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Comparison:
The World Health Organisation's
report 'Cannabis: a health perspective and research
agenda':
"…cannabis poses a much less
serious public health problem than is currently posed
by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies".
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/who-conclusions.htm
The World Health Organisation's
report 'Cannabis: a health perspective and research
agenda':
"there are good reasons
for saying that [cannabis] would be unlikely to
seriously rival the public health risks of alcohol
and tobacco even if as many people used cannabis as
now drink alcohol or smoke tobacco".
www.who.int/inf-pr-1998/en/pr98-26.html
World Health Organisation:
"Looking at the percentage of total years of
life lost due to these substances, it has been
estimated that tobacco accounts for 2.1% of the total
years of life lost, alcohol for 6% and illicit drugs
for 0.3%".
www.who.int/substance_abuse/More.html
Home Affairs Select Committee
report 'Government Drugs Policy: Is it Working?':
"9. Legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol,
are responsible for far greater damage both to
individual health and to the social fabric in general
than illegal ones".
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmhaff/318/31802.htm
The UK Police
Foundation’s 'Runciman Commission':
"When cannabis is systematically compared
with other drugs against the main criteria of harm
(mortality, morbidity, toxicity, addictiveness and
relationship with crime), it is less harmful to the
individual and society than any of the other major
illicit drugs or than alcohol and tobacco."
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/runciman/default.htm
Department of Health's 'A Parent's
Guide to Drugs and Alcohol':
"Studies show that more young people experience
problems caused by drinking too much alcohol than
from drug use."
www.doh.gov.uk/drugs/pdfs/thepg.pdf or phone 08701 555 455 to order a copy
Alcohol:
New Scientist:
"A woman's risk of breast cancer increases by
seven per cent for each alcoholic drink consumed on a
daily basis. The researchers estimate that alcohol
accounts for four per cent of breast cancers in the
developed world, and around 2000 cases in the UK each
year".
www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993045
The World Health Organisation's
report 'Cannabis: a health perspective and research
agenda':
"In large doses alcohol can cause death
by asphyxiation, alcohol poisoning, cardiomyopathy
and cardiac infarct. …there is good evidence
that chronic heavy alcohol use can indirectly cause
brain injury - the Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome - with
symptoms of severe memory defect and an impaired
ability to plan and organise. With continued heavy
drinking, and in the absence of vitamin
supplementation, this injury may produce severe
irreversible cognitive impairment."
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/who-comparison.htm
Department of Health's 'A Parent's
Guide to Drugs and Alcohol':
"....as much alcohol in a 330ml bottle of
'alco-pop' as a generous shot of whisky. 1000 young
people under the age of 15 are admitted to hospital
each year with alcohol poisoning. All need emergency
treatment. After drinking alcohol young people are
far more likely to have an accident, and some are
more likely to become involved in a fight. Long-term
heavy use of alcohol can lead to many problems
including liver, heart and stomach conditions."
www.doh.gov.uk/drugs/pdfs/thepg.pdf or phone 08701 555 455 to order a copy
Alcohol Concern statistics:
"1 in 4 acute male [hospital] admissions are
alcohol related.
Over 28,000 hospital admissions are due to alcohol
dependence or toxic effects.
Over 5,000 deaths are directly attributable to
alcohol and alcohol is implicated in 33,000 deaths
per year in England and Wales.
One in 6 people attending accident and emergency
departments for treatment have alcohol-related
injuries or problems, rising to 8 out of 10 at peak
times.
Around half of seriously injured patients admitted
via casualty and needing to stay in hospital have an
alcohol-related injury.
15% (1 in 7) of acute hospital admissions are
misusing alcohol.
There were 72,500 hospital admissions in a 12 month
period with a diagnosis of mental and behavioural
disorders due to alcohol, including 31,300 admissions
for alcohol dependence syndrome.
In 11% of cases, alcohol consumption is the main
cause of men's high blood pressure.
Alcohol is a factor in 20% to 30% of all accidents.
Heavy drinking is associated with 15% of drownings
(ROSPA 1998) and is involved in 39% of deaths in
fires.
In 1998, one in 7 traffic deaths was alcohol-related
- 550 people died in drink-drive accidents, and 2,940
people were seriously injured.
