The funny thing about is that the police have already said that the reclassification won't alter the confiscate-and-slap-on-the-wrist approach they've taken since it was originally downgraded to class C a few years back. And that the government's own Misuse of Drugs advisory panel recommended it should remain class C and that there is no medical case to the contrary - in reality, the number of schizophrenia cases referred by doctors in the UK has decreased rather than increased over the past 10 years, as has the proportion of teenagers who smoke it.

It's just one part of a transparent policy grab by a beleagured and terminally wounded government desperate to curry favour with the all-important electoral demographic of concerned Daily Mail-reading Middle-England parents.

But don't let reality puncture these anecdotal tales of idiots turning into tree-stumps now, will ya...

a) thank you for your sympathy, its amazing how many people think cannabis consumers are akin to crackheads and heroin addicts.

b) in the united states upwards of 50% of all homicides have alcohol in some way involved. further, a significant proportion of traffic fatalities are also alcohol related. on other words, it is clear that at least in america alcohol is definitely a police problem however, I must say,

"no! I dont believe in the police, when police brutality isn't a dream.."

and further..

"i'd throw a molotov cocktail at the precinct , you know how we think.."

Heh. Ya must've read my mind as I was typing my above response ;)

choose yr death!


sonic life!

I don't care for the ill-informed horse dookey that is the drug "policy" in the UK, but I do believe that cannabis can certainly have a very strong negative effects on those predicated towards mental health issues, and with the strains of skunk that are present in the UK at present, this can cause serious damage to those with MH issues. I speak from personal experience, and so can't honestly recommend a "legalise cannabis" position personally - sorry...

they would have been dead mental cases anyway. you don't have any proof it was cannabis. it could have been toxins in the cannabis. have you seen the pipe screens they're selling now? They vaporize after a few uses. I believe its a form of chemical warfare against the cannabis using population, and then when users get weird cancers and toxicity problems the Spectacle will claim its the cannabis and not the real issue. there's actually research showing some schizophrenics have been helped by using cannabis. Perhaps more useful to preventing your friends mental illness would be living in a scoiety a society that doesn't rape and kill and pimp children and then celebrate it as a victory. Funny 50 thousand people a year die in auto accidents while no one dies from cannabis but there's no call to ban vehicles.

get off your high horse and bake me meatloaf.

A rather insensitive and bigoted view of those with MH problems, my good person. Could you please explain why those with MH issues should be treated so dismissively? This is a serious question to you, so please don't respond with an ad hominem attack.

Well, I really couldn't care less if someone smokes it unless it affects their personality. But smoking it all the time can't be good for you, too much of anything is bad for you really.

All the legislators currently opposed to legalizing marijuana should try smoking it twice. Not once, because usually the first time is just confusing. The second time, it's like, "Oh, I get it."

And then of course afterwards you forget exactly why you "got it" or what "it" was that you "got," but at least you're feeling more inclined to the notion there is something of value to "get," if you know what I mean.

I beg your pardon? Could you please point me in the direction of this research?

http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads...herapeutic.pdf [from the UK no less!]

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retri...06322304013101
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00004/art00008

Instead of strengething the laws they should provide more information and educate the audience more.
Bla bla bla

they should just let everyone chill.

Thanks for the links. The Lancet article definitely does not advocate cannabis as being condusive as being helpful with schizophrenia, and the "Elsevier" test is wildy inconclusive - it can/can't help, or be positive/negative with those with SZ patients. The third link seems to not work, alas.

Once again, I feel that cannabis (especially the modified-for-high-THC-content type) is NOT positive for schizophrenia, or for those with mental health problems.

ok, but i'm not pro-weed, i'm anti-weed... i'm for its legalization, but i don't think people should smoke it chronically, just as they shouldn't drink or smoke cigarettes in excess.

I think as long as you are not actively hurting someone else, you as a HUMAN BEING, have the right to do what you want when you want, regrdless of the outcome on YOU. you are free to hurt yourself, make yourself sick, run stupid risks to entertain yoruself, and imbibe as many and all drugs as you feel like imbibing. any trouble you get into you brought on yourself. that is being an ADULT.
too many cry baby druggies have fucked it all up.

It is called LIBERTY

I agree with !@#$% on this one.

People should have the choice to do what they want. Using the grounds that weed can cause schizophrenia is stupid unless you go after cigarettes, alcohol, and junk food all at the same time because they too cause illness, and pose a public safety hazard (second hand smoke, domestic violence/drunk driving, and ugly fat asses, respectively). Harsher punishment will in no way prevent people from developing schizophrenia either.

If you even wanted to bring that up, it should be when there is some legislation that is there to educate about the schizo-cases/marijuana risks.

any study worth its salt would be based on a double-blind experiment where neither researcher nor subject knows if the subject was given a placebo. only then can you prove the substance to have a real effect.

so if the placebo doesn't cause paranoia and the synthetic thc does, well, it is what it is, and tough titty, no amount of denial is going to change that.

fine. so one of the 300 compounds in marijuana makes you paranoid. check.

similarly, there are hundreds of compounds in beer but one of them (alcohol) makes you plastered. what's so hard about that?