DAGGA can be as addictive as heroin or alcohol, causes mental health problems and can lead to hard drug use, according to a new study.

The research, conducted over 20 years by Professor Wayne Hall, an adviser to the World Health Organisation, links the use of dagga to a wide range of harmful side effects, from mental illness to lower academic attainment to impaired driving ability.

Hall, a leading expert in addiction at King's College, London, also found that:

One in six teenagers who regularly smoke dagga become dependent on it, as are one in 10 regular adult users;

[continues 181 words]

The Medical Innovation Bill pursued through Parliament is not to legalise cannabis but rather to provide alternatives for cancer patients

RECENTLY a debate has been revived on the Medical Innovation Bill introduced in Parliament by the late Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, an IFP MP and a close friend of mine.

Dr Oriani-Ambrosini fought a long and courageous battle with terminal lung cancer, during which he ploughed all his energies into researching cancer and how it might be stopped.

He rejected the conventional cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, for they offered no cure and would only prolong his life for a few months, while robbing him entirely of quality of life.

[continues 1166 words]

THE late IFP MP Mario Ambrosini's private member's bill calling for the legalisation of dagga has been revived by Parliament, following his death last month.

Ambrosini decided to end his life after battling stage-four lung cancer for more than a year, his family said soon after his death.

Picking up where Ambrosini left off, the ANC moved a motion in the National Assembly yesterday to note the Medical Innovation Bill, which calls for the legalisation of dagga for medicinal purposes.

[continues 399 words]

THE DAYS when politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of cannabis prohibition is to subsidise violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success.

The drug war distorts supply and demand so that big money grows on little trees.

If the goal is deterrence, cannabis prohibition is a clear failure. Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current record-holder in citizens incarcerated.

[continues 90 words]

THE WAR on drugs has been a losing fight for 40 years. The response to unending failure has always been to demand more law enforcement and more prison cells. It is unclear why the mood should be changing just now. It isn't that consumers have suddenly got too numerous to ignore: rates of cannabis use, which had, throughout the late 20th century, seemed to be on an interminable upward trajectory, are now stable or even declining.

But then the long century of criminalisation never had any more to do with evidence than America's disastrous interwar experiment with prohibiting the undoubtedly-dangerous demon drink. Then, as now, the practicalities of harm-reduction and the principle of not persecuting citizens who harm no one but themselves, point to legalisation.

[continues 227 words]

PRO medical dagga activist Sheldon Cramer (aka Bobby Hashgreen) from Richards Bay is calling for a review of the laws prohibiting the use of dagga.

This comes after Cramer was arrested for smoking dagga in public during the Global Cannabis March in Durban last month.

He was charged with possession of dagga and appeared at the Durban Magistrate's Court last week.

During his arrest, Cramer commented that if it was not for people standing up for what they believe in, South Africa would still be in the apartheid era.

[continues 341 words]

IN A bid to clamp down on criminal activities in schools, a joint operation between the SAPS, Neighbourhood Safety Watch, K9 Unit and metro police was carried out at a Mitchells Plain High School last week.

The school was raided on Friday after the principal requested help from authorities.

A number of dangerous weapons including knives and a sword were seized while dagga, cigarettes and liquor where also found in pupils' possession.

"More and more school principals are requesting our assistance in carrying out searches at schools to ensure the safety of students.

[continues 225 words]

AS THE disinformational efforts to legalise marijuana for recreational usage light up ("Scientists support legalising marijuana", Cape Argus, June 6) one can expect sound logic and common sense to be the first casualties of the pro-pot war.

A case in point is the quote in Friday's article by JP van Niekerk of the SA Medical Journal, who claims: "There is good evidence that decriminalisation of the use of drugs reduces the harm of drugs=C2=85 generates revenue for the government. A good case can be made for its legalisation." Next, I expect Van Niekerk to break out in a rendition of Timothy Leary's old motto - "turn on, tune in, and drop out".

[continues 481 words]

It will generate income and reduce drug ills, say boffins

MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini's impassioned plea in Parliament to have dagga legalised for medical use has received support from scientists, with one Cape Town researcher suggesting decriminalising it could reduce drug ills and generate income for the government.

JP van Niekerk, consulting editor of the SA Medical Journal, wrote in this month's issue that dagga was much less harmful than two legalised drugs: alcohol and tobacco.

He described Oriani-Ambrosini's plea as a wake-up call, but said it was probably wiser to go beyond legalising marijuana for medical purposes.

[continues 450 words]

CAPE TOWN - Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) politician Mario OrianiAmbrosini has credited the use of alternative treatments, including the administration of cannabis oils as a suppository, for clearing his lung cancer.

"The cannabis has cleared the lung cancer. It is gone. But the cancer in mesothelioma (cancer of the pleura) is still there," he said yesterday, after being sworn in as an MP.

Mr Oriani-Ambrosini has become a standard-bearer for cancer treatment since he made an impassioned plea in the National Assembly two months ago for regulation of what are regarded as alternative methods to combat the disease.

[continues 441 words]

MAYBE the man who was busted with R1-million worth of dagga wanted to use it for medical reasons.

The 48-year-old from Hamburg, Roodepoort, in the West Rand, transformed his garage into a greenhouse (a glass building where plants are protected from the cold) fully-equipped with lights, electric fans and and all other necessary objects to grow his stash.

"JMPD officers responded to a tip-off, and discovered the dagga which had a street value of approximately R1-million," Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Wayne Minnaar said.

[continues 232 words]

I'VE never taken any leisure drugs. I never will - well, maybe to end some unbearable terminal disease, but otherwise, no. But there are many people who do take drugs for pleasure, and there always will be. I don't support the use of drugs, but the current laws and their enforcement haven't fixed the problem, in fact, they may have made things worse.

The war on drugs has actually been a failure many ways with many unintended consequences and lots of collateral damage.

[continues 826 words]

Cancer-stricken IFP MP Mario Ambrosini's heartfelt plea for the decriminalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes comes at a time when use of the drug is increasing becoming acceptable worldwide. While cannabis remains illegal in most countries, the US states of Colorado and Washington have recently legalised use and possession.

In December Uruguay became the first country to legalise the sale, cultivation and distribution of cannabis. Medicinal use is allowed in 20 US states and a number of countries, including France, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain and the Czech Republic.

[continues 201 words]

IN AN EMOTIONAL plea for a change to the law, IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini yesterday admitted he was using dagga as part of his fight against the terminal cancer he was diagnosed with almost a year ago.

"I was supposed to die many months ago. I am here because I had the courage of seeking alternatives in Italy in the form of bicarbonate of soda and here in South Africa in the form of cannabis, marijuana, dagga," Oriani-Ambrosini said, adding: "It is a crime against humanity not to allow this."

[continues 437 words]