cannabis is now an everyday

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this is alil old news (04. Februar 2005)

Cannabis is now an everyday
After a decade of denial, risk awareness is slowly rising within the political community and society


04. Februar 2005 By Daniel Deckers
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung



In November 1971 the World Health Organization (WHO) published a study on the risks of cannabis. Eleven scientists rejected the idea that hashish or marihuana could lead to physical addiction or trigger violence and aggression just like alcohol. Neither did the drug tempt its users to flee from reality or cause physical or psychological harm, the study said. The authors also rejected the assumption that cannabis was a gateway drug.
The scientists could not rule out, however, that partaking of cannabis frequently and in high dosages could cause psychological addiction and psychoses. The drug could make users less perceptive and affect psycho-motorical reactions, the report said.
Today, doctors, psychologists and pharmacologists don't know much more about cannabis. But that is, as paradoxical as it may sound, progress. While the health risks of cannabis were exaggerated in the 1980s, the tide turned in the 1990s. A decision by a Lübeck court to ask the Federal Constitutional Court to review the ”repressive” regulations on cannabis consumption mirrored the new lenient attitude. The federal judges had the backing of a large part of the population when they determined that the health risks were much lower than the WHO had thought in 1971. The constitutional court also decided not to prosecute cases of occasional cannabis consumption as long as no harm was done to others. This was celebrated as the de-facto legalization of hashish.

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