SENIOR GOVERNMENTS SHOULD LAUNCH HEALTH CAMPAIGN ON THE DANGERS OF POT

The debate about marijuana in B.C. always seems to revolve around
whether it should be legalized or at least decriminalized. But what
often gets lost in the discussion is the threat to public health the
drug poses. That tends to get glossed over or ignored.

And that should be especially worrying to parents of impressionable
young pot smokers who believe pot-activist propaganda that marijuana
is a harmless and even healthy drug.

A major new study, however, has cast a pall over those claims.

According to three New Zealand scientists, heavy pot smoking appears
to cause psychosis, a severe form of mental derangement that can
involve delusions and loss of contact with external reality.

The 25-year study, published in the March issue of the scientific
journal Addiction, debunks earlier suggestions that pot and mental
illness are linked simply because people prone to this illness are
likely to take up the drug to ease their symptoms.

"The weight of the evidence clearly suggests that the use of cannabis
(and particularly the heavy use of cannabis) may alter underlying
brain chemistry and precipitate the onset of psychosis/psychotic
symptoms in vulnerable individuals," it found.

Other studies have demonstrated connections between cannabis use and
an increased tendency for schizophrenics to suffer relapses.

Since marijuana smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco
smoke, it isn't surprising that heavy, long-term cannabis smoking has
been associated with cancers of the throat, tongue and lungs.
Marijuana is also connected with memory loss, leukemia and birth defects.

Marijuana remains illegal in Canada, except for approved medical use.
But last week we learned that B.C.'s justice system has become
increasingly lax about investigating, prosecuting and punishing
marijuana growers. And it's disturbing that, at a time when tobacco is
under heavy attack for its adverse affects on health, some folks want
to abandon all controls on a drug that appears to be at least as dangerous.

If senior governments are unwilling to clamp down on the illegal
marijuana industry, they should at least embark on a major health
campaign to warn Canadians about the perils of pot use.