From: [w--e--r] at [peg.pegasus.oz.au]
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Date: 08 Oct 93 20:39 EST
Subject: hemp (number one)
HEMP is published by HELP END MARIJUANA PROHIBITION (QLD). PO BOX
332 Albert St Brisbane ph (07) 8447499 email: westender
BEAT UP AT BOULDER LEADS TO POLLIE HEMP BASH
HEMP's public launch - Hemp For Victory - was held at Boulder
Lodge, the Valley on Wednesday Sept 29. Over 500 people attended
and the night was a great success.
In the following week, certain events associated with Hemp For
Victory became front page news. They also featured on Channel 10
news and Rod Henshaws ABC radio show. HEMP got a lot of publicity
though not in the way we intended.
HEMP For Victory was a billed as a night of discussion, videos and
bands, and it was heartening to see how popular the discussions
were. They started at 8, and several hundred people turned up
early to hear the speakers who include noted criminologist Dr.
Paul Wilson, Phil Dickie from the CJC, Bob Hopkins from Nimbin
HEMP, Dusan Bojic from Brisbane HEMP and Brisbane lawyer Paul
Richards.
Paul Wilson was the first speaker and he argued that "it would be
criminal not to decriminalise". Millions of dollars were wasted
each year on pursuing people engaged in the 'harmless activity' of
marijuana smoking., he said.
"Yet the criminal justice system is unable to properly investigate
such crimes as break and enters, domestic violence that severely
harm citizens and their property.
"The only people who gain from the present laws are big crime
syndicates and their attendant corrupt officials."
He got a rousing cheer when he said that the Broncos would have
set a better example to their young followers if they had got
stoned after their grand final win instead of "boozing themselves
sick". According to Matthew Franklin, someone shouted out at this
stage: "Give the man a joint!"
As M.C. for the night I had the job of introducing the speakers.
Paul Wilson was happy to have himself introduced merely as
"someone who has opposed the cannabis laws for twenty years". On
the other hand Phil Dickie insisted on a quite specific
introduction. "Mr Dickie is from the Criminal Justice Commission,
and is not appearing in a capacity to support HEMP. The Commission
provides speakers at all such functions to explain the process,
detail research, and be available for questioning." He also
insisted that this formulation appear in our press release for
Hemp For Victory.
I thought this was a bit excessive, but Phil Dickie insisted,
explaining, "I have many enemies. Russell Cooper has been out to
get me for several years." How right Phil Dickie was, I was soon
to see.
I've seen Phil Dickie speak a few times now and he did his
standard routine: he begins by explaining the history of hemp as a
food, source of cloth, intoxicant, etc holding up a bundle of hemp
stalks, and a pair of shorts made from hemp as examples.
Phil Dickie is now a great authority on cannabis. At the end of
his speech, Paul Wilson claimed that the Discussion Paper on
Cannabis (largely written by Dickie) was the best official report
on the subject he has seen, and publicly thanked him.
Dickie described the current Qld laws which treat possession of
cannabis as a worse crime than, rape, assault, and official
corruption (up to 15 years imprisonment for simple possession),
and spoke about the CJC process.
Dusan Bojic, represented Brisbane HEMP, with some inspiring
rhetoric. He characterised Wayne Goss as being "addicted to drug
laws". Consequently he (and other politicians) had an
uncontrollable craving to "control the consumptive habits of
others"
"He needs to be weaned from his self-destructive and socially
irresponsible habit," Mr Bojic said.
"We are going to huff and puff and blow these laws down."
The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. At one stage some
police came in, and it looked like things might get a bit aggro,
but it was soon sorted out. The bar was doing a roaring trade. I
remember wondering aloud why so little dope was being smoked.
Someone offered the theory that it was because people were afraid
about undercover Ds being present.
I mention this because it is not the impression one would gain
from the newspaper coverage of the event. On Saturday October 2,
the Courier Mail devoted a lengthy colour piece to the launch of
HEMP. It was called "Suit nearly stoned at pot-smoking reform
session" and was bylined Matthew Franklin.
Obviously a lot of HEMP members are angry about this article. I
think that it's coverage of what the speakers said - it's straight
reportage - was quite accurate and well-done. Where it went off
the rails was its 'colour' elements where it descended into
cliches, stereotypes and yellow journalism.
Mr Franklin wrote " the bar was starting to smell like a Moroccan
market-place. People passed marijuana cigarettes and someone acted
as a cockatoo at the front of the building." According to Mr
Franklin, the people there were either "fresh-faced youngsters" or
"die-hard hippies - men with long hair and long beards, rainbow
coloured t-shirts and bare feet." Mr Franklin claimed he was the
only person there in a suit and people sneered "pig" when he went
past.
