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Nerve 8 Letters Page

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Dear Nerve,
Regarding the article on cannabis, I don't dispute that some people are psychologically damaged by constant cannabis smoking, especially over a long period (see article on Cannabis, Nerve issue 7, plus recent articles in the press*).
But I think there are often other factors involved:
· so-called "set and setting", a person's lifestyle, especially if someone is unemployed or in an unhappy situation
· like all illicit drugs, cannabis is "cut" with other substances to stretch it out and increase the dealer's profit: unless someone knows their source well, who knows what dodgy materials their smoke is mixed with, creating a chemical cocktail with unknown effects
· it seems agreed that skunk especially is a lot stronger than it used to be: strong drugs of any kind, including from the pharmaceutical industry, have higher risks of bad side-effects
· a minority of smokers may already have a predisposition to some kind of psychological problem, which any drug would exacerbate: sometimes their pain is blamed on the drug alone, mixing cause and correlation.
Your article rightly mentioned the hypocrisy about "drugs". Imagine the Liverpool football team running onto the pitch sporting "Sensimilla" on their shirts instead of "Carlsberg": alcohol and cigarettes cause harm to far more people than all illegal drugs.
Where is the press outrage about the physical and mental suffering caused by addiction to benzodiazepines, the so-called "tranquillisers"? Diazepam, lorazepam etc. have made billions for the phamaceutical companies.
The demonisation of hemp began in the 1930s in the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and two huge corporations, the Hearst newspaper empire and Dupont chemicals, mounted a campaign to outlaw hemp. There were commercial interests involved.
First, a new process to separate hemp fibres could have led to much cheaper newsprint than that produced by cutting down trees.
Secondly, the new process made it likely that hemp could become a direct competitor to Nylon.
Hearst had heavy investments in pine forests. Dupont owned the patent on the wood-pulp process and supplied the chemicals for converting trees into newsprint. And Nylon was the artificial fibre developed and patented by Dupont!
So the Hearst presses churned out forests of anti-hemp propaganda, warning a new "killer drug" was on the loose. It was never referred to as hemp, a commonly used material, but "marijuana", the Mexican slang term.
A federal statute outlawing cannabis was enacted and Britain quickly followed suit.
The fine ecological properties of hemp, which needs no pesticides, and its other many uses, from clothing to pain relief, from nutritious seeds to bio-fuel, are constantly kept quiet.
This is why I question every new "moral (or medical) panic" about the effects of cannabis. Whose vested interests are being threatened this time?
Sue Hunter

*including Guardian 16.12.05 and Independent on Sunday 8.01.06

Dear Nerve,
I wondered how this article would unfold, Mmm... Well balanced and probably the best way to inform users and potential users of problems they may or even will encounter. In many ways users and ex-users are the best people to comment, they know the real and personal effects, not the theoretical scare mongering.
Marijuana is mexican slang for 'hemp', before hemp was criminalised it was grown very widely, you can produce bio-fuel from it, high quality hard wearing clothes and non-yellowing paper products. Hemp was never cultivated at an industrial level which would have helped to take the US economy out of depression in the 1920's and 1930's. The hemp plant is an environmentally friendly multipurpose plant and it's a victim of US corporate big business interests.
Myself... Never been a fan of smoking weed, always thought of it socially as the drop-out option. As a grandmother said to her teenage grandson (a neighbour of ours) on the Norris Green Boot Estate, "Why do you smoke that stuff all the time?” He replies, "It makes me sleepy and relaxed." her reply, "Why do you wanna be sleepy? When you're my age you are sleepy and tired all the time."
I've had two extreme reactions to being amongst friends who've smoked in my presence, one resulted in an emergency doctor call and me being prescribed with anti-histamines and anti-biotics due to extreme flu-like symptoms. No it weren't the flu as a few years later a situation similarly made me almost as ill. I've mentioned it to a few people and I'm met with amusement and even ridicule, like as if I'm the one who's caused the problem.
I already suffer quite badly when inhaling ordinary tobacco smoke in confined places, but that's another issue...
Kai

Dear Nerve,
I read with interest your article on cannabis. You point out that cannabis is linked to psychoses and that is certainly true. The wishful belief of most pot smokers that it actually does them any good needs to be challenged. But I do think you need to avoid trying to scare people out of their slumber. The 'Just Say No, because it's bad' message has been proven not to work time and again.
No smoker thinks it will be them that dies horribly and slowly to the sound of a heart monitor in a lonely hospital ward. Nobody who takes an E thinks it will be them that dies a bloated over-hydrated mess. George Best didn't think it would be him either when he took his first drink. Millions of people take drugs from alcohol to cocaine every day with apparently little effect on their health. So no pot smoker will ever see the future psychotic in themselves.
The evidence you should concentrate on is close to home, and there are many excellent examples in your article which I recognise completely. Yes, just look at pot smokers. I was first introduced to pot when I was sixteen. I am now 39 and hopelessly addicted to it. I have no control over my smoking. Whilst I have a bottle of vodka in my fridge that's been there for a year untouched it is impossible for me to not smoke if I have some. I don't smoke cigarettes alone.
Pot is like any other drug. It has the potential to destroy people's lives. Pot can and does destroy relationships. It can and does prevent people dealing with issues.
Of course there is only one person to blame. Not my old friend Dave who gave me pot in 1982. Not any of the above mentioned friends, all of whom I love dearly. It's me.
I am writing this into my third day without a spliff. It is the 789th time I have given up. I didn't sleep a wink last night and as usual I feel more tired and ratty than I would if I'd smoked last night. My stomach churns within six hours of not having a spliff. It's still churning now. I feel nauseous and sick. I feel tearful as I always do after 24-48hrs. I have noticed the pattern. Tomorrow I will feel an unusual sense of positivity and elation. Tomorrow I will make some plans for my future. I know this because that is the pattern. My weakest moments will be at two weeks and at two months if I get that far.
I won't. I will be smoking again within the week. I don't want to but that is the pattern. I don't have any non-smoking friends.
Yours for a brighter non-smoking future (really),
Anon