Cannabis and the Gov't.

[Richard]

I am amazed at all the fuss over allowing cannabis extract as a treatment on the NHS.
Clearly there are various grades and strengths as you can already buy CBD Oil from Holland and Barrett, without the psychoactive THC ingredient that commonly gives a 'high' in recreational use.
The gov't seem scared to death that allowing cannabis (with THC) under prescription may be a step too far.
Too far in relation to what?
We already have many very dangerous drugs being dished out willy-nilly by the NHS.
Morphine or opiate extracts are common and some over the counter medicines contain codeine.
I have been prescribed 'Tramadol' for pain and yet that is far from risk-free.

Does the very word 'cannabis' conjure up drug-misuse and if so the what about the rest?

All knee-jerk panic reactions by a Victorian-mentality government, imho.

[seahermit]

I am strongly against legalisation of cannabis because, although in the short term it is much less dangerous than some of the vicious drugs currently available on the black market, it is a first step towards a mentality that some drug-taking is ok. A mentally and physically healthy person should not need the psychological prop/boost of some kind of drugs and to some extent the same arguments could be applied to tobacco - what misery and death has been caused by humans' inability to forsake the allure of a smoke!

For some, cannabis is indeed lethal. I have known more than one person who reacted very badly to even quite mild forms of the drug. In one case the result was slipping quite quickly into psychosis and emergency hospital treatment - she didn't learn from it, just kept going back to the drug!).

But of course canabis should be treated in the same way as any prescribed drug, issued under supervision and where the benefits and risks have been weighed agiainst each other. I have to take Cocodamol at times for skin pain - fortunately not very often these days but, when sometimes the pain is very bad, I'd probably kill to get hold of the painkillers ..

[cbe]

Seahermit - I second your post

[Richard]

Of course some drug taking is okay.
Otherwise by that mentality alcohol should be banned - surely!

I note in today's Press:
More than 450 patients died and possibly 200 more had their lives shortened because of a Hampshire hospital’s practice of giving life-shortening opioid drugs without medical justification, a major inquiry has found.

[seahermit]

cbe - thank you!

Re: alcohol. Ah, that's quite a thorny issue .. it is of course a stimulant/whatever but hardly in the same league as crack cocaine etc. I suppose the same basic rules apply - since it is largely not harmful except in excessive and prolonged use, society's attitude has for long been more tolerant and permissive. However, I do think there should be a return to greater control over retail outlets - not available from every corner shop but only from specific off-licences etc. to encourage more responsible drinking habits (probably too late for all that!). In Sweden I think alcohol used to be available only from off-licences and had to be consumed at home - no idea whether their rules are more relaxed these days.

[Richard]

Alcohol is mainly a recreational drug and it affects people variably, some learn to drink wisely and others go bananas or develop addictions.
Alcohol has not been seen as a medical drug since modern pain-killers were discovered.
Cannabis has been traditionally seen only as a recreational drug but is now widely licensed around the world for medicinal use.
The old suspicion lingers, yet medical-grade cannabis is not lethal like morphine, it is tolerated in very high doses.
Street cannabis is quite dangerous, absolutely no doubt about that.