It's the selective nature of all this that is the worry. For
example, I met Mr Franklin when he was eating at Mellinos with
Phil Dickie. I know I was very civil to him, and introduced him to
the other speakers. I certainly did not sneer 'Pig " at him. I saw
other people there in suits. I am sure no-one acted as a cockatoo.
I consider it an incredible exaggeration to describe the bar as
smelling like a Moroccan market place.
This tabloid sensationalism was this launching pad that Russell
Cooper used for his attack. If yellow journalism had guaranteed
HEMP page two of the Courier Mail, a political vendetta was to
propel us onto the front page.
Russell Cooper is the Opposition spokesperson on the Police. He
also seems to have a long-running feud with Phil Dickie. The day
after the Courier Mail article appeared, Cooper wrote a press
release responding to it, demanding to know "why no action had
been taken against what appeared to b a calculated, deliberate and
public flouting of the law prohibiting the possession and use of
marijuana."
Cooper wrote "This alarming report can only serve to give
encouragement to those who wish to stage acts of mass defiance of
this law which the Premier, Mr Goss, says will not be changed."
Perhaps revealing his real agenda, Cooper's press release said he
had also written to the CJC chairman, Mr Rob O'Regan about the
fact that a CJC officer, Mr Phil Dickie, had also attended the
meeting as a guest speaker.
"The fact that a CJC officer attended such a gathering where such
illegal activity could have been virtually guaranteed has the
grave potential of compromising the good name and reputation of
the Commission in the eyes of many decent and law-abiding
people."
Cooper's attack on HEMP and Phil Dickie was not only front-page
news: it featured on Channel 10's TV news and Rod Henshaw's ABC
talk-back show. Henshaw's line was sensible: obviously given the
circumstances, the police had acted with intelligence and
restraint by leaving.
HEMP spokesperson, Tony Kneipp, issued a press release the next
day.
"It is to be expected that Mr Cooper and his party would denigrate
the CJC process and seek to discredit it. The Fitzgerald Inquiry
which led to the setting up of the CJC proved beyond a shadow of a
doubt that the former National Government was corrupt."
"There was some people smoking, but that wasn't an organised part
of the evening," Mr Kneipp said. "We may well use mass civil
disobedience as a tactic in the future, but HEMP is not seeking
confrontation with the police."
"If Mr Cooper thinks there is something extraordinary about as few
joints passing round a crowd while they listen to some bands, then
I suggest that he buy a few earplugs and a ticket to the next
major rock concert."
HEMP STICKERS
( These stickers are available from
HELP END MARIJUANA PROHIBITION (QLD).
PO BOX 332 Albert St Brisbane ph (07) 8447499
REEFER GLADNESS
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AND WE'LL PUFF
AND WE'LL BLOW
THESE LAWS DOWN
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HERBAL ME
DON'T VERBAL ME
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ARTICLES FOR HEMPNEWS
(downloaded from Pegasus)
Cannabis: the brain's other supplier. By Rosie Mestel (New
Scientist 31 July 1993)
Three years ago, Israeli archaeologists stumbled upon a
1600-year-old tragedy: the remains of a narrow-hipped teenage girl
with the skeleton of a full-term fetus still cradled in her
abdomen. With her were grey ashes that contained traces of
tetra-hydrocannabinol, the active ingredient of marijuana. Could
it be that the midwife had administered the plant in a last-ditch
effort to bring on labour or to ease her pain?
Today, in nearby Jerusalem, another chemical is in the news --
this one extracted not from ancient ashes but from fresh,
pulverised pig brain. It is anadamide, a newly christened
chemical that might do naturally in our heads what marijuana does
when we choose to smoke it. Anandamide's discovery, along with
that of the molecule it binds to in the brain, has marijuana
researchers buzzing with the best high they have had in years.
The findings provide new hope for therapies that draw on the
weed's long list of anecdotal medical uses: as a painkiller,
appetite stimulant or nausea suppressant, to name a few. They also
throw open windows onto the mysterious workings of our brains.
THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, was first isolated by Dr
Mechoulam at the Hebrew University in the 1960s. In 1988, Allyn
Howlett of St Louis University Medical School discovered a
specific protein receptor for THC in mouse nerve cells -- a
protein that only THC and its relatives dock onto. Two years
later, Tom Bonner's group at the National Institute of Mental
Health pinpointed the DNA that encodes the same receptor in rats.
It is now known that humans have the receptor, too.
