OF COURSE IT'S HARMFUL

A new study showing that long-term cannabis smoking harms the users in a
similar way to tobacco smoking ought not to have surprised anyone says the
Nelson Mail in an editorial.

There are many strands to the debate on legalising or decriminalising
cannabis, but its users have always been on shaky ground when they have
claimed that it does no physical harm.

The simple fact is that lungs are not designed for regular inhalation of
smoke - and that includes cannabis smoke, whatever the mental benefits that
may or may not arrive after the drug has entered the bloodstream.

The study, carried out by the University of Otago, is still important,
however. It was done by a highly reputable group and involved nearly 1000
21-year-olds, and so provides what may be some of the first reliable data
worldwide on this aspect of cannabis smoking. It strongly backs a
commonsense conclusion, and will not be easily shouted down.

In spite of considerable progress, one in four New Zealanders is still
addicted to tobacco smoking. Clearly the irrefutable evidence of the way
tobacco shortens lives - and cruelly ends them - does not convince everyone
to stop, or not to start. The same will be true of cannabis smokers, only
more so. They smoke for an immediate high far more potent than that
produced by nicotine. But they can no longer claim that their drug is
harmless to the body. Anyone who continues to do that is a dope.