regulate balance, posture, coordination, and reaction time. Therefore, learning, doing complicated tasks is also affected. At some doses, marijuana affects perception and psychomotor performance – changes which could impair driving ability. Ogungbo said marijuana users who had taken large doses of the drug might experience an acute psychosis, including hallucinations, delusions and a loss of the sense of personal identity. “That’s right - smoking a joint creates the effect of temporary brain damage. Longer-lasting, schizophrenia-like disorders have also been associated with the use of cannabis in vulnerable individuals,” he noted. Take this case scenario: Deji (not real name) was cut on the head with a machete. He got into a fight with some thugs who felt that he was disrespectful to them. On the particular day, Deji had been smoking marijuana and was completely off his head. He was hallucinating, agitated, laughing unnecessarily and was extremely paranoid for a long time. He did not even know he had been cut on the head till two weeks after the assault. Addiction and medicine Some experts call cannabis a public health menace that is addictive and destroys lives by robbing people of ambition. Other experts call it a cure for everything from insomnia to glaucoma and advocate its use as a medicine. The former want it to be illegal, the latter want it prescribed by doctors. What’s the truth? Scientists have proven that cannabis does have medical usefulness, and the more we learn the more intriguing these discoveries become. Since the early 1980s, medical researchers have published about how cannabis relieves pressure in the eye, thus easing the symptoms of glaucoma, a disease that causes blindness. Obviously, smoking it could cause lung damage. And, like the legal intoxicant alcohol, cannabis can become addictive. Globally There were an estimated 13.1 million cannabis dependent people globally in 2010. Majority of them being 20-24 years of age: with a higher number being males and in high income regions. Such countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western European countries such as the United Kingdom have higher problems with marijuana. This is why many efforts are being made in such countries to control the use and punish offenders. The United States of America The use, sale and possession of marijuana in the United States are illegal under federal law. After the election in 2012, the Office of National Drug Control Policy of the Obama administration stated that it “steadfastly opposes legalization of marijuana and other drugs because legalization would increase the availability and use of illicit drugs, and pose significant health and safety risks”. However, some states have created exemptions for medical cannabis use as well as decriminalized non-medical cannabis use. In two states, Colorado and Washington, the sale and possession of marijuana is legal for both medical and non-medical use. However, possession of marijuana is still punishable by law. The Netherlands There is a relaxed attitude towards marijauna in the Netherlands. Marijuana is openly sold in so called coffee shops. Cannabis is a controlled substance in the Netherlands and both possession and production for personal use are still misdemeanours, punishable by fines. However, a policy of non-enforcement has led to a situation where reliance upon non-enforcement has become common, and because of this the courts have ruled against the government when individual cases were prosecuted. Coffee shops are flourishing and the average concentration of marijuana sold in coffee shops has increased from 9 percent in 1998 to 18 percent in 200. This means that less plant material has to be consumed to achieve the same effect of getting high. Uruguay Uruguay became the first country in the world to actively legalise marijuana in December 2013. The presiden,t José Mujica has been hailed by many people for taking a bold step in planning to allow users to cultivate the plant for non-commercial uses and grant licenses to professional farmers for larger scale production. The plan includes a system of user registry, a tax, and quality control, all coordinated through the existing agency that monitors tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals. He also stated: “Uruguay wants to make a ‘contribution to humanity’ by legalising marijuana but will backtrack if the ‘experiment’ goes awry”. This now legitimises the growth, sale and consumption of marijuana in Uruguay. This has obviously elicited a reaction from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) who have warned that this will endanger young people and ‘contribute to the earlier onset of addiction.’ BBC News quotes that the INCB chief, Raymond Yans said he was ‘surprised’ that the government in Montevideo had ‘knowingly decided to break the universally agreed and internationally endorsed treaty.’ A United Kingdom-trained and practicing consultant psychiatrist and also medical director of Synapse Services Abuja (private mental health and drug rehabilitation centre), Dr. Vincent Udenze, said that historically, one of the most influential studies that linked the use of cannabis with mental illness such as schizophrenia was the Swedish cohort study which observed over 50,000 Swedish men conscripted for compulsory military training between 1969 and 1970. According to him, “over 95 percent of this cohort were aged 18 – 20 years. Follow up studies on this group indicated that cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, a mental illness and that this association was not explained by the use of other psycho-active drugs or personality traits. This link was also a dose dependent one which suggested that the more cannabis you took the more likely one may develop a psychotic illness”. Udenze however, made it clear that it is not everyone who uses cannabis that will develop schizophrenia. His view is that the classification/legalisation of drugs is a political issue ands politicians will always require advice from expert professionals/groups to handle it. The mental health expert was quoted recently in national newspapers as saying that cannabis, rohypnol and codeine were the commonest drugs of addiction amongst young people undergoing rehabilitation at Synapse Services Abuja. Udenze called on the government to pay more attention to the fact that illicit drug use amongst teenagers is on the increase. He said the government needed to strengthen the criminal justice system to discourage the illegal importation of illicit drugs into the country. He equally called on the international community and organised private sector to support on-going initiatives aimed at helping those who are already addicted to substances and require rehabilitation. Udenze who is also the president Of ‘Reconnect health development Initiative’, an NGO that supports sufferers and families of those affected by mental illness and drug addiction, said the NGO was already supporting people who could not afford treatment. Consultant neurologist, Ogungbo said if the Uruguay experiment works, it would fuel momentum for wider legalization of marijuana elsewhere, including the United States and in Europe. He said decriminalization of all drug possession by Portugal in 2001 was held up as a succe ss for reducing drug violence while not increasing drug use”. The world is waiting for the result of this new experiment to see its effects outside Uruguay. Stay up to date, follow us on Twitter; @LeadershipNGA http://leadership.ng/news/231213/should-marijuana-also-be-legalised-nigeria
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