February 9, 2010
Published: 9 Nov 09 17:38 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23166/20091109/
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Smoking marijuana is more harmful for young people than previously believed, according to a Swedish study.
External link: Report: Skador av hasch o marijuana (in Swedish) »
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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But this study the publicity it's meant to generate is entirely politically motivated. I think it would be quite interesting to see what research they were actually compiling and looking at. Remember, this isn't first-hand research, Sweden simply does not do research about cannabis so this is a study looking at international research. While I don't question at all the premise that cannabis isn't good for developing bodies, I do question this study as being politically motivated, because there is more international research showing that cannabis is not as dangerous for fully-grown adults as many believe it to be.
The real reason this article was commission by Statens folkhälsoinstitut is due to the growing amount of Swedes questioning Sweden's strict, zero-tolerance stance towards cannabis when most countries are lightening up cannabis regulation. Whenever there are stories on Swedish news websites about cannabis, most comments are now questioning Sweden's stance, especially since the zero-tolerance approach has completely failed in preventing the spread of the use of cannabis in Sweden as recently Sweden has become supposedly self-sufficient in home-grown cannabis production.
If this finding is true, then Sweden should allow a certain level of dope smoking to produce the next generation of sh!t-kickers. Then those who avoid the smoke have a better chance of getting a good job because of less competition and then Sweden can reduce immigration and let the dope heads clean our offices and pick up the garbage to earn money for their next fix.
Problem solved!
Encourage them to drink alcohol! Send the youth to System Bolaget - this way the state can make some money and the kids can kick each other senseless, have careless sex and wake up the following day in their own pool of vomit and not really remembering anything to be embarrassed about the next morning. hell, everybody else does it. including mommy and daddy.
Anybody took a metro ride after 10 oclock at night in stockholm?
It's an uglier scene than anything marijuana can cause.
Strange though, how many people die each year using marijuana as opposed to alcohol?
I was going to write about this from the perspective of California, a society four times as large as Sweden's and infinitely more diverse, which has gradually ended prohibition of marijuana -- instituted in the USA in the 1920s to discourage Mexican migrants, whom it was supposed were all marijuana fiends, from immigrating -- in a series of stages over the last ten years. Next year, a popular vote on a ballot initiative is expected to totally legalize marijuana for adult use.
After decades of illicit and now legal use of the herb, Californians have yet to experience the armies of schizophrenics that apparently terrorize Swedish society. Instead, our police are turning their attention to serious crime, the gangs are having their incomes taken away, the jails are unloading victimless "criminals," and society isn't oppressed as much as before. We don't have dogs patrolling our vehicles, scaring the moderate 95 percent into line in order to "protect" the evil five.
I think I will write this up as an editorial for The Local. There's more to be said besides reacting to the Statens Folkhälsoinstitut's baldly self-serving, propagandistic report.
First, there's virtually nobody who is pushing for legalization of cannabis thinks it's 100% harmless. But we do know (and are supported by countless studies) that it causes far less damage both to health and society in comparison to alcohol. To stop one single episode of pyschosis you would need to stop 5,000 young men aged 20-25 from ever consuming cannabis. Seems like a pretty small risk to me. You offer no scientific numbers, just say that it's bad for teenagers.
This brings me to my second point. You're implying that those of us pushing for cannabis law reform think teens should have access to it. No responsible adult pushing for the legalization of cannabis (and there are a lot of us) thinks it should be accessible to teens. Legalizing cannabis would only serve to protect our children.
As long as cannabis is illegal it will be easier to get at than alcohol. As long as we depend on back alley crone's to sell it on the underground, there's no way to ensure it's not being sold to children, nor to ensure that there aren't toxic additives or verify the strength of strains being sold. Regulating the sale of cannabis would only serve to protect our children and society as a whole. Dealers don't card.
Keeping Cannabis illegal and unregulated makes no sense. Cannabis itself has a virtually nonexistent toxicity, it is primarily the smoke itself that causes concern. Even the smoking risks have less social costs asssociated with them when compared to drinking alcohol. In addition, Vaporization virtually eliminates the concerns of carcinogens in cannabis.
As for addiction, only 9% of those that consume cannabis become dependant; as opposed to 35% with nicotine or 15% with alcohol (both legal).
Also, unlike alcohol, cannabis does not fuel aggressive behavior. Ask a police officer the last time they had to stop an assault where cannabis consumption was involved. Then ask the last time they got a call to take care of an assault where alcohol consumption was involved. You will hear them state repeatedly that alcohol fuels aggressive and potentially violent behavior whereas pot does not.
Let's not be afraid of nature, folks. Let's respect it, learn about it, and give adults the freedom to enjoy it responsibly if they wish. And for the people who end up dependent, referral to healthcare (paid for by cannabis taxes) is much more effective than dooming them to fängelse.
Smoking tobacco can damage young brains.
But the government makes large amounts of money of both. Discuss.