CANNABIS 'SAFER THAN ALCOHOL'

A STUDY showing that cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco has been
suppressed by United Nations health officials, it is reported today.

According to the New Scientist magazine, the analysis concluded that
cannabis does less harm to public health than alcohol or cigarettes and
would do so even if it were consumed in similar quantities to the legal
drugs.

The comparison, written by marijuana experts, was due to appear last
December in the World Health Organisation's first report on the effects of
cannabis for 15 years.

It was withdrawn at the last minute after a furious dispute involving WHO
officials, the report writers and external advisers. Sources quoted in the
magazine claim that the WHO gave way to political pressure, with American
drugs officials and advisers from the UN Drug Control Programme saying that
the document would be seized upon by organisations campaigning for the
legalisation of cannabis.

"In the eyes of some, any such comparison is tantamount to an argument for
marijuana legislation," said one of the report's authors.

Another said that WHO officials "went nuts" when they saw the draft
version. A leaked version of the report says the comparison was made "to
minimise the double standards that have operated in appraising the
health effects of cannabis".

On most points, cannabis was considered less harmful to health than
alcohol, with the illegal drug playing little role in injuries caused by
violence, unlike alcohol.

Evidence that cannabis could harm the development of babies
in the womb was considered "far from conclusive", while the grounds for
alcohol doing so were "good".

A WHO official said that the comparison was excluded because "the
reliability and public health significance of such comparisons is doubtful".

4 January 1998: MPs to press for inquiry into cannabis
19 November 1997: BMA in cannabis prescription plea
19 September 1997: Straw attacks call to make cannabis legal
18 June 1997: Cannabis does no harm says Stoppard