Don’t endanger yourself with dope: cannabis
December 2, 2009
OPINION: Alex Wodak | From: The Australian |November 28, 2009
LIKE it or not, more than two million Australians will smoke cannabis in the next 12 months.
Research from Australia and across the world shows no clear relationship between the number of people using cannabis and the severity of penalties for cannabis offenders. So, what practical steps can be taken to try to reduce harm from cannabis?
In June the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre released first-aid guidelines for problem cannabis use. These were designed to help the community identify and assist users who are developing a problem with their cannabis use or are in a cannabis-related crisis.
The guidelines provide tips for effective communication with people experiencing problems. Some sensible advice is also offered about what to do if the cannabis user with problems does not want any help.
Most people prefer to manage their own drug use and, should they develop problems, manage these themselves.
Why not try to help people using cannabis try to avoid problems in the first place?
For many years Australia has had National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines to help drinkers reduce the harm from alcohol. But we have never had any official guidelines for people using cannabis that could help them do so more safely.
As Australia has one of the world’s highest rates of cannabis use, it seems sensible to offer realistic guidelines to help users reduce potential harm.
A group of us recently gathered in the northern NSW town of Nimbin to develop guidelines for people using cannabis.
The group included Ann Symonds, a former member of the NSW Legislative Council as well as a grandmother, along with many local residents who have used cannabis heavily for many years but were keen to reduce their risks. We decided to call these the Nimbin Health and Medical Research Committee cannabis guidelines.
Our Nimbin guidelines make it clear that the form of cannabis use with the lowest health, social, legal and economic risk is abstinence. But, recognising that people will choose to use the drug regardless, we outlined ways to minimise harm.
Social cannabis users are recommended to consume cannabis only moderately, that is for five days a week or less, trying to keep at least two days each week cannabis-free. Cannabis smokers are advised to not exceed four joints a day. This advice resembles some of the NHMRC guidelines for alcohol.
As cannabis is illegal and possession or use can lead to severe legal and social consequences, cannabis users are advised to be discreet and never carry more than the caution amount, which varies from one state or territory to another.
Those concerned that cannabis may be seriously affecting their life in important areas such as relationships, child-rearing, job or finances are advised to consider reducing or stopping consumption of the drug. Young people considering experimenting with cannabis are advised to delay this until their body and mind have matured, and to be moderate and responsible.
Cannabis smokers should avoid smoking in the presence of children and in confined areas with non-smokers present. Adults should never forget that they serve as role models for the young.
As the potency and contaminants of different strains may vary widely, cannabis users consuming a new batch are advised to try a small quantity first.
Women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or likely to become pregnant soon are advised to refrain from using cannabis. Those who nevertheless choose use cannabis are advised to minimise usage in terms of quantity as well as frequency.
It is recommended that cannabis consumers allow at least a few hours between their last use of cannabis and driving a car or operating heavy machinery. Those consuming alcohol and cannabis should allow twice as long.
People who have had a serious mental illness or have a family history of serious mental illness are advised to avoid cannabis and other powerful mood altering drugs. Those still keen to use cannabis are advised to minimise their use and avoid smoking cannabis on their own.
Mixing tobacco and cannabis increases risks and should be avoided. As smoke harms lungs, inhaling the vapour from a vaporiser or eating foods made with cannabis is less damaging than inhaling cannabis smoke. Eating cannabis has less predictable effects than inhaling.
Plastic bottles, rubber hoses, PVC, aluminium or foil, when used to smoke cannabis, may give off toxic fumes while hot. Health risks are lower with a pipe made from glass, steel or brass.
Our Nimbin guidelines note that sharing smoking equipment such as joints, pipes or bongs can spread infections. It is safer if smoking equipment is not shared and is cleaned after every use.
To protect the environment and minimise the risk of starting a fire, all smoking implements, waste or roaches should be carefully and responsibly discarded.
As with the NHMRC guidelines for alcohol, our cannabis guidelines will be revised as additional information becomes available.
Isn’t it time we all got real about cannabis?
Alex Wodak is a physician, director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.
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3 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Simon&hellip | December 28, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I have had a severe neurological disorder for more than fifteen years. Three specialists (a neurologist, opthoneurologist and a pain management specialist) recommended marijuana as a superior pain reliever for the simple fact that IT IS a superior pain reliever. Yet these people could not prescribe it, nor would they admit to recommending it (one suspects). If I grow a plant in my tomato patch, I am a common criminal. It is beyond surreal.
Where nausea often sets in, one cannot throw up smoke. A very simple fact. Its properties of an anti-nausea effect cannot possibly be replicated by something like maxillon – which of course often cannot be kept down anyway at times of intense pain and nausea.
Opioid pain relievers of course add to the vicious cycle of nausea, and leave one with a grotty, groggy feeling. With something like Tramadol or Oxycodone one is left in no doubt that they have introduced something toxic into their system. Often nothing is a better option, and I refuse to take what is basically prescription heroin.
I am sick of uneducated boobs stigmatizing a *HERB* that is yet to cause ONE recorded case of mortality – 1 !!!! These little people rarely comprehend the difference between an undisciplined slob and a responsible user, even if alcohol displays the same divide. They rarely understand the difference between THC and CBD and the importance of striking a balance between the two as is the case in a naturally-occurring cannabis plant.
Nor do these commoners with their tiny little minds understand that with debilitating pain its use is not in any way recreational. But even if it was, SO WHAT??? It is far less damaging than alcohol and far more pleasant to be around a “pothead” than an obnoxious violent drunkard.