Finding a cannabinoid receptor implies that THC -- unlike alcohol
-- has a quite precise modus operandi that taps into a specific
brain function. Presumably the drug binds to nerves that have the
receptor, and the nerves respond in turn by altering their
behaviour. The classic effects of marijuana smoking are the
consequences: changes in mood, memory, appetite, movement and
perception, including pain. Researchers think THC affects so many
mental processes because receptors are found in many brain
regions, especially in those that perform tasks known to be
disturbed during THC intoxication: in the banana-shaped
hippocampus, crucial for proper memory; in the crumpled cerebral
cortex, home of higher thinking; and in the primitive basal
ganglion, controller of movement.
Once a specially tailored receptor was found, the next step was
simple
- in theory, anyway. "The receptor had to be there for a purpose
- presumably it didn't evolve so that people could smoke cannabis
and get high," says Roger Pertwee, a pharmacologist at Aberdeen
University. Instead, there had to be a natural chemical inside
of us that fitted onto the receptor and sent some biochemical
signal cascading through the nerve cell to do who knows what.
But plucking that one chemical out of a brain stuffed with
millions of others was never going to be easy.
Several laboratories set to work on the problem and, fittingly,
Mechoulam's was the first to come up with an answer, in the form
of a greasy, hairpin-shaped chemical. The researchers dubbed it
anandamide, from "ananda", the Sanskrit word for bliss. "The guy
discovers the active ingredient of marijuana back in the 1960s,
and now, almost 30 years later to the day, he discovers
anandamide," says Paul Consroe, a neuropharmacologist at the
University of Arizona. "Isn't that great?"
Mechoulam's strategy was to chase after chemicals that, like THC,
are soluble in fat. By teasing these substances away from those
that are water soluble, his group extracted a substance from pig
brain that did indeed bind to the cannabinoid receptor. But did
it act like THC? To find out they sent their specimen to Pertwee
who had devised a sensitive test for cannabinoids that involved
monitoring a substance's ability to stop muscle-twitching in mouse
tissue, when dropped on certain nerves. "When it arrived, there
was so little of it in the phial I couldn't even see it," Pertwee
recalls. "We didn't know what it was - just that it was a greasy
substance." But the tests went well: anandamide depressed the
twitch just like THC, and last December the researchers published
their results in "Science".
The mouse result gave Mechoulam and his group the encouragement
they needed to extract more anandamide from pig brains and then
analyse and synthesis the chemical in the lab. They also wanted
more evidence that anadamide docked specifically onto the
cannabinoid receptor and acted like THC, which has a very
different molecular structure. And so, with Zvi Vogel and
colleagues at the Weizmann Institute near Tel Aviv, they came up
with a plan. They would add the DNA encoding the cannabinoid
receptor to hamster or monkey cells growing in dishes. The cells
equipped with this DNA would then produce masses of receptor,
which would sit in the cell membrane ready and available for any
chemical "key" that should happen along. Vogel's researchers would
add anandamide to the cells and watch what happened.
The results, published in July's issue of the "Journal of
Neurochemistry", were clear: anandamide acted as a key, and a
precise one at that, sticking only to the cells containing the
receptor, and not to others. What's more, when anandamide stuck
to the cells, it triggered biochemical changes similar to those
associated with THC and related chemicals. Not only did
anandamide fit the same lock as THC, but it appeared to open
similar doors in the brain.
More tests followed in a number of laboratories, and those
researchers found that in every way that has been tested so far,
anandamide acts very much like THC. But why would we want such a
mind-altering substance in our brains?
Studies on another class of drugs provide a useful parallel.
Opiates such as morphine and heroin act upon the body's nervous
system to cause euphoria and block pain. In 1973, natural
opioids, which behave in the same way as opiates, but have a
different structure, were pulled out of the body. It appears that
when the body is under serious assault, nerve cells spit out these
opioids, which promptly bind to other nerve cells to stop pain
signals dead in their tracks. At the same time, they fasten onto
sites in the brain to induce a feeling of wellbeing.
Anandamide, like the natural opioids, will probably have its own
specific set of jobs to perform in the brain and body. The
effects of THC give a rough guide to what these might be:
involvement in mood, memory and pain are obvious examples.
But what would the brain be like without anandamide? Researchers
intend to find out. Bonner is gearing up to produce a genetically
engineered mouse that has no cannabinoid receptors: no receptors,
no anandamide function. Others want to tinker with anandamide to
make a version that binds to the receptor but doesn't trigger any
change in the nerve's behaviour. Added to a mouse, it would stop
the body's real, internal anandamide from doing its job.
Researchers are also excited by anandamide's possible role in
mental and neurological disease. There are also other questions to
be asked. If anandamide, like THC, hampers memory, could a drug
with the opposite effects - a "memory pill" - be made? "It's all
speculation for now," says Steven Childers, a pharmacologist at
Bowman Gray School of Medicine, North Carolina, "but we like to
think about these things."
