Coalition against CANNABIS

Decriminalise CANNABIS?

Concern is growing about efforts by the pro-drug lobby to minimise the damage caused by this illicit and harmful drug and to press for its ultimate decriminalisation. This is what the experts say:

Dr. Clair Rowden, a police doctor for 27 years - "Legalising of cannabis would be an act of unbelievable irresponsibility".
Mariette Hopman, the Clinical Psychologist - "smoking cannabis is unbelievably dangerous".
Professor Griffith Edwards, of the National Addiction Centre - "There is enough evidence now to make one seriously worried about the possibility of cannabis producing long-term impairment of brain function".
Judge Keith Matthewman - "Perhaps people who say the drug should be legalised should sit where I do and see the devastation it can cause to other people as well as the defendants".
Professor C.H. Ashton of the Department of Psychiatry University of Newcastle upon Tyne- "Cannabis intoxication can precipitate severe psychiatric reactions including paranoia, mania and schizophrenic - life states". "Few, if any doctors, will deny that the symptoms of schizophrenia are made worse by cannabis".
Dr. Norman Imlah former Clinical Director of west Midlands Regional Addiction Unit - "Studies show that benzpyrine, a known carcinogen, is about ten times more concentrated in cannabis smoke compared with tobacco smoke".
Philip Emafo, President of the United Nations Narcotics Control Board - "Cannabis is not a harmless drug as advocates of its legalisation tend to portray. Cannabis use affects the functioning of the brain. Its illicit use is also associated with heart attacks in some young people and can cause lung disease and cancer. A recent study by the British Lung Foundation has shown that smoking three joints of cannabis causes the same damage to the lining of the airways as 20 cigarettes". The international community decided to control cannabis in the 1961 Convention because of its abuse potential and its ability to produce ill effects. These properties of cannabis have not changed since then".
Jan Berry, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales (the very large majority of whose members oppose the legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis) - "the siren calls for decriminalisation and legalisation are not cries for reality, they are the voice of surrender and despair".
Professor Colin Drummond, St. George's Hospital Medical School - "the harm caused by decriminalisation of cannabis would particularly affect vulnerable groups including adolescents and those with pre-existing mental health problems".
Dr. Ian Oliver, Consultant to the UN Drug Control Programme, pointing to significant medical damage caused to many cannabis users - "it would be perverse of any Government to decriminalise cannabis".

Cannabis damages the unborn child. Cannabis is much more dangerous than tobacco in the damage it causes to lungs. Cannabis takers have a higher risk of heart attack. Cannabis leads to the impairment of skills. Cannabis contributes directly to road, rail and air accidents. It would be an act of folly to decriminalise cannabis, yet this is what some politicians are proposing.

Published by the National Coalition Against Cannabis, 95-97 Railway Road, Leigh WN7 4AD.

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