PASS THAT REEFER GRANDMA
Source: Sunday Times
Author: Mary Kenny
Date: 10 April, 2005
SHOULD 66-year-old grandmothers who bake cannabis cakes be
punished by the law? I think not. And Mrs Patricia Tabram from Northumberland,
who makes such cakes (and casseroles, and soups), and supplied them to her
neighbours, has duly been given a suspended sentence because the judge decided
that she should not be a martyr to the cause of weed. Mrs Tabram is unrepentant, and says that cannabis helps with
elderly aches and pains, so why not?
As it happens, this is a good argument for cannabis: that it
has some medicinal application. As does heroin -- based on opium, it remains the
greatest of all painkillers. But I would also suggest that the question of
cannabis presents a strong case for age discrimination.
The medical evidence seems to be that cannabis, taken in
moderation, does not necessarily have a destructive impact on older people. It might
make them a little senile, a little earlier, if they overdo it, but it is
unlikely to cause them to harm themselves or society by developing
schizophrenia.
The health dangers of cannabis are much greater for the
young, particularly those under 18 -- or worse, under 16 -- as the researches of
Professor Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London have indicated.
The brains of teenagers are still under construction, and
are likely to be much more vulnerable to mind-altering substances. Certain
young people, vulnerable to schizophrenic episodes, may have such schizophrenia
(or other mental disorders) triggered by marijuana.
Alarmingly, some psychiatrists are saying that we are facing
a serious epidemic of mental illness because very young people are using cannabis,
and it is disturbing their brains. The age at which cannabis is first smoked
(or ingested) is the crucial factor in subsequent psychosis triggered by the
drug.
It is difficult to make a law that proclaims that something
is acceptable at 66 but is not acceptable at 16, although we do have alcohol
regulations which depend upon age qualifications. But as a matter of health
education, it should be made known that a cannabis cookie baked by your hippy
grandma is not half as harmful, if eaten by her peers, as it would be if taken
by vulnerable teenagers whose own brains are not yet finished being baked.
Here, at last, is an authentic case for oldies saying
"do as I say, not as I do".