It will take more time before anandamide is firmly established as
the bona fide partner to the cannabinoid receptor. Meanwhile,
Mechoulam's lab has two other anandamide-like chemicals waiting in
the wings. And in the US, Howlett and Childers both have
chemicals of an entirely different kind that bind to the receptor:
they are water soluble, not fat soluble. The importance of each
remains to be seen.
Whatever anandamide turns out to be, it provides pharmacologists
with a fresh plan of attack in their hunt for drugs that act like
the cannabinoids. Such drugs could be valuable to help keep at
bay the nausea of cancer chemotherapy; to stimulate appetite in
AIDS patients; to dampen tremors in neurological disorders; to
reduce eye pressure in patients with glaucoma; and to dull pain in
those for whom other painkillers do not work.
Cannabinoids can do at least some of these things, with one small
drawback: they also make the recipient high. The holy grail of
cannabinoid therapeutics has been to separate what causes the high
from the source of the desired effects, by chemical tinkering with
THC or its relations - shortening a side group on one part of the
molecule, lengthening a carbon chain in another - in the hope that
the "undesirable" effects will be lost in the reshuffle. Despite
the drug's dubious reputation, several US pharmaceuticals spent
several years trying to make this work, but without success. Nor
did they reach another equally sought after goal: an antagonist
that will block the effects of THC and similar substances when
taken.
Until marijuana researchers succeed in doing something along these
lines, it is unlikely that drugs companies will pay much
attention. "There is a real stigma with working with drugs of
abuse," says Billy Martin, a pharmacologist at the Medical College
of Virginia. "If drugs companies had three choices of classes of
drugs to work on and one was a drug of abuse, they're just not
going to work on the drug of abuse." This view is shared by Larry
Melvin, who worked on the Pfizer pharmaceuticals company's now
defunct cannabinoid therapeutics programme. "What will ultimately
legitimise the field in a big way is if researchers can come up
with a really good therapeutic ability. Then you'll see the
companies turn around."
But Gabriel Nahas, an anaesthetist from Columbia University in New
York, who has spoken out against marijuana use for many years,
maintains that THC's effects on the brain are too general and too
toxic for this route ever to work. The discovery of anandamide
and its receptor have not changed his mind. "The brain is a
computer," he says. "To put THC in the brain is akin to putting a
bug in the computer. I'm sticking to my guns about its harmful
effects - not only to man but to society."
Only time will reveal the value of anandamide and its receptor to
drug therapy. But the importance of these discoveries to brain
research is not in doubt. "We're no longer just dealing with the
pharmacology of a recreational drug," says Pertwee. "We're
dealing with the physiology of a newly discovered system in the
brain. And that's an enormously bigger field."
HEMP FOR PAPER
Tree Free EcoPaper are the world's only hemp paper company.
Tree Free EcoPaper is dedicated to offering the world a choice
from wood paper products and their pollution intensive production
and deforestation of our planet. Their product is 50% hemp and 50%
cereal straw. They are the only company in the world today that
supplies wholesale quantities of hemp paper.
They intend to educate the public about the many ecological
benefits of hemp, including that a waste product from hemp bast
fiber production produces 4.1 times more paper per land area than
forests according to USDA Bulletin 404. Their hemp fiber is
produced from the entire hemp stalk; the bast and hurd are present
in their natural percentages. Hemp is the longest and strongest
plant fiber. Hemp grows more in a single season, or produces more
biomass, than any other plant. Their straw is a by- product of
grain production.
Treefreeco paper is the highest quality paper in the world, and
while it is considerably less expensive than comparable grades of
paper, Tree Free EcoPaper has many environmental benefits in
comparison to wood fiber paper. Their paper uses 90% less
chemicals in its production than any other brand of paper.
Treefreeco paper is acid-free and therefore has a shelf life of
over 1500 years, compared to 75 years for wood fiber paper. Tree
Free EcoPaper is 25% less expensive than other brand of acid free
paper which are made from wood fiber that has been treated with
zinc oxide to neutralize the acid that is used to break wood into
pulp. Since Tree Free EcoPaper is whitened with hydrogen peroxide,
no dioxin is produced, while all the wood fiber paper factories
can't even clean all the poisonous dioxin from their wastewater.
Their price is half that of the cheapest grade of 25% cotton fiber
paper, and our paper does not contain any wood fiber. In fact, the
cotton crop uses half of all the agricultural pesticides in the
world. Tree Free EcoPaper's benefits are economical, as well as
ecological.
Is International Treaty an Impediment to Legalisation?
