|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Froggatt: ‘Legalising cannabis would make it safer' Dr. Clive Froggatt This Is Gloucestershire Monday 16 Jul 2001 Tory Peter Lilley has suggested that cannabis should be made legal. Dr Clive Froggatt, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher who fell from grace when it was revealed he was addicted to heroin, admits to smoking cannabis and believes Mr Lilley is right. Here he explains why. All of us use mood altering substances. Tea and coffee are the most common. Alcohol and cannabis are not far behind. There is no moral difference in their consumption. There is no scientific reason for treating them differently in law. The main objection to the use of cannabis is its effect on the health and well being of both the individual and society. Cannabis does affect regular smokers in a variety of ways. It can depress mood and energy levels. It reduces the sperm count. But by far the worst, because it is usually smoked unfiltered with tobacco, it exposes people to all the risks of smoking cigarettes. If health risk is the main objection to cannabis then it is also the main reason for its legalisation. Ironically because cannabis is illegal the production of a safe tobacco substitute is not economically viable, if the law changed safer ways to take cannabis would be available. Legal drugs are always safer. However, even with its illegal status, cannabis is still relatively safe, a lot safer than paracetamol, aspirin, nicotine and alcohol and safer than some antibiotics. Variations in mood, energy levels and sperm count are symptoms of overuse. All drugs can be abused and cannabis is no exception, but that is not a reason to ban it. Doing anything to excess, eating, drinking, working, exercise, dieting and taking drugs can have a bad effect on us and those closest to us. But when that happens we need to understand why it is happening and address the cause of the problem not just the behaviour. It is usually something to do with self-confidence and self-respect. People like this try different things and tend to take risks. They are also the ones most likely to try harder drugs. Cannabis is not a gateway drug. It is the person not the drug, a view held now by most leading experts in the field. Most people's view of cannabis is based on their own experience or lack of it. Those who have tried it generally have no objection to its use. My own experience began as a medical student at Harvard in the United States more than 30 years ago. Since then I have smoked cannabis when it was available, which in recent years has been more often. There are many different species of cannabis plant. The effect you get depends on which type of plant and how much you smoke. It makes me and most people I know feel calm and relaxed. It makes eating, listening to music and the company of friends more enjoyable, even if you are with someone really irritating you can put up with it more easily. Smoking cannabis also helps you to ignore your problems which is why some people end up smoking it all the time. For those with chronic or terminal illness, or any other insoluble problem this may be no bad thing. But for those who could do something about their problems cannabis reduces motivation and can turn a short-term difficulty into a long-term problem. There are disadvantages to smoking cannabis but many of them could be reduced if better and safer ways to take it were developed. This will not happen until the law is changed because until then there is no money in it. Meanwhile tens of millions of people are using it, some of them in ways that are not in their best interests. A majority of adults under 40 support legalisation but their democratic rights are being denied by an older generation of adults who have no personal experience of the drug. It is the same generation from which most MPs are drawn. The law must command respect. It must strike a balance between the interests of society and those of the individual. We do that already with alcohol and cigarettes the government needs to apply the same common sense approach to cannabis. But all governments are always worried that they will give the wrong message. When I was a health policy adviser to the government, at the time of the aids epidemic, I remember all the agonising that went on with the decision to give out clean needles and syringes and free condoms. Images of gay sex and injecting addicts haunted ministers who feared they might be seen as promoting such activity. It is the same with legalising drugs. Changing the law will not change the habits of the younger generation, those that want to, do so now and those that do not are very unlikely to take it up. There is a chance that some of the older (my own) generation might take it up instead of alcohol. In most cases that would probably be a good thing, at least they could ask the doctor without embarrassment. There is so much more that can be said but my final point is the most important. The police need our support and confidence to maintain law and order. Home Office plans to give greater discretion to the police is a clear admission that the law on cannabis is unworkable. Last year there were 96,000 arrests for the possession of cannabis. That is another 96,000 young people who now have a criminal record who will blame the police for not using their discretion. The damage this does to the police should not be underestimated. No wonder many senior police officers support legalisation. The sooner the law is changed the better.
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!