From The Report of the FCDA Europe which you can
buy on line, paperback, or hardcover
"Under the Single Convention Treaty and some nations' Schedules or
Regulation of Prohibition legislation, the creation of the category
'psychological dependence' or 'psychological addiction' is used as a
contrivance to enable the inclusion of the harmless, non-addictive substances
in cannabis in the same prohibition legislation as the dangerous, addictive
drugs, such as heroin and morphine. It is therefore valid to examine such
terminology in connexion with the framing of the law.
"One must make clear from the outset that, by definition,
'subjective preference' or a 'liking' for something, even when the liking is
strong, is not 'dependence', nor is it 'addiction'. Dependence and addiction
are words which define and describe the morbid [sick] states inevitably induced
in humans by their use of particular substances. A person's repeated indulgence
in chemically non-addictive substances, such as cornflakes and milk, can be
called a habit, but categorically, for Prohibition purposes, this is not a
condition definable as addiction or dependence of any type. The word
'dependence' indicates reliance; only if one cannot lead a life without some
substance, does one depend upon it.
"The person who is distinctly distressed by having to go to work in
the morning without the usual cooked breakfast because of an electrical
power-cut [failure] is not suffering from 'psychological dependence. That is to
say, the application of the term in such circumstances would be semantically
malapropos and literally incorrect. Although one might hear the exasperated
"I'm addicted to my boiled eggs in the morning", this is casual talk,
and on such grounds no one would seriously contemplate the prohibition of eggs
(boiled or otherwise). Similarly, the fact that olives are missing from the pizza
might make a person who always likes to take olives with a cooked cheese dish
dismayed to some degree, but it categorically does not mean that this person is
'psychologically dependent' on olives.
"Psychological dependence is not simply a strong liking or marked
preference for something. Far from it, dependence denotes an acute mental
condition, the derangement of normal functioning of an individual.
'Psychological' dependence self-evidently, is a sickness of mind. An uncommon
phenomenon sometimes referred to as "addictive personality" is the
pathological condition which comes to exist within the mind of a person,
characterised by excessive subjective preference for a given substance or
substances, the object of which might typically be anchovies, ice-cream,
chocolate or even water. The obsessional behaviour of extreme preoccupation
with, or inordinate consumption of, any non-addictive substance is the outward
sign of an individual's inner psychological dependence. This syndrome of
"psychological dependence", is caused by and product of a mental
weakness or aberration within a particular human persona and does not mean that
the substances upon which the psychologically fraught person becomes fixated,
or 'dependent'. are more or less or less 'addictive' than any other
non-addictive substances. The substance per se does not induce Psychological
dependence, rather the substances, the chocolate, or the anchovies, etc, is the
'innocent bystander' which becomes the object of a mentally sick person's
attentions.
(snip)
"For any legislation-framing administration to declare arbitrarily
that one non-addictive substances is more prone to "induce"
psychological dependence that any other non-addictive substance, and
consequently prohibit that substance by law, demonstrates (whatever their
motive) the failure by that administration, to acknowledge that in connexion
with a physically non-addictive substance, categorically, no form of
'dependence' is, or can be, 'induced' by that substance. As found in the
prohibition schedules, the misconception 'psychological dependence' incorrectly
ascribes to cannabis, induced dependence, that is the cravings and fixation
concomitant with the use of physically addictive drugs such as heroin,
,morphine, tobacco, alcohol, tranquillisers, amphetamines, etc. This represents
the utmost bureaucratic ineptitude"
(snip)
"It is empirically established and repeatedly confirmed by clinical
studies that even frequent use of cannabis over prolonged or lifetime periods
produces no mental, physical or social dysfunction. It is a fact that were
cannabis to be the object of fixation of a psychologically disturbed person's
fixation of dependence, the cannabis itself would do no harm to that
individual. "
(snip)
"It is very clear that it is a mere Prohibitionist's ploy, a rank
deception, to introduce 'Psychological dependence' as a 'criterion' for
prohibition regulations because the only non-addictive substance to which
prohibition apply is ... cannabis. "
You may also like to glance at
the official rating of the addictiveness of
cannabis
QUOTES The Shafer Commission of 1970 said:
"Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence
indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological
dependence on the drug"
Panama Canal Zone Military Investigations (US Military, 1929) said:
"there is no evidence that Marihuana as grown and used [in the Canal Zone]
is a 'habit-forming' drug. "