Make the most of the Indian Hemp Seed
The Lancet, vol 352, number 9140, November 14 1998
We.. say that on the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill-effect on health, and that decisions to ban or legalise cannabis should be based on other considerations.
Rosie Boycott, Independent on Sunday, 28 Sept 1997
If alcohol is a tiger, cannabis is merely a mouse
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894
The commission has come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. ... ...moderate use of hemp... appears to cause no appreciable physical injury of any kind,... no injurious effects on the mind... [and] no moral injury whatever.
LaGuardia Commission Report, 1944
Cannabis smoking does not lead directly to mental or physical deterioration... Those who have consumed marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug.
1968 UK ROYAL COMMISSION, THE WOOTTON REPORT
Having reviewed all the material available to us we find ourselves in agreement with the conclusion reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission appointed by the Government of India (1893-94) and the New York Mayor's Committee (1944 - LaGuardia)that the long-term consumption of cannabis in moderate doses has no harmful effects" "the long-asserted dangers of cannabis are exaggerated and that the related law is socially damaging, if not unworkable
Professor Lester Grinspoon, M.D., Harvard Medical School, October 1, 1997
Cannabis is remarkably safe. Although not harmless, it is surely less toxic than most of the conventional medicines it could replace if it were legally available. Despite its use by millions of people over thousands of years, cannabis has never caused an overdose death.
Jocelyn Elders, USA Surgeon General
Marijuana is beneficial to many patients
The Report of the Australian Government 1996
"The ... major possible adverse effects of chronic, heavy cannabis use ... remain to be confirmed" "The major health and psychological effects of chronic cannabis use, especially daily use over many years, remain uncertain" "As has been stressed ... there is uncertainty. ......To varying degrees....inferences from animal research, laboratory studies, and clinical observations about probable ill effects. In some cases inferences depend upon arguments from what is known about the adverse effects of other drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol" "... "flashback experiences" ...have been rarely reported by cannabis users... have typically used other hallucinogenic drugs" "The probable and possible adverse health and psychological effects of cannabis need to be placed in comparative perspective to be fully appreciated".
Dr J. H. Jaffe, The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. L.Goodman and A Gillman, 3rd edn. 1965.
There are no long lasting ill-effects from the acute use of marijuana and no fatalities have ever been recorded ... there seems to be growing agreement within the medical community, at least, that marijuana does not directly cause criminal behaviour, juvenile delinquency, sexual excitement, or addiction.
Panama Canal Zone Report, 1925
There is no evidence... that any deleterious influence on the individual using [cannabis]
Schaeffer: A Neuropsychological Evaluation; A Case History
...I.Q.'s of Zion Coptics increased after they began to use ganga
Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study of Chronic Marijuana Use; Institute of Human Issues.
No significant health consequences to chronic cannabis smokers
US Jamaican Study 1974
... as a multipurpose plant, ganga is used medicinally, even by non-smokers. ....There were no indications of organic brain damage or chromosome damage among smokers and no significant clinical psychiatric, psychological or medical) differences between smokers and controls." "No impairment of physiological, sensory and perceptual performance, tests of concept formation, abstracting ability, and cognitive style, and tests of memory" "[Cannabis smoking] does not lead directly to mental or physical deterioration... Those who have consumed marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug.
The Kaiser Permanente study
"Marijuana Use and Mortality" April 1997 American Journal of Public Health". "Relatively few adverse clinical effects from the chronic use of marijuana have been documented in humans. However, the criminalization of marijuana use may itself be a health hazard, since it may expose the users to violence and criminal activity."
Volume 155, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. D.P. Tashkin
Findings from the present long-term, follow-up study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of [chronic lung disease. ..Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in [lung function] as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana. Researchers added: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and non-smoking of marijuana.
The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1987
Cannabis can be used on an episodic but continual basis without evidence of social or psychic dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with its obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied... The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not toxicologic, foundation
Cannabis in Costa Rica: A Study of Chronic Marijuana Use; Institute of Human Issues.
Users in our matched-pair sample smoked marijuana in addition to as many tobacco cigarettes as did their matched non-using pairs. Yet their small airways were, if anything, a bit healthier than their matches. We must tentatively conclude either that marijuana has no harmful effect on such passages or that it actually offers some slight protection against harmful effects of tobacco smoke
John P Morgan MD, 10th International Conference on Drug Policy, 1996, USA, on Marinol
In a recent study, the scientists gave patients 20 mg of Marinol by mouth to see if it increased their appetite. Not only could they not detect much appetite-increasing effect, but they learned the interesting fact that, in one-third of people who take Marinol by mouth, you have no blood levels at all. The drug is so poorly bio-available it's surprising that it got onto the market. There may well be some reason to believe that there are individuals in our government who are interested in getting Marinol on the market to diminish the pressure for marijuana smokers.
