New Australian center will fight marijuana
New centre will fight marijuana - National - smh.com.au
Cannabis use and addiction have become such a problem, particularly among the young, that the Federal Government is funding a $12 million research centre at the University of NSW to try to turn the trend around.Cannabis is the most popular illicit drug in Australia, with 33.5 per cent of adults having used it, [The centre’s director] Professor [Jan] Copeland said.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from last year showed that 750,000 people used cannabis weekly and 300,000 used it every day.
The number of those seeking treatment had tripled since 1992, but many young people still did not understand the significant potential for harm to their health nor that there were treatment services available, Professor Copeland said.
She said about one in 10 people who tried cannabis would develop a dependence.
Those under 16 who had used it at all were three times more likely to either drop out of school or finish without attaining their Higher School Certificate, she said. Professor Copeland said those who began smoking cannabis in the 1970s were starting to develop respiratory, head and neck cancers.
A single cannabis joint has the same effect on the lungs as smoking up to five cigarettes in one sitting, according to research published in the respiratory medicine journal Thorax last year.
Nothing like starting the week out with a trifecta of drug war lies.
- Yes, admissions for drug treatment, both in Australia and the US and elsewhere, have increased since 1992. This is because courts are increasingly sentencing people to drug rehab when they’re caught with marijuana. Imagine if they sent to rehab people who are ever found to be buzzed on alcohol - would there be a mass media frenzy about the incredible increase in alcoholism? Of course not, because not all use is abuse. If you factor out those forced into marijuana rehab, you find the number of pot smokers choosing to enter rehab is quite small.
- People who have smoked pot in the 1970’s may indeed be getting head and neck cancers some three decades later, but you can’t attribute that to the pot. Recent studies have concluded that smoking marijuana, even heavily, does not increase the risks of these cancers.
- The “one joint = 5 / 10 / 20 cigarettes” myth has been debunked as well. Marijuana does not cause emphysema and marijuana smokers show much better respiratory function than tobacco smokers.
