TO BLOW OR NOT TO BLOW? THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE LEGALISATION OF
CANNABIS

From Jospin's government in France, the Independent on Sunday in England,
and the Dutch-led EU Civil Liberties Committee in Strasbourg - everyone is
blowing on about how cannabis should be decriminalised.

Arguments range from the apparently positive effects of cannabis when it is
prescribed for certain medical problems; to claims that cannabis is the
least physically addictive of the psychoactive drugs; to concern that the
illegal status of cannabis means that its widespread use cannot be regulated.

On the con side, there is much mention of "a motivational syndrome", a
state of apathy and withdrawal that excessive use of cannabis apparently
brings about. Cases are cited of young people losing concentration at
school and dropping out. There is also the fear that cannabis is "the
gateway drug" to other, more serious drugs such as heroin; that once young
people who are buying cannabis get exposed to the "drug culture", they are
at risk of becoming hopelessly immersed.

We know from the recent highly publicised drug hauls and heavy prison
sentences for dealers there is plenty of cannabis around. According to the
Garda Siochana Annual Report (1996), 63 per cent of drugs proceedings taken
in 1996 involved cannabis (only 15 per cent involved heroin).

The reason there is so much of it around shows that the demand is there.
Many of those who buy cannabis in its different forms are teenagers. 16
year old Irish students rank high on the European scale (second only to
students in the UK) when it comes to taking cannabis, according to the
recent European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD),
which covered 26 European countries. Most were introduced to the drug by
friends.

Meanwhile, although there are those (quoted below) who have fixed views on
the matter of decriminalising cannabis, there are others who work with the
effects of drug abuse every day who believe the debate is too complex for
simplistic answers.

Mick Rafferty, chair of the Dublin Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, notes
that the Campaign has not taken a stand one way or another on the
legalisation of cannabis: "I personally believe that the distinction must
be made between hard and soft drugs. But our areas have been through such
havoc that people aren't ready to make that distinction."

Context is a word favoured by Vincent Doherty, co-ordinator of the South
Inner City Drugs Task Force: "You have to look at the context of cannabis
use, which is different everywhere. The use of heroin and cannabis in
Dublin is co-terminus.

It is not a straightforward 'gateway' situation, but there is a very close
relationship."

He adds: "We are not talking about California in the late sixties here. We
are talking about families in inner city Dublin who have been ravaged by
heroin. To them, taking drugs is not about freedom of choice."

FOR -----

"There is certainly an epidemic of cannabis use in Ireland at the moment,"
says John Lundberg, a project worker at the Merchant's Quay Project in
Dublin, where every day 150 heroin addicts are given "crisis intervention"
treatment in a non-judgemental fashion. In his opinion other, legal drugs
such as alcohol and barbiturates, could be considered more significant
"gateway" drugs than cannabis: "and peer pressure is a gateway factor too."

The effects of cannabis are relatively harmless, he says: "Other drugs like
heroin and alcohol create agitation and violence, but cannabis has a
relaxing effect. And it is not physically addictive." One fear is that
legalising cannabis might lead to a rise in the number who use it.

Lundberg disagrees, pointing out that if it was legalised, a lot of the
people who don't admit to using it now, because of its illegal status,
would probably use it much more openly, and then it might look as if there
was in increase in its use, but only because people would be less
secretive. Currently, "people have to buy cannabis on the black market,"
says Ivana Bacik, Reid Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at TCD,
who is also a practising criminal barrister. "They then come into contact
with other, more dangerous drugs. This is where the myth comes in that
cannabis is a gateway drug. The use of nicotine doesn't necessarily lead to
the use of alcohol, but you can get both in the pub."

She believes that cannabis must be properly distinguished from other drugs:
"People don't go out and rob to fund a cannabis habit, which is what they
do with heroin. People don't break up families because of a cannabis habit,
but they might because of alcohol."

Decriminalising cannabis would mean a better opportunity for regulation,
she believes: "We're not talking a free-for-all. It would be regulated like
alcohol and cigarettes, and there would be tax benefits for the government."

It would be an opportunity to provide young people with some information on
the drug, which is currently not available to "the thousands who use it,"
notes Tim Murphy, a law lecturer in UCC and author of Rethinking the War on
Drugs (1996): "We know how many units of alcohol it is safe to drink per
week, but we have no guidelines for the use of cannabis."

As for the argument that cannabis is psychologically addictive, he
responds: "Food, power, sex, money - most things in life are addictive. It
is not the thing in itself that brings about this obsession, it is a
person's interaction with it."

Paul O'Mahoney, author of Criminal Chaos (1996), argues that
decriminalising cannabis would have the advantage of depriving the criminal
drug barons of a major slice of their profits.

In the Netherlands, cannabis is available through coffee shops, "48 per
cent of which supply their own home grown cannabis, thereby taking it out
of the hands of the underworld."

He rubbishes the gateway theory: "In the US, about 60 million people smoke
cannabis, but only one million use opiates. 59 million haven't moved on."
He says the relaxed policy towards cannabis use in Holland has paid off,
because the number of young people there who misuse opiates is declining,
"as is drug associated crime and AIDS."

Tim Murphy agrees that the Dutch experience of "decriminalising cannabis
use in practise, but not on the law books", has been successful, and adds
that the French are talking about doing the same: "In Ireland, we are
creating a disrespect for the entire legal system, especially among the
young, when a cannabis smoker is defined as a criminal.

The greatest danger from using cannabis is that it is a criminal offence
and can lead to people getting trapped in the criminal system."

Ivana Bacik notes that, in practice, law enforcement in relation to
cannabis is already more relaxed here than in the case of hard drugs: "The
gardai don't always enforce the law with someone who is in possession of a
small amount of cannabis for personal use. You can't be sent to prison for
a first offence. You usually get probation or a small fine. It's
discretionary. If you have a larger amount you can be convicted for intent
to supply."

