CANNABIS BEATS FAGS, GROG

LONDON: Latest evidence indicates cannabis is less of a threat to health
than tobacco or alcohol.

But it is not without risk, influential British medical periodical The
Lancet said yesterday.

It's editorial said: "On medical evidence, moderate indulgence in cannabis
has little effect on health, and decisions to ban or to legalise it should
be based on other things."

The opinion piece followed a call by members of Britain's House of Lords for
cannabis, of which marijuana is a derivative, to be made legally available
as a pain reliever for those suffering from multiple sclerosis or cancer.

A ban on recreational use should remain in place, the Lords committee said
in a report released last Wednesday.

The Lords drew on the views of Australian researchers Wayne Hall and Nadia
Solowij from the Sydney-based National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
which were also published in The Lancet.

Hall and Solowij said doctors could advise patients about the most likely
ill-effects of using cannabis.

These included the risk of an accident while driving, if cannabis is used
with alcohol, respiratory complications, possible dependence with daily use,
and a risk, with regular use, of subtle impairment of perception and
reasoning.

Among groups at higher risk of experiencing adverse effects are "people with
asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, schizophrenia, and alcohol or other drug
dependence, whose illnesses may be exacerbated by cannabis use."

The Lords committee argued the medical benefits of the drug, banned in any
form in Britain for more than 25 years, justified an easing of the law.

Pain

The committee recommended doctors and pharmacists should be allowed to
supply it on prescription to help patients in pain, and urged an immediate
change in the law rather than waiting several years for the results of
clinical trials now under way.

The Lords called for research into other ways of taking cannabis than the
traditional way of smoking it, and said there was enough evidence of the
toxic effects to justify the ban on recreational use.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst