The ideological, illogical war against cannabis

There has been a lot of research into the effect of benzodiazepines and the relationship with hip fracture in the elderly. Research on that by Eileen E. Ming at Harvard University states:

In long-term care sessions where 45 to 70 per cent of residents fall each year, 1,600 falls occurred per 1,000 person years. Compared to the rest of the population, which is 224.

It continues:

One to two per cent of falls result in hip fracture, and the risk of hip fracture increases almost 100-fold from age 60 to 64 to 80 to 84. In the year following a fracture, there is a 23 per cent mortality rate, compared to an expected 8 per cent; 50 per cent of the ambulatory lose the capacity to walk independently; one-third of the community-dwelling require long-term nursing care; and many are incapacitated by the fear of falling again benzodiazepines have been found to impair basic psychomotor function and postural sway in normal volunteers, a side effect which lasts at least through four weeks of continuous use; impairment increases with dose...Sedatives slow reaction time and reduce coordination and alertness ... protective responses at the time of a fall may be too late to prevent a hip fracture.

So, here we have another drug that among the elderly in particular has some quite catastrophic side effects in terms of losing balance and falling and hip fractures. The range of increased risk is between 1.5 and 5.8 times compared to those not using psychoactive substances.

Thalidomide is another very dangerous drug. I am sure most people will recall that in the 1960s it was prescribed to prevent morning sickness in pregnant women, and many of those women subsequently gave birth to children with deformities. It has now been rehabilitated, so to speak. It still causes those effects, which are disastrous, but it is being prescribed by doctors now for blood cancer and leprosy. Among the drugs that doctors prescribe is morphine, because it has a very important role to play for the relief of extreme pain. But everybody knows what morphine in its illegal forms can do. In relation to this whole question of harm, the US Institute of Medicine concluded:

Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana are within the range of effects tolerated for other medicines.

Let us look at what is happening in other countries.

In the United States, 12 states have removed criminal sanctions for possession of marijuana if it is used to relieve medical conditions.

In terms of the application of the law in those 12 states, some give out ID cards to the users. Most state laws are silent about the procurement of marijuana; whether users can grow it themselves or buy it from somebody and, if so, from whom. In New Mexico the governor himself introduced legislation which envisaged a state licensed and protected system of cannabis production, and that was passed last year. Regulations to allow this are now being prepared, and at least 150 people have already formally applied to be able to use the drug. In addition to the states' involvement, both patients and carers will be able to grow their own cannabis.

Polling in 1995 showed that two-thirds of Americans believe that medical marijuana was justified. Proposition 215 in California, which brought about the decriminalisation of marijuana for medical use, got a strong 56 per cent of the vote. In California, hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries are now offering assorted varieties for sale and providing advice about which varieties are best for differing medical conditions. Cannabis dispensaries were never authorised: they just sprang up.

The Bush administration has been trying to stop the legitimisation of cannabis, and threats have been made to arrest state legislators if they proceed down this path. Doctors do not prescribe under California law; rather they write a statement saying that they think it is OK for a particular patient to use cannabis, which is similar to the proposal in my bill.