Manto: Promoting a healthy lifestyle not hypocritical

She said she believed that the proposed health-warning labels on alcohol products would reduce alcohol abuse and dependence.

Within the next year alcoholic beverages would carry health messages "highlighting the negative effects of alcohol consumption".

Asked if she would consider an outright ban on alcohol to eliminate alcohol abuse instead of simply increasing prices, she said such a ban was against the Constitution.

"You have the right to kill yourself if you want to," she said...

A reduction in alcohol consumption, she said, would also lead to a reduction in violence and road accidents.

- M&G

Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory

The evidence for a "hemp conspiracy" just doesn't stand up. It is far more likely that cannabis was outlawed because of racism and cultural warfare.

How cannabis was prohibited

Twentieth-century cannabis prohibition first reared its head in countries where white minorities ruled black majorities: South Africa, where it's known as dagga, banned it in 1911,

and Jamaica, then a British colony, outlawed ganja in 1913. They were followed by Canada, Britain and New Zealand, which added cannabis to their lists of illegal narcotics in the 1920s. Canada's pot law was enacted in 1923, several years before there were any reports of people actually smoking it there. It was largely the brainchild of Emily F. Murphy, a feminist but racist judge who wrote anti-Asian, anti-cannabis rants under the pseudonym "Janey Canuck."

... AlterNet

TB patients in isolation order dagga by phone

The management of Port Elizabeth's Jose Pearson Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital has taken steps to crack down on dagga smoking by patients with drug-resistant strains of TB.

Provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Wednesday that some patients with extensively or multidrug-resistant TB being held in isolation have been using their cellphones to order the drug. Suppliers would then toss packets to them over the hospital fence. The hospital management has already met police on the issue, and a meeting with patients will follow. "We will be telling the patients that if they continue taking the substance, it will be extremely dangerous for their health," Kupelo said. He said smoking is a cause of TB, and the department discourages the habit. "We also want to appeal to those who supply them with this kind of thing [dagga] to stop it," he said.

Patients have also been obtaining liquor and dangerous weapons the same way. "They don't want to stay at the hospital. I think this is an attempt to assist them to find their way out," he said. He said security at Jose Pearson has been stepped up following the escape of a number of patients last year. One patient absconded last week, using a knife to threaten security staff, but was brought back after the department obtained a court order. -- Sapa

Source: MG

How does cannabis compare to other drugs?

*Source of graph data: http://www.ndsn.org/AUGUST94/NICOTINE.html

Scientists want new drug rankings

The drug classification system in the UK is not "fit for purpose" and should be scrapped, scientists have said.

They have drawn up an alternative system which they argue more accurately reflects the harm that drugs do.

The new ranking system places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table, ahead of cannabis and several Class A drugs such as ecstasy.

The study, published in The Lancet, has been welcomed by a team reviewing drug research for the government.

The Academy of Medical Sciences group plans to put its recommendations to ministers in the autumn.

I would say that on balance, many 'illegal' drugs are less harmful than the two 'legal' drugs available Chris, Shropshire

Suggested rating of drugs according to harm done

A new commission is also due to undertake a three-year review of general government drug policy.

The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor David Nutt, from the University of Bristol, and Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council.

It assesses drugs on the harm they do to the individual, to society and whether or not they induce dependence.

A panel of experts were asked to rate 20 different drugs on nine individual categories, which were combined to produce an overall estimate of harm.

In order to provide familiar benchmarks, five legal drugs, including tobacco and alcohol were included in the assessment. Alcohol was rated the fifth most dangerous substance, and tobacco ninth.

Heroin was rated as the most dangerous drug, followed by cocaine and barbiturates. Ecstasy, however, rated only 18th, while cannabis was 11th.

Arbitrary ranking

CURRENT DRUG CLASSIFICATION Class A Cocaine/crack Heroin Ecstasy LSD Magic mushrooms Crystal meth (pending) Class A/B Amphetamines Class C Cannabis Ketamine Drugs key facts Crystal meth to be Class A

The researchers said the current ABC system was too arbitrary, and failed to give specific information about the relative risks of each drug.

It also gave too much importance to unusual reactions, which would only affect a tiny number of users.

Professor Nutt said people were not deterred by scare messages, which simply served to undermine trust in warnings about the danger of drugs.

He said: "The current system is not fit for purpose. Let's treat people as adults. We should have a much more considered debate how we deal with dangerous drugs."

He highlighted the fact that one person a week in the UK dies from alcohol poisoning, while less than 10 deaths a year are linked to ecstasy use.

Professor Blakemore said it was clear that current drugs' policies were not working.

"We face a huge problem. Illegal substances have never been more easily available, or more widely abused."

He said the beauty of the new system, unlike the current version, was that it could easily be updated to reflect new research.

Professor Leslie Iversen, a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences group considering drug policy, said the new system was a "landmark paper".

He said: "It is a real step towards evidence-based classification of drugs."

Professor Iversen said the fact that 500,000 young people routinely took ecstasy every weekend proved that current drug policy was in need of reform.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "We have no intention of reviewing the drug classification system.

"Our priority is harm reduction and to achieve this we focus on enforcement, education and treatment."

He said there had been "unparalleled investment" of £7.5 billion since 1998, which had contributed to a 21% reduction in overall drug misuse in the last nine years and a fall of 20% in drug related crime since 2004.

But he added: "The government is not complacent and will continue to work with all of our partners to build on this progress."

MOST HARMFUL DRUGS

BBC