Tim Murphy is encouraged by the fact that the State Forensic Science
Laboratory is so overloaded that gardai may be asked to stop sending small
amounts of suspected cannabis for analysis. Nevertheless, "I've heard of
people being prosecuted recently, even over small amounts."

Much has been made of the medical advantages of cannabis in the treatment
of a variety of ailments, including MS, glaucoma, and the nausea associated
with chemotherapy. It is already available on prescription in California
and Arizona. Paddy Doyle, best known for his autobiography, The God Squad,
suffers from a rare disease called Idiopathic Torsion Distonia. "It's like
a combination of cerebral palsy, MS and Parkinson's," he explains.

"Basically it means I'm a gymnasium all to myself. I have constant spasms."
Paddy takes a cocktail of about 10 different tablets every day, and for
fifteen years was on valium. The only real relief he has experienced from
his symptoms is when he tried smoking cannabis, which he was given at
parties. He told his consultant, who wrote to the then Minister for Health
asking for special permission to prescribe cannabis for Paddy. Michael
Noonan responded in the negative.

Although there is a synthetic version of cannabis, Marinol, which is
available on prescription in the US, it is not available here. In their
book, Marihuana, The Forbidden Medicine, authors Lester Grinspoon,
associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and James B.
Bakalar, a Harvard law lecturer, note that Marinol has not been found to be
as effective as smoking cannabis in many cases. Patients who need the drug
to suppress nausea find it difficult to get the pill down. The effects of
inhaled cannabis seem much faster, and easier for the patient to
self-regulate: "Smoking allowed him [a doctor with AIDS] to titrate the
dose for a constant blood level, and illegal marihuana relieved his
symptoms better than legal Marinol - a fact that is common knowledge among
patients who have tried both."

Meanwhile the British Medical Association, which recently published a
report entitled Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis, wants legal permission to
research this area: "Anecdotal evidence suggests that cannabinoids could be
useful for treating certain medical conditions, such as mood disorders and
muscle spasticity," says a BMA spokesperson. "We think the law should
permit the research which would establish that this is really the case."

AGAINST ------------

Many of the people I spoke to who oppose the legalisation of cannabis are
concerned to protect young people from what they see to be its damaging
effects. "It's all very well for trendy oldies but children have a right to
a clean environment," says Jim Comberton, chief executive of Coolmine
House, a drug free prevention and recovery programme.

"Using cannabis turns young people off, so they lose energy and are not
interested in what's going on at school," he continues. "Teachers start
assuming the kid is stupid, not realising he's smoking cannabis. This leads
to insecurity. I see a lot of young guys whose expectations have been
limited because they've been told they are stupid."

"There is a loss of concentration and short term memory, and a slowing of
the learning process" adds Dr Michael ffrench O'Carroll, author of a
recently published book entitled The Irish Drugs Epidemic. "I see
youngsters who take massive amounts of cannabis every day. They are all
drop outs from education and training programmes." Dr ffrench O'Carroll is
the founder of Arbour House in Cork, the Southern Health Board's addiction
treatment centre, and is currently addiction consultant at Sister
Consilio's Cun Mhuire Centres.

Smoking cannabis is highly carcinogenic, he warns, it can lead to impaired
sexual development, and can even trigger latent schizophrenia.

Both he and Jim Comberton are concerned about cannabis as it is taken in
combination with other drugs, particularly alcohol: "If you get into a
cannabis-smoking crowd, you're almost certain to be using it with booze,
and the two, taken together, are much more potent," says Comberton.

The "psychological addiction" of cannabis is another worry: "There has been
a lot of research in Sweden about this," says Grainne Kenny, International
Chair of EURAD (Europe Against Drugs). "Unlike heroin, cannabis is fat
soluble so it takes weeks to leave your body. That makes you think you can
go off it for a few days without feeling any ill-effects." Grainne has just
been in Strasbourg to lobby Irish MEPS to vote no to a recent proposal by
the EU Civil Liberties Committee to legalise cannabis and to make hard
drugs available on prescription. The proposal was rejected last week.

She cites the case of Alaska, where possessing a certain amount of cannabis
was legal up until 1992. At that time the law was changed because of fears
that cannabis use was increasing among the young. (This is confirmed by
Mary Collins, an alcohol and drug abuse research analyst at the Alaskan
Department of Health and Social Studies, who notes there is now a lobby to
legalise cannabis in Alaska for medical purposes).

Kenny says that the relaxed attitude to cannabis use in the Netherlands has
led to "a huge rate of absenteeism from work." She is not convinced by the
arguments put forward by those who say cannabis can help certain medical
problems: "It's like people smoke a cigarette because they think it will
calm their nerves. They get stoned so they think they're getting better."

She believes that cannabis is a gateway drug: "I'm a counsellor with young
people, many of whom are addicted to heroin and who started out smoking
cannabis. And these are from every social class." She concludes: "Alcohol
and cigarettes are our most abused drugs because they are socially
acceptable and legally available. If cannabis is legalised it will be
abused even more."

She does not think the Irish legal system is unfairly harsh on young people
who are caught with small amounts of cannabis for personal use: "We have
good laws here; nobody wants to give a person a criminal record.
Imprisonment will only happen if you've done something very serious."

Marie Murray, head of the Psychology Department in St Joseph's Adolescent
Service, notes that the question which most urgently needs to be asked is
why young people are seeking cannabis in the first place: "I don't think
the answer is to legalise cannabis when there are still queries about its
safety. What we need to find out is why they are seeking something that is
mind-altering and what are we doing to provide an alternative?"