Cannabis Grade Gets High

Pere Fornes



Squareone Features



“Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, jazz musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic music is driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white women makes them want to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that causes insanity, criminality, and death -- the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

When Harry Anslinger, the first marijuana drug czar, expressed these objective and unbiased thoughts on cannabis in the 1930’s, a war on cannabis, and on drugs in general, started. That policy, exported from the USA to several other countries, has been really successful: there are far more people who take cannabis or other illegal drugs nowadays than there were in the 1930’s.

The decision by Gordon Brown to upgrade cannabis to class B drug, in spite of his advisors’ recommendations, seems more a desperate attempt to regain some popularity than a rational decision based on compelling evidence. A recent report by the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs says that there is not need for reclassification. The main concerns about the new varieties of the drug (erroneously called “skunk”, as skunk is just one of the new varieties) is that it was supposed to cause mental illnesses on users. Surprisingly, the report has concluded that the prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses has been reduced during recent years. This totally contradicts the theory that cannabis threatens mental health. Furthermore, cannabis use has decreased since it was downgraded in 2004.

There is a bit of naivety on this debate. It is true that, for people who suffer schizophrenia and psychoses, cannabis can make symptoms worse but that only means that it should not be taken by those people, the same way as people with liver problems should not drink alcohol and people with heart problems should not consume caffeine. Cannabis can make depressions worse as well.

The arguments used to keep cannabis illegal (supposed addiction, harm to mind and body) could be used to forbid both tobacco and alcohol. In July 2006, the UK Parliament Science Select Committee acknowledged that the drugs classification system was based on historical prejudice rather than medical evidence: cannabis is less harmful than tobacco and alcohol.

One of the harms cannabis causes, and nobody denies, lung damage, can be avoided using “steamers”, which are devices that warm up the weed without burning it. Therefore, users can get high by inhaling the steam without smoke and without harming their lungs.

Supposed harmful cannabis effects, like withdrawal symptoms, are quite similar to those of the drug of everyday use considered to be the most beneficial one (caffeine). According to a report published by the Scottish executive in 2002:


“There is no doubt that it is possible to become dependent on cannabis. Between 5% and 10% of drug users seeking treatment report that cannabis is their main problem drug. Studies among cannabis dependent users reveal that when they stop, they experience physical withdrawal symptoms, such as decreased appetite, weight loss, lethargy, irritability, mood changes and insomnia.”


According to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre, Caffeine withdrawal symptoms are headache, fatigue, sleepiness/drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, work difficulty, irritability, depression, anxiety, flu-like symptoms, and impairment in psychomotor, vigilance and cognitive performances. Significant caffeine withdrawal has been shown to occur after abstinence from a dose as low as 100 mg/day, which is the caffeine equivalent of one 6 oz. cup of brewed coffee or two to three 12 oz. servings of caffeinated soft-drink. Some caffeine users report becoming "addicted" to caffeine in the sense that they report an inability to quit or to cut down their caffeine use, they continue to use caffeine despite having medical or psychological problems made worse by caffeine.
A similar comparison can be established about the dangers of cannabis (and caffeine) regarding cardiovascular system and fertility.


It is sometimes pointed out that Sweden, which has a very tough policy on drugs, has a very low rate of drugs consumption. Nevertheless, it is not so often said that the rate consumption has been increasing like everywhere else. Problematic drug use has almost doubled since 1980 to a level hovering around the European average.


Brown seems to want to keep following Anslinger’s line: war on cannabis. The result of Anslinger’s policies during 80 years, however, is very clear: cannabis consumption goes up.


cannabis smell