The time to act to protect the public from hard drugs is now. People talk about cannabis being the gateway drug, when really, it is the current Misuse of Drugs Act that is gateway LEGISLATION.

Because cannabis is driven underground with all the other hard drugs, this means that the only way for people to get hold of cannabis is to go to drug dealers, who most probably want a customer for their more expensive, and more addictive drugs.

With 51% of the population having tried cannabis and up to 15% of the population actively using cannabis that makes for a lot of people to potentially have exposure to hard drugs. It also shows that despite the illegality of cannabis, people are willing to smoke it.

We need to take control of cannabis out of the hands of drug dealers and gangs. These unregulated distributors sometimes adulterate or lace their cannabis with harder drugs, or harmful substances such as lead particles (to make it weigh more) or microscopic glass beads (to make it look more potent).

This makes the drug a significantly more hazardous to the health of the people that choose to smoke it (regardless of the legality), because the government doesn’t provide a means of safe access.

Cannabis has been scientifically and anecdotally proven to be beneficial for over 300 ailments and diseases. Making cannabis a class D drug would open up the doors for research on it, allowing scientists to extract the chemical cannabinoids and make newer, safer, and natural drugs.

It is a little known fact that in the human body there are four types of cannabinoid receptors (that have been found so far). Cannabinoids are produced in three ways. Naturally by the human brain (endo-cannabinoids), naturally by the cannabis plant (phyto-cannabinoids) and artificially in labs.

I would also like to compare the situations between the Netherlands and the United States. The United States Government is vehemently opposed to drug tolerance, treat drugs as a criminal issue and as a result have very high drug use rates. The Netherlands on the hand, regulate the use of soft drugs, and treat drugs in general as a social health issue – I.E. providing easy access to education and rehab for those that want it. The Netherlands drug use rates are half that of the United States. These figures can be found within 5 mins on google.

Do I need to mention what happened when the United States prohibited Alcohol?

To put cannabis into the class D category is to take a step in the right direction. It is to take a step into governmental control of drugs, instead of governmental restriction. This is what is needed to protect our citizens from hard drugs.

First of all the articles states two different figures for hospitalization for cannabis users in 2005. $32m and $35m.. which one is it? We’ll take the figure of $35m and divide that by the 400,000 users in the country (as reported by the DHI in the NZ herald here) and you have health costs of approximately $80 per user. With an estimation of only half of people surveyed admitting to smoke cannabis you have a figure of 800,000 user in NZ, this equates to around $40 per user. Is this really an issue? And what constitutes an admission for cannabis use? It is my bet from stories I have heard that these admissions are from first time users, having too much and freaking out as can be seen in the documentary “Should I Smoke Dope”. In the documentary the reporter freaks out when she smokes a whole joint at a cannabis shop. First time users should not smoke a whole joint. Its not a danger to their life or bodies at all, however they can freak out and think they are overdosing. But at least cannabis users who freak out and think they are overdosing still have the piece of mind and ability to go to the hospital. Lets see someone with alcohol poisioning or a heroin overdose admit themselves to the hospital.

Now lets look at the alcohol figures quickly. 4700 people a year die from alcohol use with an estimated $1.5b to 2.4b of social harm as reported here in the NZ Herald.

“Cannabis-related hospital admissions exceeded the numbers admitted for opiates, amphetamines and cocaine combined. “

They say there are more admissions to hospital for cannabis use than any other drug. HELLO!!! This is because more people use cannabis than any other drug! This is a good thing, would you rather your kid smoke a harmless herb, or get cooked on Pure Methamphetamine? Approx 95,170 people admitted to using other drugs than cannabis compared to 400,000 cannabis users who admitted to using. I think however times both figures by a factor of two because how many people are going to admit to using illegal drugs?

“The majority of patients were suffering from a psychotic disorder, followed by cannabis poisoning, harmful use, dependence and acute intoxication.”

They say people admitted had a psycotic disorder. Could it be that these people were self medicating with cannabis? So they were using cannabis to fix the psycotic disorder rather than the cannabis causing the psycotic disorder? Treatment of depression and bipolar disporder with cannabis has been proven to be beneficial.

There are over 300 medical uses for cannabis.

“The majority of patients were suffering from a psychotic disorder, followed by cannabis poisoning, harmful use, dependence and acute intoxication.”

It also states that people got marijuana poisoning. This is not possible. Cannabis is not POISON!!! You IDIOTS!!! Do some research and you will quickly find that the chemicals in cannabis are naturally produced by the healthy human brain. These chemicals, known as cannabinoids are produced in the cannabis plant and called Phyto-cannabinoids. The cannabinoids produced in the human brain are called Endo-cannabinoids. There are so far 4 known cannabinoid receptors in the brain and body cells that when stimulated help with pleasure, brain cell generation and neuroprotection among other functions. Cannabis is far from poison.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said he had not yet read the report, but suspected the cost to the health system would be “significantly higher than that, when you consider its contribution to accidents and family breakdown”.

Contribution to accidents? Which? Where? What accidents? And how can cannabis breakdown a family? I think you mean alcohol and its prevalence for causing domestic violence?

“A new breed of powerful cannabis and ballooning costs in treating its health effects have led to calls for urgent action…”

The final beef I had with the article was this opening line. First of all more potent cannabis IS BETTER!!!! It means you have to smoke LESS to get the desired effect. This means there IS LESS SMOKE ENTERING THE LUNGS. And any smoke, even cannabis smoke which has had cancer links disproven, is still not good to inhale. There are better ways to consume cannabis than smoking.