The United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961)
which requires signatory nations to suppress the use of cannabis,
even though it is not a narcotic. is often seen as an obstruction
to change of the cannabis laws.
While Australia is bound as a signatory to the convention, its
coercive powers under Article 14 are largely limited to
publication of the details of non-compliant countries, while under
Article 36 the actual formation of domestic laws is generously
left up to the nations themselves.
There has been much legal speculation as to the possible effects
of the Convention on law reform, but it does seem that there are
several ways in which its provisions could be circumvented.
Decriminalisation moves are not affected, for though the
convention requires that marijuana be confiscated, it does not
require prosecution of the possessor. The prohibition laws may be
revoked, but this action could be subject to a High Court
challenge, the likely outcome of which is not clear.
Another option is that of leaving the law as it is, but simply not
enforcing it, as in the Netherlands, where cannabis is openly
available to the public while it is still officially illegal.
Finally, Australia could denounce the convention and withdraw from
it entirely, a rather drastic and improbable step, but one which
should be due to the unrealistic treatment of cannabis and
restrictions on legal progress which it advocates.
****** HEMP ***** ***THE PAPER CROP OF THE
FUTURE***
By John Birrenbach The Institute for HEMP
Hemp is it the wonder plant of the next century, can it be as
great a boom to the planet as is predicted by so many, is it truly
the cash crop that is predicted ? All of these were questions of
mine when I formed the Institute for HEMP. I was out to find
the real truth about the hemp plant
and either confirm or deny, separately, the information being
told on both sides of the issue.
What I discovered was this. That since the early thirties of
this century a campaign of misleading information has been
disseminated about this plant. Also that there is hard evidence
to prove that hemp can indeed be used in the manufacture of
thousands of products. Further that hemp can relieve the
pollution stress on our environment. As I will show in detail
hemp can save the world from economic and environmental disaster
all we have to do is demand the switch be made.
The Institute has finished a study on the feasibility of using
hemp for paper. What we found was astonishing. First we found
that the United Sates alone uses some 54.1 million Metric Tons
(MT) of trees in the production of paper each year. Of that some
is imported the rest is U.S. cut. These trees are also worth
between $750 to $1,000 per MT depending on if the tree is either
of hard or soft wood, soft being more expensive. This makes the
tree pulp paper industry worth $40.5 to $54.1 Billion Dollars per
year.
During our study we searched for agricultural records. We found
that the U.S. has approx 950 Million Acres (MA) of available farm
land. Of that land we planted, in 87, some 450 MA's. This leaves
some 500 MA of land unplanted each year. We also found out that
the farmer on average receives $350-400 per acre for corn, of
which some is government subsides. We discovered in old USDA
Literature, 1942, that the farmer can produce 2-3 tons of hemp
stalks per acre. These stalks are the raw material for a number
of products of which paper is one. We could easily pay the
farmer $350 per MT for hemp stalks to be used in the manufacture
of paper. At the rate of only 2 tons per acre the farmer could
receive approx. $700 per acre. If the farmers of the US were to
supply the raw material for paper they would need to plant some 27
MAUs, or 5% of the UNPLANTED FARM LAND to hemp. That 27 MAUs
would be worth conservatively $18.9 Billion Dollars per year.
This would also reduce the paper cost to consumers by 50-70%. If
we wanted to keep the pulp industry as it is the farmers would
finally reap the benefits they truly deserve.
When we examined the viability of hemp for paper we concluded the
following. First that hemp as a paper source is an extremely
viable alternative. Unlike Kenaf, a plant the USDA has high hopes
for and can only be grown in the south west, hemp can be grown on
any farm land in the continental U.S. Even marginal land should
be able to produce 2 tons of stalk per acre. Hemp also does not
require the use of fertilizers, like kenaf. Hemp when
manufactured into paper does not require the use of the toxic
chemicals, like tree paper. Instead hemp paper only requires the
use of lye, or lime stone, to break the lignan down and hydrogen
peroxide to bleach it white. While the factories currently making
trees into pulp will have to retool for hemp the cost of this
retool will be far cheaper than the lawsuits that will be filled
by environmentalists against them if they donUt stop the pollution
they create.
We must ask our selves and elected official if we want to remain
the same and die on a burned out planet or do we want to save
ourselves and our children's world. Hemp is a plant that can
indeed save the worlds trees.