36% of pedestrians killed on the roads have drunk
over the legal limit for drink-driving."
www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/AERC/Health&Welfare/Health/statistics.htm
Alcohol Concern's 'Britain's Ruin'
report:
"The report, entitled Britain's Ruin, also
highlights a 50% increase in the numbers of women
drinking above medically recommended sensible levels
- up from 10% to 15% between 1988 and 1998 - and a
worrying number of young people binge drinking. 37%
of men and 23% of women aged 16 to 24 regularly drink
twice the recommended daily limits. Other figures
associate alcohol with 65% of suicide attempts,
76,000 facial injuries each year and 23% of child
neglect calls to a national helpline. Marriages where
one or both partners have a drink problem are twice
as likely to end in divorce as those not affected by
alcohol."
www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/Publications/Britain's%20Ruin%20text.pdf
Eric Appleby, Chief Executive of
Alcohol Concern:
‘Recent events have shown us that many
parents are more worried about their children
experimenting with cannabis rather than drinking
heavily or even binge drinking, despite this being on
the increase. All the research evidence shows that
the dangers of alcohol far outweigh those of
occasional cannabis use.’
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/news_item.asp?a=3&intID=631
Tobacco:
Report of the Scientific Committee
on Tobacco and Health 1998:
"1.31 A large number of fatal and
life-threatening diseases are caused largely or
entirely by smoking. They include chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, vascular diseases at various
critical sites and several forms of cancer.
1.38 Smoking is a major cause of illness and death
from chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular
disease, and cancers of the lung and other sites.
1.40 The avoidance of smoking would eliminate one
third of the cancer deaths in Britain and one sixth
of the deaths from other causes.
1.42 A person who smokes regularly more than doubles
his or her risk of dying before the age of 65.
1.46 The enormous damage to health and life arising
from smoking should no longer be accepted; the
Government should take effective action to limit this
preventable epidemic." www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/doh/tobacco/part-1.htm
Report of Scientific Committee on
Tobacco & Health 2001:
"7.1 Smoking rates are particularly high amongst
those suffering from diagnosed mental illnesses. The
OPCS psychiatric morbidity survey 1996, reported
smoking prevalence rates in patients in institutions:
74% of sufferers from schizophrenia and delusional
states, 70% in those with affective psychoses and 74%
in those with neurotic disorders."
www.doh.gov.uk/scoth/pdfs/statement2001.pdf
Home Affairs Select Committee
report 'Government Drugs Policy: Is it Working?':
"12. The Royal College of Physicians has
described cigarette smoking as "the single
largest avoidable cause of premature death and
disability in Britain" and "the greatest
challenge and opportunity for all involved in
improving the public health".
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmhaff/318/31802.htm
World Health
Organisation's 'Global Burden of Disease':
"By 2020, it is expected that the burden of
disease attributable to tobacco will outweigh that
caused by any single disease."
www.who.int/msa/mnh/ems/dalys/intro.htm
World Health
Organisation's Fact Sheet 222:
"No amount of tobacco use is safe."
www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact222.html
"Described by King James I as a custom
"loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose,
harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and, in
the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling
the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is
bottomless", smoking was banned in the House of
Commons in 1693."
www.varsity.cam.ac.uk/8025694E0073CFEB/Pages/832002_Tobaccotheburning.html
ASH - anti-tobacco charity:
"Legalisation of cannabis would help in
promoting rational drugs policy across the board. We
support the legalisation of cannabis into a robust
regulatory framework with good public health
education expenditure replacing money wasted on law
enforcement."
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/regulation/html/cannabis.html
Caffeine:
"Research into the health effects of long
term use of caffeine is inconclusive. However, some
reports have suggested that it can lead to a higher
incidence of asthma, peptic ulcers, kidney, bladder
and heart disease and blood pressure problems.
There have also been concerns about the amount of
caffeine consumed by young children particularly in
soft drinks and chocolate. Some commentators have
suggested that children who consume a lot of caffeine
may become hyperactive."
www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo/drugsearch/ds_results.asp?file=\wip\11\1\1\caffeine.html
"As early as 1542 coffee was banned in the
Ottoman (Turkish) empire, where coffee had been
introduced from Ethiopia and Yemen, and coffee
drinkers were persecuted by the authorities much like
modern day drug users. Later the ban was revoked
because it could not be enforced and coffee became a
source of taxes."
"When used in high doses caffeine can cause
heart problems and, given very high doses, even lead
to death. There are cases of people having died from
taking too many caffeine pills (which are used for
treating migraine headaches or to stay awake). The
lethal dose of caffeine is a fairly safe 75mg per kg
of body weight. By comparison the lethal dose of THC,
the main active ingredient in cannabis (marijuana) is
about 13 times higher, around 1000mg per kg of body
weight.
Besides caffeine roasted coffee beans also contain
about 800 other chemical substances, some of them
only in very small quantities of course. Of 21 of
these substances that have been tested on laboratory
animals 16 have been shown to cause cancer."
www.taima.org/en/coffee.htm
Cannabis:
The World Health Organisation's
report 'Cannabis: a health perspective and research
agenda':
"There is good reason for concluding that
chronic cannabis use does not produce cognitive
impairment of comparable severity [to alcohol
use]."
