WEED HEALTHIER THAN BOOZE AND TOBACCO, SCIENTISTS FIND

A leaked World Health Organization report revealing that pot is healthier
than booze and cigarettes has left officials in Geneva scrambling to
downplay its significance.

After suppressing the politically loaded findings, the WHO was thrown into
a tizzy when the London-based magazine New Scientist published the report
last week.

Officials in Geneva immediately went into damage-control mode, vehemently
insisting that the scientific research compiled from 16 individual studies
was inconclusive, and denying that the report was locked away for political
reasons.

"It was pure speculation. There was no science in it," claims Tokuo
Yoshida, head of narcotic drugs at the WHO, in an interview with NOW. He
warns that the public should not see the unofficial findings as a licence
to start smoking up guilt-free.

Free Use

"If people start using cannabis as freely as alcohol of tobacco, there
would be harmful effects," he warns, although he admits the study did find
the effects of the legalized substances to be more severe.

But with more widespread use, the risks associated with cannabis may become
comparable, claims Yoshida. "Instead of smoking cannabis at home, people
may start using it during tea time or coffee breaks and take time out at
work to use it," he predicts, envisioning secondhand problems and a greater
number of daily accidents caused by impaired judgement.

Alleged unsound findings aside, Yoshida explains that releasing the report
was not in the public interest because people would simply begin using
cannabis rather than giving up other drugs, creating more of a health problem.

Robin Room, chief scientist at he Addiction Research Foundation, which
submitted one of the reports in the compilation, admits they found cannabis
less risky but does not deliver the news enthusiastically.

"We said it would be difficult to say cannabis could be more harmful than
alcohol or tobacco, but fundamentally we don't know," he stresses, pointing
out that a larger cannabis user pool might have altered the findings.

No Overdoses

"It is essentially impossible to die from an overdose of marijuana, but you
can die from an overdose of alcohol. But then, alcohol does not irritate
the lungs as marijuana smoke does, and tobacco, for that matter."

But Room does believe that the WHO should have released the findings and
allowed the public to weigh the comparative risks, likening the process to
consumers comparing prescription drugs. "I would have made a different
choice, but it is a matter of opinion," he said.

However, David Concar, the New Scientist journalist who broke the story,
says in an interview that the report's suppression was more a matter of
cold feet than scientific caution. He says sources close to the WHO say the
report was delayed for two years because of intense conflict over whether
the conclusion should be included.

Author's views

He also points out that the censored report that was released states on its
cover that it expresses the views of its authors alone and is not an
official WHO report. "It's almost like the WHO has a problem with this
report and wanted to distance itself from it but couldn't figure out the
proper way to do it."

Even the WHO's formal statement issued after Concar's article hit the
stands does not deny that the organization was under heat to cover up its
findings. It just claims that their decision had nothing to do with that
pressure. Concar says it's difficult for the WHO wield a free hand since it
is a UN organization.

"Of course, they are going to deny bowing to political pressure. They
always deny bowing to political pressure," he says. "But they have never
said it was not applied, just that they don't bow to it. They are backing
away from the analysis even though it was done by reputable scientists."