PLEASE REFUTE REEFER MANIA PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #351 - Sunday, 29 July 2007 On Friday, the British medical journal Lancet published a 13 page meta-analysis 'Cannabis Use and Risk of Psychosis in Later Life.' As a result the media around the world has used the study, most often with incorrect data and conclusions, to create another reefer mania scare. Backers of stern cannabis prohibition laws have seized on this news to urge the British government to increase the potential punishment of users under their laws. More reasoned voices have cautioned that escalating criminal penalties based on a perceived increased health risk would be counterproductive. See 'Experts Dismiss Case for Cannabis Reclassification' http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n901/a05.html MAP is continually archiving both international and domestic coverage of the issue as we receive clippings. These press clippings may be reviewed by using the following link, which is updated nightly. Note that MAP identifies press stories by the location of the story. Thus a number at the link are identified as "UK:" but are actually from newspapers in the United States or Canada. http://www.mapinc.org/topics/psychosis Please consider writing and sending Letters to the Editor to the newspapers of your choice. It is important that mainstream newspaper editors and opinion writers are given a more complete and balanced perspective than that being pushed by prohibitionists. If you elect to write to more than one newspaper, we suggest at least some modification of your message so that each newspaper receives a unique letter. Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do, it's what YOU do. The study, as published in the Lancet, was placed on line by the Guardian as a 13 page .pdf file. See: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/07/27/cannabis_new.pdf The best critique of the media's reaction to the study we have seen provides an accurate assessment of the report. Thus it may provide ideas for letter writers. Please see the column 'Cannabis Data Comes to the Crunch' at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n906/a02.html Additionally, as the Lancet study was in the preparatory stages this past May, NORML's Paul Armentano provided an astute analysis of the core propositions put forth. See: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6798 Armentano's analysis may help letter writers more accurately explain key alternative conclusions which may be drawn from the Lancet study. Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides Or contact MAP's Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ( ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource =.

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