• Question: I think everyone knows that drugs like cannabis are dangerous, do you every worry that even if you can prove this, drug takers will not change their behavior?

    Asked by molly21 to Suzi on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi @molly21
      I definitely worry about this, yes.
      However, although I think cannabis is dangerous, I think it’s even more dangerous that it’s not regulated by anyone. Part of the reason street (illegal) drugs are so dangerous is that they’re often mixed with other substances by dealers, and it can be these other substances that people react badly to.

      There’s no denying that cannabis is bad for your health, but I’m not sure it’s worse than tobacco. I’m trying to find this out. It also seems to be the case that cannabis can actually help some people who are ill, like those with bad joint pain like arthritis.

      The best thing that can be done in my opinion, is educate people as much as possible about the harms cannabis can cause, although as we know people are educated about tobacco and alcohol and yet they still drink and smoke.

      What do you think about this? I agree it’s a really important problem.
      Thanks for the question 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: crazy

    crazy commented on :

    I thought that cannabis although it is dangeous is actually not as bad as other drugs e.g. Alcohol. In other countries it is ok to take it as it is considered medicinal so if this was proven to be true do you think that it would be more dangerous as it will be legal.

    • Photo: Suzi

      Suzi commented on :

      I think drugs are less dangerous if they’re legal BUT ALSO regulated, so for example could only be sold to people over the age of 18, or even if it was only available on prescription. If cannabis was legalised but not regulated I think this would be bad.

      If it was legalised and regulated, it would mean you would at least know that you were taking cannabis, rather than whatever the dealer is pretending is cannabis.

      Here’s an interesting fact: if alcohol or tobacco was discovered today, they would both be made illegal. What do you think about that?

  • Photo: molly21

    molly21 commented on :

    Thank you for your reply.

    I agree, the danger of cannabis is massively increased by the substances that it is mixed with by dealers. Although do you think legalising it would make some people underestimate the dangers, therefore diminishing or even countering the effect of your reseach?

    It is true that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous, but many argue that it is in our culture, and it would now be impossible to illegalise it. Couldn’t this happen to cannabis in the future, if it is discovered to be more dangerous but as it had been legal for such a long time, people would protest against it becoming illegal again?

    And in answer to your question, I think anyone that smokes is either ignorant or delusional. Alcohol however can be drunk in moderation safely. I don’t think the same can be said of drugs, as we do not know the full long term effects of it…. yet. Hopefully your reseach will help in this area.

    Awaiting your responce.

    • Photo: Suzi

      Suzi commented on :

      Hi Molly
      I agree with almost all of what you’ve said. If cannabis WAS to become legal, I think it would be even more regulated than alcohol and tobacco are, and the dangers of them would be made really clear, probably even more so than they are for tobacco and alcohol at the moment.

      I think your thoughts about tobacco are spot on. People are looking at the long term effects of a lot of different drugs at the moment, and they would have to find something pretty remarkable for the Government to even consider legalising any of them.

      However, with my research, I don’t know whether I will find that cannabis is harmful or not, and if I find that it isn’t harmful to psychosis and depression, this would be very interesting, because the theory that cannabis causes psychosis is one of the main reasons the Government used to raise it from a Class C to a Class B drug.

      I also think that no matter what research finds, the Government will never legalise cannabis!

      Also, although alcohol in moderation is drunk by most adults (including myself) it is probably still bad for you, not to the same extent as smoking probably, but still not good.