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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: What's wrong with a joint?
Lila Das Gupta The Telegraph
Tuesday 01 Feb 2005 It is not just drop-outs who smoke cannabis =96 responsible and hard-working= =20 parents do, too, says Lila Das Gupta The news, reported in The Daily Telegraph last week, that Patricia Tabram,= =20 a 66-year-old grandmother, faces jail for possessing cannabis with intent=20 to supply (mainly other pensioners) may have brought a tut-tut from some=20 quarters, but it evoked howls of laughter from others. For the latter, the title of Tabram's proposed book, Grandma Eats Cannabis,= =20 sounded as if it came straight out of Reefer Madness, the 1936 film=20 intended as a propaganda tool against marijuana, which showed such=20 hysterical behaviour from those who took the drug that it had the opposite= =20 effect, becoming a cult classic among stoned students. Many people who have been to college or university in the past 30 years=20 will have taken drugs there at some point. Twenty years ago and beyond, the= =20 drug of choice would most likely have been dope - either resin or grass.=20 The communal setting of halls of residence or group houses lent itself to=20 the sharing of drugs. Then, after starting jobs, most grew out of the habit; when they started to= =20 have children and found themselves staying at home more, they gravitated=20 towards wine as their favourite poison. But some carried on and are now=20 raising children while continuing to take drugs. "I don't see much difference between smoking a joint and drinking wine,"=20 says Suzanna, 40, who is the head of marketing at a very large and=20 well-respected company in the Home Counties. Her two teenage daughters are= =20 doing well in their private school. She regularly works stressful 12-hour days and says that smoking dope is a= =20 good antidote to her busy schedule. "Does it compromise my role as a=20 mother? Of course not. Does it affect my work? Quite the reverse. I feel=20 relaxed by it, it helps me unwind and it's better for you than a cigarette.= =20 It's quite nice before sex, too." For some time, Suzanna was anxious about her drug-taking. "I used to keep=20 it quite secret from work. Then I went to a sales conference and, in the=20 evening, we had a social. I saw a few people huddled in the corner and went= =20 over to see what they were doing. They were rolling a joint and my boss was= =20 there, too. I stopped worrying after that. " Another mother I know, Kitty, is in her early thirties, has three children= =20 and stays at home to look after them. Her husband "does something in the=20 City", so the couple can afford a full-time nanny and a cleaner. Kitty has= =20 the kind of grooming and exercise routine most women could only dream of -= =20 her sleek looks and figure are a testament to all the hard work. She admits= =20 she's pampered but she says she takes her job as a mother seriously. She cancels our interview as it's proving too difficult to meet between=20 running the children to a music class and netball practice. On the phone,=20 she has enough time to tell me that she loves smoking dope. "You've got to= =20 have something to relieve the boredom," she says. "It's important to have a= =20 bit of fun in life." Kitty says she is religious about homework, getting=20 children bathed, reading stories and cooking supper for her husband, but=20 when everyone's been taken care of, she likes to go out with friends, smoke= =20 dope and get away from domestic life. Some mothers have kept the habit up even longer. Rosemary, who's 46, runs=20 the personnel department of a company that employs more than 10,000 people.= =20 With her husband, Tom, she lives in a beautiful village in a property they= =20 worked hard to restore. It has all the ingredients of a classic country=20 house - wellies in the hall, stone floors, Farrow and Ball colours=20 throughout and a grand piano in the huge sitting room. Several cars are=20 parked across the drive, including the obligatory Land-Rover. When Rosemary's children were young, she worked part-time so that she could= =20 be with them more often. When they moved to secondary school, she went=20 full-time and was quickly promoted to her current job. Tom is a company=20 director who works 12-hour days and flies to America at least once a month= =20 on business. Despite their tight schedules, both have served on the PTA and= =20 the parish council. Neither has given up the college habit of settling back= =20 with a spliff on the sofa. They have yet to confront the dilemma of what to tell the children, but=20 feel it creeping up. "Morally, I feel on tenuous ground," Rosemary says. "I= =20 don't think that, to the extent I use it, dope is bad, but because it's=20 illegal, it comes to me through an illegal network." Like other mothers I have spoken to, she does not feel she has compromised= =20 her children's welfare or her ability to look after them. Tom agrees. "The= =20 big question I ask of myself and my employees is: are you capable of doing= =20 your job? Or, in this case, are you capable of looking after your children?= =20 It could be that you've stayed up too late surfing the net or had too much= =20 to drink the night before - it's all the same if you can't get the job= done." As for the law on smoking cannabis, he says: "It seems to me the law is=20 only there for people who can't set boundaries for themselves." If these parents are not concerned about the health risks to themselves,=20 what of the risks to their children if they start to take drugs? Suzanna's= =20 husband Robert, a scientist, clearly feels uncomfortable about what to tell= =20 his daughters. "There is some research coming out from the United States=20 that points to possible schizophrenia. It's possible that dope does affect= =20 the young adult brain more than the older brain." Tom is aware of the research but says more information is needed on the=20 medium- and long-term effects of dope. "There will come a point where [the= =20 children] have to make rational decisions for themselves. I'd rather they=20 took their own journey. I would like them to be savvy enough to make their= =20 own decisions." This quiet equanimity is not shared by Martin Stephen, High Master of St=20 Paul's, the private boys' school in London - nor by the Department of=20 Health, which is to review studies linking cannabis use to mental health=20 problems. "I'm increasingly concerned about marijuana," Stephen says. "It's= =20 convenient for any head to pretend that cannabis is unimportant. "The medical evidence - particularly from the United States - suggests that= =20 the long-term effects of cannabis are unpleasant, to say the least.=20 Fourteen- to 16-year-olds are being exposed to increased strengths of=20 cannabis. It has an effect on drive, motivation and concentration. It is a= =20 'ruiner' of young men." He takes a dim view of parents who use drugs and does not accept that such= =20 parents might also be "responsible" parents. "One of the problems is that=20 we are sending out mixed signals - when we see famous rock stars being=20 invited to No 10, who everyone knows are taking drugs, it does send out a=20 mixed message. We damn them with one hand but validate with the other. "We need to look at the role models we promote - we certainly haven't got=20 our act together on that score." Names have been changed
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