CANNABIS IS SAVING LIVES SAYS ACADEMIC

THE GROWING availability of cannabis is saving lives, a seminar on Drugs
and Young People in Dublin has been told.

Its possession for personal use should be decriminalised and politicians
should stop being obsessed with adolescent drug 'triers'.

Instead they should try to tackle the problems of drug users with drug
'careers' moving into adulthood, said Professor Howard Parker.

Unless they do, society will continue to "flounder around throwing tens of
millions of pounds at ineffective drugs education, criminalising and
stigmatising large numbers of otherwise lawabiding people and widening the
gulf between under and over thirties".

Prof Parker, an academic social worker and director of social policy for
the management of social problems at the University of Manchester, was
addressing a weekend seminar in Trinity College.

Advocating the decriminalisation of cannabis he said that by being readily
available to "risktaking" adolescents, cannabis had reduced the highly
dangerous use of solvents and gases and related deaths had dropped
radically from about 180 a year to about 50.

Research showed that those who had not tried a drug by 18 or 19 were in a
minority and drug experimentation was moving down the age range to between
11 and 13yearolds. Prof Parker said generally there was no direct
relationship between recreational drug use and acquisitive or violent
crime, with most paying for drugs with pocket money and parttime earnings.

"Most young drug takers are not delinquent, persistent truants and no
hopers. This criminalising and stigmatising of young drug users involves
undermining otherwise lawabiding journeys to young citizenship."

Young people were using cannabis, amphetamines, 'poppers', LSD and ecstasy.
While cocaine powder was beginning to show up in research in Britain, the
young generally turned away from heroin and crack cocaine. However, heroin
use among delinquent adolescents who grew up in care or were homeless had
to be monitored.

"Given your heroin problem in Dublin and your growing dance drug and
recreational drug scene amongst your youth population, you too face the
potential danger of the overlap and blurring of different arenas," added
Prof Parker.

There were very clear signs that the millions being spent on preventative
drugs education were not effective. He believed the drugs education
strategies were driven by political expediency. He personally wanted to see
a drugs cautioning system for personal use, which basically decriminalised
possession.