The Consequences of Drug Prohibition
The journal Science published an article in 1989 called Drug
Prohibition in the United States: Costs, Consequences, and
Alternatives Nadelmann, E. A.,
Here are a just a few of the very informative points:
"No illicit drug, however, is as strongly associated with violent
behavior as is alcohol. According to Justice Department
statistics, 54% of all jail inmates convicted of violent crimes in
1983 reported having used alcohol just prior to committing their
offense. A 1986 survey of state prison inmates similarly found
that most of those convicted of arson as well as violent crimes
such as murder, involuntary manslaughter, and rape were far more
likely to have been under the influence of alcohol, or both
alcohol and illicit drugs, than under the influence of illicit
drugs alone "
"All of the health costs associated with abuse of illicit drugs
pale in comparison with those resulting from tobacco and alcohol
abuse. In 1986, for instance, alcohol was identified as a
contributing factor in 10% of work-related injuries, 40% of
suicide attempts, and about 40% of the approximately 46,000 annual
traffic deaths in 1983. An estimated 18 million americans are
reported to be either alcoholics or alcohol abusers. The total
cost of alcohol abuse to American society is estimated at over
$100 billion annually. Estimates of the number of deaths linked
directly and indirectly to alcohol use vary from a low of 50,000
to a high of 200,000 per year.... By comparison, the National
Council on Alcoholism reported that only 3,562 people were known
to have died in 1985 from the use of all illegal drugs combined.
"Among the roughly 60 million Americans who have smoked marijuana,
not one has died from a marijuana overdose, a striking contrast
with alcohol, which is involved in approximately 10,000 overdose
deaths annually..."
"Intolerance of illicit drug use and users is heralded not merely
as an indispensable ingredient in the war against drugs but as a
mark of good citizenship. Certainly every society requires
citizens to assist in the enforcement of criminal laws. But
societies, particularly democratic and pluralistic ones, also rely
strongly on an ethic of tolerance toward those who are different
but do no harm to others. Overzealous enforcement of the drug
laws risks undermining that ethic and propagating in its place a
society of informants... Most of the nearly 40 million Americans
who illegally consume drugs each year do no direct harm to anyone
else; indeed, most do relatively little harm even to themselves."
"For nearly 20 years, the government has resisted the appeals of
cancer patients that marijuana be legalized for therapuetic
purposes. Officials have said that the drug has `no currently
accepted medical use.' "Now the first published survey of cancer
specialists on the issue indicates that many *do* believe that
marijuana can lessen their patients' suffering."
Stats reported:
% 44% [of doctors] said they had recommended marijuana to at least
one patient;
% 63% said pot was effective;
% 48% said they would prescribe it if it were legal
% One hundred and fifty-seven doctors also answered a question
comparing marijuana with the synthetic THC tables that can be
prescribed legally. (THC is the active ingredient responsible for
pots therapeutic effects.). Seventy-seven percent of that group
said they believed smoking marijuana was more effective.
Canberra considers legalisation of marijuana" ---------- */
Cannabis possession is decriminalised in South Australia and the
A.C.T. However, a recent report presented to the Aust. Capital
Territory Legislative Assembly regarding 'Marijuana & other
Illegal Drugs', argued for legalisation. Excerpts follow:
1 In the committee's opinion, it is apparent, that those laws
enacted by society relating to the prohibition of cannabis use
have proven ineffective in combating the use of the drug. If it is
the intention of these laws to dicourage the availability and use
of cannabis and to punish those who use or supply the drug then
those intentions have not been fulfilled.
2 It is also the committee's opinion that the current law in its
intent, with its strong dependence on a philosophy of prohibition,
either ignores or denies current scientific research which
suggests that marijuana is less harmful than tobacco or alcohol
and in effect may have some therapeutic benefits.
Health Threat
3 It is the committee's belief that the primary reason for
continuing to proscribe the personal use of cannabis would be
overwhelming scientific evidence that such use represented severe
health threats which, in turn, where at levels which are
unacceptable to the community. The committee has found no such
evidence. On the contrary the works referred to in this report -
Maykut, 'Health Consequences of Acute and Chronic Marijuana Use',
Commonwealth Dept. of Health, 'Cannabis A Review of Some Important
National Inquiries and Significant Research Reports', and
Hollister, 'Health Aspects of Cannabis'
- suggest marijuana is less of a health threat than previously
thought:
"Compared with other licit social drugs, such as alcohol,
tobacco, and caffeine, marijuana does not pose greater
risks. ... Marijuana may prove to have greater therapeutic
potential that these other social drugs, but many
questions still need to be answered." - Hollister, p 17.
'Gateway' drug
4 Marijuana is often regarded as a 'gateway' drug in that its use
leads on to the use of other, more harmful, drugs. A number of
researchers have noted that many people who are using heroin have
previously used Marijuana. Often these same researchers fail to
note that all heroin users have used or are using alcohol and
tobacco which, of course, are not seen as 'gateway' drugs. If
marijuana is in some sense a 'gateway' drug then, in the opinion
of the committee, it is its illegal status that makes it so.
