SUPPORT, CONCERN ON CANNABIS REVIEW

Respiratory Specialist Emphasises Smoking Dangers

Recommendations the legal status of cannabis be reviewed have found favour with
the head of a Dunedin drug treatment centre and sparked grave concerns in a
city respiratory specialist.

The health select committee yesterday recommended the Government review its
classification of cannabis, as a high priority. The Green Party responded by
saying it was confident law reform was now inevitable.

But University of Otago associate professor of respiratory medicine Robin
Taylor said it would be ironic if cannabis was decriminalised when the
Government was trying so hard to lessen the effects of tobacco smoking, by
seeking to ban it in clubs, bars and restaurants.

Research had shown smoking cannabis carried the same risks of lung damage as
smoking tobacco.

If people had known a century ago smoking caused lung cancer, chronic
bronchitis and emphysema, "there's no way we would have embraced it".

Community Alcohol and Drug Service medical director Dr Gavin Cape, of Dunedin,
favoured cannabis decriminalisation but said it presented challenges.

While it was relatively easy to test motorists for drink-driving, it was
difficult to test motorists' cannabis levels.

However, only a few people appeared addicted to cannabis, despite more than
half of New Zealanders trying the drug. It was like any other intoxicant:
relatively harmless if used sensibly, he said.

Dunedin cannabis law reformer Duncan Eddy said prohibition was obviously on its
way out.

Dr Gavin Cape, of the University of Otago's department of psychological
medicine, said cannabis was already approved for medicinal use in some American
states. A derivative was used in New Zealand to treat cancer patients suffering
from nausea during chemotherapy.

Some people believed cannabis could relieve pain and relax muscles for
conditions such as multiple sclerosis.

Dr Cape, also medical director of the Community Alcohol and Drug Service, said,
when approached, that while smoking cannabis could cause respiratory problems,
other ways of ingesting the drug were being developed or available in limited
supplies. They included cannabis nasal sprays, inhalers and tablets.

Prof Taylor said while morphine and heroin were illegal, they were prescribed
for severe pain in New Zealand and the United Kingdom respectively.

Cannabis could be prescribed for conditions in New Zealand if research showed
it was beneficial and could be administered in a safe way.

The health benefits of cannabis had also not been researched fully, for
commercial reasons. Cannabis was readily available, so pharmaceutical companies
would not get a return on their research investment, Prof Taylor said.