The natural plant has been used as a spiritual accompaniment in India for thousands of years, and on that basis alone there should be at least that possibility. In this country, this ‘cult of mediocrity’, religion is assessed purely in terms of a bedouin book of fairytales. Of course, the 3% of people susceptible to psychosis should use their brains and stay away – having said that CBD is a known anti-psychotic agent. Also having said that, many violent alcoholics have no law prohibiting them from going on a bender with a sheathed knife!
Neuro-research also proves a link between activated cannibinoid receptors and reduced predisposition to Alzheimer’s.
On another tangent, one may recall a time when all paper was made from hemp fibre, and hemp-seed oil was a staple product. Aren’t we all so glad some German scientist found a way to break wood blocks down into pulp with noxious chemicals? I’m so glad we’ve decimated rainforests to make junk mail and Japanese newspapers when hemp was so environmentally friendly and prolific.
But anyway, uneducated twits will continue to provide the loudest voice, and politicians will parrot them to keep alive our cult of mediocrity. Even when presented with demonstrable benefits in so many arenas, their tiny little made-up minds will need to be right.
I don’t have the words to truly voice this frustration anymore.
2.
littlbit&hellip | January 30, 2010 at 10:51 am
Continuing to follow the same path, with the knowledge that you are causing more harm than good, and expecting a different result, now is that not psychosis?
For over 3 years now my husband and I have been fighting the system, trying to have our case fully heard in a court of law. We know the law is in breach of our constitution, and human rights and in fact the very treaty the Australian laws are there to uphold.
Yet every lawyer from legal aid and private firms, barristers and judges all told us we could not present a constitutional argument in a state court, we were also told that no lawyer can challenge a law on it’s legitimacy.
The high court, whom we had to ask, said they were all wrong, and we have now to go back to the county court in August. What has irritated me more than anything is the fact that the legal minds in this country including the judges making decisions on guilt or innocence, do not even know their own rules, and not one of them has asked what the purpose of the state laws are, and of course they do not have a stated purpose.
So here we are, two disability, medical users of Cannabis, stated by the arresting officer in her statement, have no legal representation, as we are refused all assistance, have no doctor, as they would have to report our cannabis use to government bodies, or risk losing their licence to practice, are fighting for our freedom and the right to use, grow and possess medical cannabis, something they have refused to do.
Both of us are high functioning autistics, and we use cannabis to modulate frustration and anger, that simply happens to be part of who we are, we also use to relieve severe spinal pain, from injuries and arthritis. We also both suffer migraines, amongst other ailments, all of which we use only cannabis for.
I have no choice, I am allergic to all chemical prescriptions, and never again will I take anything from them what I have gone through over and over just trying to force my body to accept their poisons, never ever again.
The science is now overwhelming, there is now no doubt that cannabis is medicine, it is the only cure we have ever had for cancer, not to mention the multitude of other ailments it either cures or controls, safer and more efficiently than anything coming out of a pharmaceutical lab.
Governments have repeatedly been told to stop criminalising medical users, to being told they MUST provide for medical use. They have also been told to decriminalise all drugs at least, legalise for personal use.
They have been shown the figures that prove they are destroying lives by continuing down the path of illicit drug laws, they ignore everything and like Gordon Brown they have made it clear that in spite of the science and the advice they will continue the zero tolerance approach.
When is someone in this country going to have the balls to stand up to these guys, we have been, we have so far proved how because of the law, people are simply not getting decent legal advice or representation, they are simply told to plead guilty and throw themselves on the mercy of the court.
The fact that police and their experts cannot even tell the difference between cannabis and tomatoes, and they take away both plants, kill them both, therefore destroying evidence before a trial or a guilty verdict is brought down, says we have no justice and the entire system is designed to ensure you are found guilty, regardless of evidence.
So now we have corrupt governments who enforce their beliefs on the rest of us in spite of science. We have a legal system that is nothing more than kangaroo justice, and despotic judges who ignore the rule of law, and common law, and now rule under the dictates of parliament, according to Judge Gaynor Victorian County Court judge.
This corruption starts in the Prime Ministers office and flows all the way across members of government, state and federal, judges, police and the lawyers and barristers who are supposed to defend us against injustice, and yet have never read the drug laws, the constitution, the single treaty on narcotics nor even the human rights accords and treaties, how the hell can they defend or prosecute on laws they do not even know?
This site may have some information, but law reform, you have achieved nothing, none of you have read the laws mentioned either and therefore no as much as the rest of the legal profession, Zero, now is that the tolerance they are on about zero tolerance to knowing law and how to defend against injustice?
It is time to either put up or shut up. Either you are going to ensure the public knows the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then go away, you are simply wasting precious space and time, those of us who are genuine about this issue need.
You have my email if you actually want to contact me, any time day or night, I am over excuses and corruption, this ends this year, or we will play by the same rules as government and law enforcement.
3.
I do not beleive in a pol&hellip | June 20, 2010 at 9:20 pm
governments typically serve their own interests in staying in power..the Australian government cow tailing to the American Government , who is the main instigator & culprit, & dictates to weaker & less powerful nations..
( thank god most sensible European countries are more intelligent & resist that control , or thumb their noses at it ) however , there are large cracks appearing in their absurd ” drug war ” strategies / controls , & constitutional human rights are making headway into changing the laws ; It is only a matter of time people. Any unjust & self righteous system will collapse under it’s own weight, I only mourn the current suffering of those who get caught up in the nasty legal machinery of this totally outmoded punitive system , that still brings grief to far too many lives. not so long ago they used to burn witches at the stake. sic , we are still living in the dark ages.
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