[points made earlier in report]
Personal Choice
5 If marijuana is no more a health threat than alcohol and
tobacco, and it is in fact probably less of a threat, then the
committee feels the use of this social drug should be left to
individual choice. For as long as this community continues to
condone the personal use of licit drugs, with proven deleterious
health threats, then, in the opinion of the committee, to
proscribe the personal use of a drug which is demonstrably less
deleterious, is untenable.
Criminal record
6 The committee is concerned that offenders, particularly young
people, are often left with a criminal record which can disqualify
them from a range of professions and job opportunities; this, in
the opinion of the committee, can be seen as an unduly harsh
double punishment (the payment of a fine or other penalty to be
followed by job discrimination), especially as it applies to the
relatively small proportion of users who are caught. Marijuana is
not a drug of social harm, other than that engendered by its
illegality, nor is it a drug of proven medical harm. To
criminalise people for using such a drug is, in the opinion of the
committee, also an untenable position.
Personal Use
9 The committee has come to the conclusion that the personal use
of cannabis should no longer be an offence at law.
10 The committee recommends:
That the possession, cultivation and use of cannabis for
personal purposes not be an offence at law.
Cultivation
11 ... It is the committee's belief that the cultivation of no
more than five cannabis plants should no longer be a criminal
offence; five plants should be sufficient to meet the personal
needs of most cannabis users and thus obviate any need to seek out
a seller and, hopefully, also undermine the illegal sale of other
drugs. The cultivation of more than five cannabis plants should,
however, continue to be an offence.
Possession
12 Current ACT legislation, in line with similar legislation in
Victoria and South Australia, regards the possession of a small
amount of marijuana as a minor offence subject only to a fine. In
Victoria the fine is $500 and the amount is 50 grams; in South
Aust. the fine is $50 and the amount is 25 grams; and in the ACT
the fine $100 and the amount is 25 grams. It is the committee's
belief that the personal possession of 25 grams of marijuana
should no longer be an offence in the Territory.
13 ... It is the committee's intention that the possession of an
amount of cannabis greater than 25 grams but less than 100 grams
in mass carry as a penalty a fine of $150; and that the possession
of 100 grams or more should carry the full penalty of $5,000,
imprisonment for two years or both.
Self administration
14 In line with the committee's three previous recommendations it
should no longer be an offence for a person a administer cannabis
to themselves.
Driving under the influence
15 In recommending that the personal use of cannabis no longer be
an offence at law, the committee is concerned to ensure that the
safety of others is protected, particularly on the Territory's
roads. To this end the committee feels it necessary to recommend
some changes to the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Act
strengthening those provisions which make it an offence to drive a
motor vehicle whilst under the influence of drugs. Independent
advice given to the committee by Dr. G. Chesher [PhD, Med. Sci.
I've got no further info on this persons background] indicates
that a concentation of 15 nanograms of delta-9 THC per millilitre
of blood would be sufficient to impair a person's driving ability
to the point where it could be said they were not in sufficient
control of the motor vehicle. The impairment effect of this
concentration level are some what similar to the impairment
effects of a blood alcohol level of 0.05 grams / 100 millilitres
of blood.
'CANNABIS USE, SUPPLY, ENFORCEMENT, AND REGULATORY OPTIONS'
On Friday 5th of march the Criminal Justice Commission
convened a seminar on Cannabis Laws as part of its
process of appraisal before handing its findings to the
government. I met with my colleagues at 8.30 and after
coffee and hot chocolate disembarked for the Bardon
Professional Developement Centre.
From 10.00a.m. we had an easy day of discussion about
cannabis laws. The fact that this was a CJC seminar and
therefore remote from the actual decision-making process
allowed for a certain degree of comfort amongst
organizers and participants alike. That is the
Anti-Prohibition League and the Moral Majority did not
come to blows.
After an overview of cannabis use in Qld and an
appraisal of cannabis law enforcement the seminar looked
at outlines for possible options. The level of
discussion from the public was such that few points were
left unturned.
Out of the 50 in attendance there was one person from
the Moral Majority and one person from CALM who managed
to find each other during one of the breaks when the
Moral Majority was overheard confessing to CALM that he
had smelt cannabis and that it is the most horrible
smell he knows. Those in attendance were from the legal
and academic communities, police, health and social
services, students, and the media. Individual
researchers and public interest groups were there but
argument around what typically has been an emotive issue
was largely absent.
There were some issues conspicuous by their absence
especially civil liberties and commercial uses of hemp
as a source of fibre, oil, etc. These are early days in
the process yet.
