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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cannabis is saving lives says academic
Irish Independent Monday 24 Nov 1997 and Young People in Dublin has been told. Its possession for personal use should be decriminalised and politicians should stop being obsessed with adolescent drug 'triers'. Instead they should try to tackle the problems of drug users with drug 'careers' moving into adulthood, said Professor Howard Parker. Unless they do, society will continue to "flounder around throwing tens of millions of pounds at ineffective drugs education, criminalising and stigmatising large numbers of otherwise law-abiding people and widening the gulf between under and over thirties". Prof Parker, an academic social worker and director of social policy for the management of social problems at the University of Manchester, was addressing a weekend seminar in Trinity College. Advocating the de-criminalisation of cannabis he said that by being readily available to "risk-taking" adolescents, cannabis had reduced the highly dangerous use of solvents and gases and related deaths had dropped radically from about 180 a year to about 50. Research showed that those who had not tried a drug by 18 or 19 were in a minority and drug experimentation was moving down the age range to between 11 and 13-year-olds. Prof Parker said generally there was no direct relationship between recreational drug use and acquisitive or violent crime, with most paying for drugs with pocket money and part-time earnings. "Most young drug takers are not delinquent, persistent truants and no-hopers. This criminalising and stigmatising of young drug users involves undermining otherwise law-abiding journeys to young citizenship." Young people were using cannabis, amphetamines, 'poppers', LSD and ecstasy. While cocaine powder was beginning to show up in research in Britain, the young generally turned away from heroin and crack cocaine. However, heroin use among delinquent adolescents who grew up in care or were homeless had to be monitored. "Given your heroin problem in Dublin and your growing dance drug and recreational drug scene amongst your youth population, you too face the potential danger of the overlap and blurring of different arenas," added Prof Parker. There were very clear signs that the millions being spent on preventative drugs education were not effective. He believed the drugs education strategies were driven by political expediency. He personally wanted to see a drugs cautioning system for personal use, which basically decriminalised possession.
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