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/who-comparison.htm
The World Health Organisation's
report 'Cannabis: a health perspective and research
agenda' states:
"The weight of the available evidence suggests
that even the long-term heavy use of cannabis does
not produce any severe or grossly debilitating
impairment of cognitive function. If it did research
to date should have detected it".
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/who-conclusions.htm
Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs report 'Government Drugs Policy: Is it
Working?':
"20. While around four million people use
illicit drugs each year, most of those people do not
appear to experience harm from their drug use, nor do
they cause harm to others as a result of their
habit."
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmhaff/318/31802.htm
Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs report 'The classification of cannabis under
the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971':
"4.3.3 The cardiovascular actions of cannabis
are similar to the effects of exercise, and probably
do not constitute a significant risk in healthy
adolescents and young adults.
4.3.5 Unlike sedative intoxicants such as alcohol,
cannabis does not cause respiratory depression or
suppress the gag reflex even when extremely
intoxicated.
4.3.6 Cannabis differs from alcohol, however, in one
major respect: it seems not to increase risk-taking
behaviour. This may explain why it appears to play a
smaller role than alcohol in road traffic accidents.
Cannabis intoxication tends to produce relaxation and
social withdrawal rather than the aggressive and
disinhibited behaviour commonly found under the
influence of alcohol. This means that cannabis rarely
contributes to violence either to others or to
oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in
deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and
violence.
4.4.1 In general cannabis users smoke fewer
cigarettes per day than tobacco smokers and most give
up in their 30s, so limiting the long-term exposure
that we now know is the critical factor in
cigarette-induced lung cancer.
4.4.2 Preliminary studies of lung function in regular
cannabis smokers have not found a major cause for
concern in the majority.
4.4.5 It is possible to rank the risks of dependence
of abused drugs with heroin and crack cocaine the
worst and cannabis generally at, or near, the bottom
(and well below nicotine and alcohol).
4.4.6 The other main concern about the chronic use of
cannabis is whether it can lead to mental illness
(especially schizophrenia). ... no clear causal link
has been demonstrated. The onset of schizophrenia
often occurs in the late teens, when cannabis use is
most common, so that an association is inevitable.
This does not, though, necessarily mean that the
relationship to cannabis is causal.
4.4.8 There is no evidence that cannabis causes
structural brain damage in man. Neither radiological
studies nor post mortem examinations have revealed
atrophy or other causes for concern.
5.1 The high use of cannabis is not associated with
major health problems for the individual or
society."
www.doh.gov.uk/drugs/acmd/cannabisreportmar02.pdf
Select Committee on Science and
Technology's report 'Medical use of cannabis':
"8.19 ....cannabis is neither poisonous
(paragraph 4.3), nor highly addictive, and we do
not believe that it can cause schizophrenia in a
previously well user with no predisposition to
develop the disease."
www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/ldsctech/151/15110.htm
Select Committee on Science and
Technology's report 'Medical use of cannabis',
Appendix 3:
"8. D. Tashkin (University of
California Los Angeles) surveyed the effects on the
lung of long-term marijuana use. He conducted large
scale studies in the 1980s in heavy marijuana smokers
and compared them with subjects who smoked tobacco.
Marijuana smokers showed some bronchial symptoms
(cough, wheeze and bronchitis), but there was no
evidence for any significant reduction in overall
respiratory function. When data were collected
annually for a further 8 years, the marijuana smokers
did not show the age-related decline in respiratory
function seen in tobacco smokers. ...there was no
evidence for increases in lung cancers in marijuana
smokers".
www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/ldsctech/151/151a04.htm
The Lancet, vol 352, number 9140,
November 14, 1998:
"We.. say that on the medical evidence
available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little
ill-effect on health, and that decisions to ban or
legalise cannabis should be based on other
considerations."
www.drugtext.org/articles/lancet2.html
The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis
and Therapy 1987:
"Cannabis can be used on an episodic but
continual basis without evidence of social or psychic
dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with
its obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied...
The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and
political, and not toxicologic, foundation".
GW Pharmaceuticals, licensed to
test medicinal cannabis:
"Hundreds of years of cannabis use provide for
compelling evidence of safety. There is no reported
death from cannabis use. Indeed, the therapeutic
index for cannabis (the ratio between a normal and
lethal dose) is estimated to be 40,000 to 1. The
equivalent ratio for Aspirin is 23 to 1 and for
Morphine is 50 to 1. The medical literature contains
significant amounts of evidence pertaining to the
potential therapeutic benefit of cannabis."
www.gwpharm.com/cann_intro_stan.html
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