According to the CJC official I spoke with the current plan is to
hold another seminar somewhere in Nth. Qld to facillitate more
public input. A discussion paper should then come out in April
after which submissions will be called from the public.
It seems like a long and tiresome process especially
when the govt. and opposition have agreed not to
decriminalize the plant. It is however, a platform that
allows for some popular input. Even though the police
have stated their objectives as white powder drugs and
the criminal element, the statistics continue to show a
large proportion of small time cannabis users who are
poor to boot. In the end it is social problem as well
as a legal or health problem and social action is
probably an important component to bring about change.
Ancient Marijuana
Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ashes from a fourth-century tomb near
Jerusalem suggest that marijuana plants may have been used in
the ancient Middle East to help childbirth, researchers say.
The tomb contained the remains of a teen-ager who apparently
died while giving birth, or during the last stages of
pregnancy. Analysis indicated that ashes found with the
skeleton came from cannabis, the marijuana plant. Apparently,
cannabis was burned for use as an inhalant to aid childbirth,
researchers said, noting that a 19th-century medical
publication said it strengthened contractions while reducing
labor pain. Medicinal use of cannabis was recorded in Egypt in
the 16th century B.C., the Israeli scientists said in
Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
WP 05/24 Medicine: Use of Marijuana in Childbirth
A 1,600-year-old personal tragedy has yielded a glimpse of
early medicinal uses of marijuana. Reporting in the May 20
Nature, Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
and colleagues analyzed materials found in an ancient family
tomb near Jerusalem. Seven grams of carbonized matter were
found near the corpse of a girl, about 14 years of age, who
apparently died in childbirth around 400 AD. The researchers
recovered tiny amounts of 6-tetrahydrocannabinol (6-THC), a
component of cannabis. The researchers believe the plant was
burned in some kind of a vessel and administered to the girl
"as an inhalant to facilitate the birth process." Medical texts
from the 19th century, the authors note, held that marijuana
increases the force of uterine contractions and reduces the
pain of labor. While this is apparently the first physical
evidence of ancient pot use, reports appear in an Egyptian
papyrus from the 16th century B.C.
- J.S.
DROP IN STUDENT DRUG USE HALTS - STUDY
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Reuter) - The long-term decline in drug use
among American college students halted in 1992 and the use of
LSD and other hallucinogens rose for the third straight year,
a new study said Thursday.
The national survey of 1,500 college students by University
of Michigan researchers found that 30.6 percent of the
respondents used an illegal drug at least once in the prior
12 months, a slight increase from 29.2 percent in 1991. The
increase, attributed to a higher proportion of students using
marijuana, is not statistically significant, according to the
researchers, social scientists Lloyd Johnston, Jerald Bachman
and Patrick O'Malley. But the steady declines in drug use
noted in previous years has clearly halted, they noted. About
27 percent of the students surveyed used marijuana in 1992
versus 26 percent in 1991. The researchers also noted use of
hallucinogens rose for the third year running, from 5.1
percent of respondents in 1989 to 6.8 percent in 1992, a
change considered statistically significant. LSD accounted
for most of the increase, used by 5.7 of those polled, up
from 3.4 percent over the same period. Cocaine use continued
to decline, dropping to 3.0 percent in 1992 from 3.6 percent
in 1991. But use of crack cocaine, stimulants, barbiturates,
tranquilizers, inhalants, heroin and other drugs showed
little or no further declines in 1992. "Whether this is a
pause, or the beginning of a turnaround, we cannot say," said
Johnston, the principal researcher. "But it clearly
contrasts with the steady declines we had been seeing since
1985. Taken along with the upturn in drug use among 8th-grade
students, which we had reported earlier this year, it
certainly presents the basis for some concern." The study
also found that heavy drinking remains widespread on college
campuses, with 41 percent of respondents -- 51 percent of
males and 33 percent of females -- indicating that in the
prior two weeks they had consumed five or more drinks in a
row on at least one occasion. The study, conducted since
1975, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage
points.
REUTER
MILTON FRIEDMAN
Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist, has a simple
explanation of the upward spiral with which Mr. Brown must
contend. Law enforcement temporarily reduces the drug supply and
thus causes prices to rise. Higher prices draw new sources of
supply and even new drugs into the market, resulting in more drugs
on the street. The increased availability of drugs creates more
addicts. The Government reacts with more vigorous enforcement, and
the cycle starts anew.
Mr. Friedman and those who share his views propose a
straightforward way out of this discouraging spiral: Decriminalize
drugs, thus eliminating the pressure on supply that creates an
ever-bigger market. This, they contend, will reduce demand and
reverse the cycle, much as a similar approach has cut into alcohol
addiction.