FCDA Europe, "The Report"
The biochemistry of cannabis is explained as follows: the active ingredients of cannabis (comprised of Tetrahydrocannabinol compounded with cannabidiol, tetrhydrocannabivarin, numerous cannabinoids and the elements and compounds common to most plants) temporarily attach to receptors on cells such as those situated on the outer surface of the brain, the meninges, this gently bringing about a feeling of well-being
Dr. Andrew Weil (Rubin & Comitas Ganja in Jamaica, 1975)
a-motivation [is] a cause of heavy marijuana smoking rather than the reverse
The Shafer Commission of 1970
Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug
The LaGardia sub-committee of New York 1944
The use of marijuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction and no effort is made to create a market for these narcotics by stimulating the practice of marijuana smoking
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "Marijuana: Facts for Teens."
Most marijuana users do not go on to use other drugs.
Crancer Study, Washington Department of Motor Vehicles
Simulated driving scores for subjects experiencing a normal social "high" and the same subjects under control conditions are not significantly different. However, there are significantly more errors for alcohol intoxicated than for control subjects
U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993
THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small
Professor Olaf Drummer, a forensic scientist the Royal College of Surgeons in Melbourne in 1996
Compared to alcohol, which makers people take more risks on the road, marijuana made drivers slow down and drive more carefully.... Cannabis is good for driving skills, as people tend to overcompensate for a perceived impairment.
Dr. Anthony Henman
One of the best effects Marijuana can have in any terminal illness is to produce a degree of euphoria which boosts morale in a depressing situation
The Economist March 28th 1992
Medicines often produce side effects. Sometimes they are physically unpleasant. Cannabis too has discomforting side effects, but these are not physical they are political
Professor Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, USA
Marijuana is one of the least toxic substances in the whole pharmacopoeia
Dr. James Malone-Lee, consultant St. Pancras Hospital, London
I'm quite impressed by what's happened to (MS) patients who have used it
Albert Eistein, My First Impression of the U.S.A., 1921
The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this
President Jimmy Carter
Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself
Judge James Pickles, UK
Cannabis never killed anybody and it's use is widespread. You can"t stop it. The law defeats itself because all the efforts to stop drugs coming in only drives up the prices and then gangsters move in to push the drugs. If they legalised there wouldn't be gangsters and huge profits...The police are gradually decriminalising the possession of cannabis because they realise there's not much point prosecuting
President Abraham Lincoln (December 1840)
Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control mans' appetite through legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not even crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our Government was founded
Volney Brown Jr., Federal Magistrate-Judge,(retired)., Los Angeles
There is only one thing wrong with drug law enforcement, just one - it doesn't work. And when I tell you this I want you to believe me because I have done it
Judge James Grey, Orange County Superior Court, Santa Ana, CA, 1996
If we continue as we have for the past 20 years in California, in the year 2020, everybody in the State will either be in prison or running one
Judge Pamela Alexander at the DPF Conference, November 1996
I am here because I am the first judge in this country to say, in 1990, that the war on drugs was racist. It still is and that hasn't changed
Alexander Shulgin, PhD, Chemist and author, at the DPF Conference, November1996
I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the Customs Agent. I am the Coast guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable
Ann Shulgin, PhD, Therapist and Author, Lafayette, CA, at the DPF Conference, November 1996
Several generations of high school students have grown up ignoring and disbelieving everything they've heard from government and police about drugs, including information that was factual and valid, because they discovered for themselves that most of what has been taught to them was simply not true.
U.S. Representative Dan Quayle, March 1977
Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana... We should concentrate on prosecuting the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society.
Sir Paul McCartney, Independent on Sunday, 28th September 1997
I support decriminalisation. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them into criminals is wrong. It's when you're in jail you really become a criminal.
Richard Branson, Independent on Sunday, 28th September 1997
I'd like to see the government back a programme of research into the medical properties of cannabis and I do not object to its responsible use as a recreational relaxant.
Detective Chief Inspector Ron Clarke, former member of Greater Manchester Police Drugs Squad
I got tired of seeing otherwise innocent young kids from all walks of life getting criminal records for, in effect, doing nothing more than millions of other people in society were doing with alcohol
Sergeant Gordon Payne, Southampton Police
The only solution to the drugs problem is the legalisation of all drugs
Jamaican Study 1970
This study indicates that there is little correlation between the use of ganga and crime, except insofar as the possession and cultivation of ganga are technically crimes
The LaGuardia sub-committee of New York 1944
Marijuana is not the determining factor in the commission of major crime....The publicity concerning the catastrophic effect of marijuana smoking in New York City, is unfounded
