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 LEGALISE IT! WE'LL HUFF AND WE'LL PUFF AND WE'LL BLOW THESE LAWS DOWN PLANET HEMP HERBAL ME DON'T VERBAL ME DECRIMINALISE IT WOULD BE CRIMINAL NOT TO HEMP FOR THE BEST DEAL YET! HEMP HEMP HOORAY! 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.