Humaania Päihdepolitiikkaa Ry

NORML

Timesonline

Telegraph

"What research are they thought to have based their advice on?
The council is understood to have been persuaded by a new study from Keele University which found no evidence that rising cannabis use in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s led to increases in the incidence of schizophrenia later on."

Spikedonline
"The main excuse given for returning cannabis to class B is a link between smoking ‘skunk’ cannabis and the development of schizophrenia - even though causation is a long way from proven"

"If there is a strong causative link between smoking cannabis and schizophrenia, there would have been an epidemic of the disease that followed the large increase in consumption of cannabis over the last 30 years. But there has been no such increase; the prevalence of schizophrenia has not increased. What has increased is the number of people admitted to hospital with cannabis intoxication – which mirrors the number of people admitted to hospital with alcohol intoxication"

"Cannabis is not a benign substance for the developing adolescent brain but there is no convincing evidence that smoking a few joints will inevitably cause psychotic disease. ‘Old-fashioned mellow hash’ has not been swept aside by ‘genetically-modified super-skunk’ with astronomically high levels of THC."

Aamulehti

Washington Post
Valkoinen talo tiedottaa

Druglink
" Despite claims that young people were confused about the classification of cannabis to the point of thinking it was legal, there was no evidence of rising use – quite the reverse"

"But the idea of robust evidence as a key driver for drug policy must be protected and all assaults on its integrity strongly challenged. Why? Because those with serious drug problems are among the most vilified and unprotected in society. The shrill voices of the media and the moral absolutists regularly combine to drown out the humane and compassionate policy options often revealed by impartial and dispassionate research. As Mike Ashton reminded us during the recent DrugScope treatment debates, addiction does not happen because something goes ‘wrong’ in the brain of an individual – it is the result of a dysfunctional relationship between the person and the environment around them. Change the environment and you go a long way to helping change the person"

Iso-Britannian hallituksen tutkimus kannabiksen vahvuudesta, täällä

hallitus tiedottaa,
vaikka tiedemiehet varoittavat asiasta, The Guardian

Brittiläisen Addaction mukaan luokituksen nostamisella ei ole olennaista merkitystä.

Transform Drug Policy Foundation epäilee myös luokituksen noston järkevyyttä, täällä

Timesonline
"A report from the advisory council concluded that the health dangers
from cannabis did not justify its inclusion in the higher category
and that it should remain a Class C drug. Professor Sir Michael
Rawlins, chairman of the council, said: "Changing the classification
of cannabis is neither warranted nor will it achieve the desired effect."

The report said that scientific evidence pointed to a "probable, but
weak, causal link between psychotic illness, including schizophrenia,
and cannabis use". However, it added that in the population as a
whole, the drug played only a "modest role" in the development of
these conditions."

The London Free Press
"My argument for marijuana is not that it's good for you and not that it's safe," he says. "It's that any law that punishes peaceful and honest behaviour is an unjust law and must be struck down."
"The contributions made to life on this planet in the past 40 years by people who smoke marijuana is unparalleled," he says. "There is no other sub-culture that has given so much to the world as have the potheads, yet we're hunted down like dogs."
""The real reason we (cannabis users) are hunted down is because pot makes people critical thinkers," he says. "We question authority and don't accept existing dogmas and that's the biggest threat to any government."
He says pot isn't the problem. "There are 165 million marijuana smokers in the world. If we were a big problem, you'd have noticed by now."

Torstain ohjelmassa mukana Suomen Kannabisyhdistyksen puheenjohtaja Timo Larmela

Surrey Now

Helsingin Sanomat

Iso-Britannian oman asiantuntijakomitean lausunto kannabiksen vaarallisuudesta täällä
Independent
"Others have challenged The Lancet finding, pointing out that there has been no significant increase in the incidence of schizophrenia over the past 30 years, despite a sharp increase in cannabis use. A review of trends in the UK by the University of Keele, commissioned by the ACMD, found that cases of schizophrenia fell between 1996 and 2005. Cannabis use also fell during this period but the researchers say evidence from case control studies is inconsistent and the two trends cannot be linked."
Guardian
"Since cannabis was downgraded in 2004 the proportion of young people using it has fallen each year from 25.3% in 2003-4 to 20.9% now. Among those aged 16 to 59, the proportion over the same period has fallen from 10.8% to 8.2%, according to the British Crime Survey."
Independentin pääkirjoitus
"Once again, the fight against addiction and trafficking of hard drugs is hampered by muddle-headed politicians playing cheap politics with an issue of deadly seriousness. The Government should be treating addiction as a medical and educational challenge, focusing on harm-reduction, rather than prosecutions. As Professor Robin Murray, one of Britain's top experts on schizophrenia and cannabis argues "education is much more important than classification. The problem is that education costs money, switching the classification doesn't"."
BBC
The Addiction Inbox
UKCIA Web Blog
The Telegraph
NORML

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