The Truth About Drugs

[superjoint]

By Ros Coward
Source: Guardian Unlimited UK

Cannabis and ecstasy are pretty harmless, or so everyone involved in the public discussion on soft drugs seems to agree. Judges, police and politicians rush to be more liberal than thou, while the feeblest objection brands dissenters as hopelessly out of touch with that most revered of all forces, "youth culture".
Yet the evidence I see around me totally contradicts this prevailing view. Among young people and those who provide services for them, especially psychological services, there is plenty of evidence for the opposite. These drugs are not harmless at all and are heavily implicated in the growing numbers of adolescents with mental health problems.

Talk to families with teenagers and the anecdotal evidence is startling. Many have a family member or friend who has experienced some kind of mental breakdown or an episode of severe mental disturbance. In every case that person had been a regular user of cannabis, ecstasy or speed. These crises are not identical and the individuals concerned have all been given different diagnoses, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and manic depression. But in all there is the common theme of what the teenagers themselves call "copious amounts of drugs".

Young people themselves recognise that cannabis can induce feelings of paranoia and know it when they see it in others. One told me recently that all her friends now find it "quite amusing" when they recognise other young people looking at them in strange and hostile ways. "We all know what's going on in their heads, that paranoia when you think everyone is looking at you."

The "drugs are harmless" brigade have a knee-jerk response to anecdotal tales of psychiatric breakdowns: drugs do not cause these states. The recent official report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs summed up the dominant thinking. "Although cannabis may worsen existing mental health problems, the medical experts say there is no evidence that it causes brain damage but the jury is still out on whether chronic use can lead to mental illness."

Normally if a jury is out on a serious public health issue you might expect them to err on the side of caution. But the council does the opposite, recommending downgrading cannabis from class B to class C, concluding that "high use of cannabis is not associated with major health problems for individuals or society".

Mental heath problems are so multi-causal that hard and fast explanations are always difficult. With drugs involved, it is especially complex to separate cause and effect because heavy drug users are often people struggling with painful emotions. Despite these understandable cautions, there is something very odd about the readiness with which the government accepts the view that drugs only exacerbate pre-existing conditions. All the experts I meet take a different view. One psychoanalyst told me that heavy use of cannabis and ecstasy during adolescence can cause mental health problems. "Drugs overlay existing mental health problems," she said, "but they also create their own logic of confusion and disorder." That view is also common among psychiatrists, who have coined the term "cannabis psychosis".

Dr Neil Brenner, medical director of The Priory psychiatric hospital, is in little doubt that cannabis and ecstasy are implicated in the increase in adolescent mental health problems. "Cannabis can certainly lead to psychological problems," he says. "I am very wary of the concept of soft drugs. Cannabis was 20 to 30 times weaker in the 70s than it is now. It's much more potent." He does not blame cannabis for causing breakdowns in large numbers of cases. But, he says, "it can certainly precipitate psychological problems for the vulnerable, and it is never something that can be taken without consequences."

These are hardly the views of marginal cranks. Professor Susan Greenfield, one of the country's foremost experts on brain processes, agrees about the dangers of inducing chemical changes in the brain, especially in adolescence. She campaigns in schools on this subject, saying: "The big risk is you will change the person you are. Blowing your mind is exactly what you are doing. I oppose the view that cannabis is OK. You need only 0.7mg - as opposed to 2,000mg of alcohol - to achieve an observable effect in the brain."

The latest international review of cannabis by the World Health Organisation highlights dangers such as throat and lung cancer and "increasing incidence of mental health problems due to prolonged heavy use in a minority of users". Yet Peter Wilson, director of Young Minds, says he feels silenced. "If you talk about problems with drugs, you are bashed over the head by those insisting there is no real evidence of harm. To contradict them makes you feel like Colonel Blimp."

These voices are not being listened to because of a pernicious muddle around the issue. The public policy of illegality has failed, so there is finally a commendable move towards tolerance of use combined with "realistic education" - an approach recommended in the recent select committee report. But realistic education ought surely to put these mental health issues in the foreground. Instead, such views are silenced; all talk is of legalisation of "less harmful" or even "harmless" substances. This constitutes a disregard for public safety.

Perhaps this is because drug use is mainly a youth problem, and there is a feeling that they are in such a mess anyway that a few drugs won't make much difference. Somehow we have become so accustomed to the torment which characterises adolescence that we no longer notice when another difficulty is added to their lives. Instead we abdicate responsibility - in this case on the spurious grounds that causes of psychological problems can't be proved.

Even those who reject clear causal connections between drug use and adolescent psychological problems admit that the increase in mental health problems is fuelling drug use. What an indictment. You might think a society would do everything in its power to understand and alleviate the pressures on its young people instead of using the evidence of misery as an excuse to do nothing.

This is a muddle caused by a craven deference to youth fashion, a cynical ignorance encouraged by the desire to appease an imaginary group, to appear culturally cool. A recent Observer special report on drugs didn't even list mental health problems as a possible side-effect of cannabis.

Meanwhile, the government's latest drug campaign shows the bloated image of a dead heroin addict, an image which could easily feed a perverse teenage romanticism of despair. If it's "realistic education" they are after, how about starting with the sad, shifty-eyed, self-ostracising cannabis paranoids young people will all recognise?

Note: Cannabis can be dangerous and only those pandering to youth culture pretend otherwise.

