Pubdate: Thu, 06 Sep 2001
Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal
(Canada)
Copyright: 2001 Canadian Medical Association
Contact:
pubs@cma.caWebsite:
http://www.cma.ca/cmaj/index.aspDetails:
http://www.mapinc.org/media/754Author:
Craig Jones
Bookmark:
http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm
(Cannabis - Canada)
MUCH ADO ABOUT
MARIJUANAThirty years after the publication of the
LeDain Commission report,1
editorial opinion at CMAJ has arrived at the same
opinion: "the real harm
[of marijuana] is the legal and social fallout
[editorial]."2 In 1995 The
Lancet editorialized that "the smoking of
cannabis, even long term, is not
harmful to health."3 Two years later the New
England Journal of Medicine
called for the reclassification of cannabis under
American law4 and George
Annas wrote in the same journal that "marijuana is
unique among illegal
drugs in its political symbolism, its safety, and its
wide use."5
It is worth remembering that cannabis was prohibited in
Canada only because
Emily Murphy managed to create a moral panic around the
association of
cannabis with Blacks and Mexicans. Cannabis prohibition - as
in the Opium
Act of 1908 - was from the outset a strategy for the political
suppression
of selected racial groups.6
In the 30 years since the
LeDain Commission report was released, thousands
of young Canadians have been
incarcerated. One of the unintended
consequences of incarceration is growing
into a full-blown public health
catastrophe. In the mid 1990s the
Correctional Service of Canada instituted
urinalysis testing to enforce a
zero-tolerance drug policy.
The inmates did the logical thing, from their
viewpoint; they migrated to
the use of drugs that cleared the body in less
time than cannabis. The
drugs of choice came to be heroin and
cocaine.
As a result of needle sharing, our federal prisons have become
incubation
centres for HIV and hepatitis C.7 Canada's drug control strategy,
a
decaffeinated version of the American "war on drugs," produces
more
pathology than it prevents.8
Most inmates eventually get out of
prison, and thus the potential for a
public health disaster can no longer be
denied.
Recent events at the Kingston Penitentiary suggest that the
Correctional
Service of Canada may be looking for a face-saving alternative
to its
unworkable zero-tolerance drug strategy.
Here is an opportunity
for the bold stride the CMAJ editorial says is
needed: CMAJ ought to call for
the vigorous expansion of harm reduction
programs across Canada and in
particular within our prisons.
Unfortunately, however, the drug war needs
marijuana's prohibited status
because without it the "drug problem" collapses
from a social crisis
involving several million Canadians and requiring more
police and more
prisons, to a situation involving a handful of hard-core
addicts whose
sickness can be reduced and confined, as the experience of
Holland,
Switzerland and Germany demonstrates.9
Cannabis in its
numerous forms is an efficacious treatment for a number of
conditions, as the
Chinese claimed as long ago as 2737 BCE,1 with
considerably fewer side
effects for many people than other treatments.10
Marijuana could compete with
established brand medications that are backed
by powerful global economic,
social and political forces and their
legislative allies.
Thus there
are at least 2 powerful obstacles to the decriminalization of
marijuana, both
arising from the vested interests that have grown up and
taken hold under
prohibition. Still, CMAJ is to be congratulated: better
late than
never.
Craig Jones, Research Associate
Queen's Centre for Health
Services and Policy Research
Queen's University Kingston,
Ont.
References
1. The report of the Canadian
Government Commission of Inquiry into the
Non-Medical Use of Drugs. Ottawa:
Information Canada; 1972.
2. Marijuana: federal smoke clears, a little
[editorial]. CMAJ
2001;164(10):1397.
3. Deglamourizing cannabis
[editorial]. Lancet 1995;346(8985):1241. [MEDLINE]
4. Kassirer JP.
Federal foolishness and marijuana.
N Engl J Med 1997;336(5):366-7.
[MEDLINE]
5. Annas GJ. Reefer madness: the federal response to
California's
medical-marijuana law. N Engl J Med 337(6):435-9.
6.
Giffen PJ, Endicott S, Lambert S. Panic and indifference: the politics
of
Canada's drug laws. A study in the sociology of law. Ottawa: Canadian
Centre
on Substance Abuse; 1991.
7. Ford PM, Pearson M, Sankar-Mistry P,
Stevenson T, Bell D, Austin J. HIV,
hepatitis C and risk behaviour in a
Canadian medium-security federal
penitentiary. Q J Med
2000;93:113-9.
8. Johns CJ. Power, ideology and the war on drugs: nothing
succeeds like
failure. New York: Praeger; 1992.
9. Grapendaal M, Leuw
E, Nelen H. A world of opportunities: life-style and
economic behaviour of
heroin addicts in Amsterdam. New York: State
University of New York Press;
1995.
10. Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB. Marihuana as medicine: a plea
for
reconsideration. JAMA 1995;273(23):1875-6.
[MEDLINE]
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included information for research and educational purposes.
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