Special Report: Drugs in Britain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/0,2759,178206,00.html

Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)
Author: Ros Coward
Published: Monday, June 3, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: comment@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Drugs Uncovered: Observer Special
http://freedomtoexhale.com/dc.htm

[ottopilot]

If kids and those people "pandering to youth culture" are fooled into thinking cannabis is completely harmless, it is no less the fault of the drug war itself than the pro-legalization movement.

It is only natural that forces trying to right the wrong of prohibition might not focus their own resources on highlighting small risks that may exist related to cannabis. Current and potential users have little more than anecdotal evidence and near-zero clarity on the real risks thanks to authorities and powerful groups who have politicized the issue and dragged their feet on re-examining cannabis prohibition with a common-sense approach.

Kids are left to choose for themselves in an environment where information is unclear and often intended to scare rather than inform, and the drugs are more available than ever before. Only the most street-smart kids stand a chance growing up when educators and supposed role models don't differentiate between crack and pot. How many kids really understand what the difference is? The message getting through is that they're all the same...

Drugs should not be used by kids that aren't aware enough to make informed decisions; but it is the war on drugs that is to blame for the lack of good information, not people "pandering to youth culture". A common-sense approach to research and education would allow for the right message to be delivered.

[Karmah]

Ha ha... Well i don't smoke weed anymore cuz it dulled my sense of memories. I smoked the heavy pure grain shit heavily. I used to live south of Miami, just about 20 miles outside of South Beach; i might just know what i speak of a bit.
Now those bungholes in our gov.. not only are they GOD AWEFUL FUCKS which make me hate America just a bit more. But their interrogation against the users weelers and dealers on these soft drugs such as weed speed and ecstacy is heinous! 20 years for a tab of X in florida! 5 years mini- for weed. Speed is easily trickable, say it's a diet pill. But when we have corperate fuckers stealling millions and millions from our Gov. called Enron and they don't face any shit, and a lil kid smokes a joint or steals a candy bar, flush 5 years of their lives away right? Bullshit. Our governments drug laws are more bullshit than anyone else's. It's not the governments fucking problem that they have the drug, it's that they feel the need for that drug. Netherland countries have the most efficient system, soo WHY DON'T WE USE IT!?
I swear i hate america so much, but thats only because i want to be in control. i find it ironic that billy corrigan used to watch Mtv and want to be on it cuz he thought" These fucking videos suck!"...Kinda my stand point on the government.
Either way.... back to the point. Prozac has been used in this country for an entire 40 years to deal with people's mental problems... it was legal... Ya kow what they've found out about dear sweet prozac? Long term use increases mental disorders. It's that fucking simple my friends. Drugs are everything. A Lie is a drug, that cheeseburger is a drug, so is that itchy fucking wool sweater. Cigs are pointless and lethal yet they still exsist! Alocohol is more savage than weed or even X but it's legal too. Oddly i'll condone Liquor though... maybe cuz it's the only real liquid drug you drink, and i like liquids. Yet the stand point remains in our society that NO ONE IS REALLY FUCKING HAPPY WITH THEIR EXISTSENCE. No one! Not even if you beleive you are, give it time and you will be miserable about your exsistence. There's so much to induldge into that statement alone but i'll leave with the fact that .....
Everyone is insane, some are more apparent than others. Insanity is great as well as it is wretched. Wether you smoke pot, pop a pill, talk to a high paid bullshit artist, or lie to yourself that your life is happy and you're important. It's all a drug, it all is only gonna work for a limited time, and yes it will alter your body spirit and mind so it IS a drug.

Smoke a joint before you lie to me


PS- Ecsatcy is an expert drug.. to be used by only the smart people that do drugs. if you don't know don't do! fucknut

[Skreebly]

Pot is great and pretty harmless.... extasy may be an amazing experience but its actually a drug, and is terrible for you...... anything you can OD on isnt very good for you. Extasy has killed a shitload of people and there is not one death directly related to marijuana

[ludivicomethod]

Ah, I look at these replies and chuckle a little, out of many things, but none bad. We are ALL ignorant to many things. I'm only 16, and know much about the ways of things for some my age, but I have deep humility.

First. the simple thing, to our dear young friend Skreebly, there is a dictionary definition of the word drug that is something along the line of any chemical that affects your body other than food. Ahh, but Karmah's definition is oh, so much more accurate, at least in my eye. And Karmah, I know how fun it is to be unhappy, angry; it is very much a drug I use to hide from my problems.

The thing is that everyone does truly decide for him or herself as to what the drug in question will do for them, be it chemical or not. There are those who would have the strentgh to overcome all unhappiness with music, playing or listening. Or we could use chemicals such as cannabis, alcohol, etc. The answers are to be found ourselves, which is an ability we neglect oh so much. There are entire schools of philosophical thought dealing with every aspect of mental and physical health. Healing from within, yoga, martial arts, creative expression, meditation, herbs, spirituality, and of course countless more.

The only true message I can spread, is love, which I guess is kind of funny, because the church tells us to spread the word that Jesus died for our sins, our that He loves us, etc. I am not a man of religion.

The only thing that I am 100% positive about is love. Across all time and space, from the Earth, the heavenly bodies, the plants, the animals, (such as wittle puppy doggies)that help us see the love, to the amazing feelings you get from music, and from the humans you interact with. All this, I KNOW to be true, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

All you need is love dun da da da all you need is love dun da da da da All you need is love, love, love is allll you need