Weed for social need

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century it was the standard Office issued him with a It is proven to be effec- but would not provide it, tive in relieving the suffer- referring him to the DHSS.

Anti-cancer drugs are that supplying cannabis for nasty substances - they fre- therapeutic purposes was out quently harm healthy tissues of the question. In their as well as the tumours thev desire to nreserve the imana that cannabis relieves tioned above, can't they? draucoma? (a painful con- Well • yes, but they dition of high pressure in the can't legally obtain it. blindness); it helps relieve Dr. Michael Rose of St. muscle spasms and spasti- George's Hospital, Tooting, city; it helps relieve the Wanted cannabis to treat symptoms of epilepsy -and nausea in cancer patients. asthma; and in the 19th Under pressure, the Home IN last week's issue of Socialist Organiser I wrote about the US government's campaign of chemical warfare against cannabis growing in Mexico.

This week, I will deal with another aspect of the illegality of cannabis - the restrictions on its use as a medicine.

Cannabis has heen need wu BesaaILe AN VVVII VOLU madinina for tha ra..co a came us. ands of years. This could be dismissed as 'superstition' bv those who condemn it as an "assassin of youth" , but -J 1L CLO modern research has indicated many medical uses for it.

For instance, it is proven eyeball which can lead to treatment for migraine.

ing of some cancer patients.

are used against, and some cause uncontrollable nausea, and vomitina addin vomiting, dung a turner misery to tne lives ot 4 - 41.... those dying from cancer.

Cannabis is the best drug known to treat thaca sido Duval wicot sluteffects.

So, of course, doctors can prescribe cannabis for the various complaints menIn one case last yearA licence to possess cannabis, Here, officials indicated of cannabis as a drug with vicious social effects, they investigation of its medical potential.

Finally, last October (arter nis Home Uttice 1 - L1 - .. 1.:. licence had expired!) Doctor Rose was given permission to use tincture of cannabis (a lianid extract rather than tha herbal or resinous form) but only in healthy volunteers, not in cancer patients!

In other words, the DHSS was treating it as an untested drug with potentially dangerous side-effects or long-term etfects, though no study has ever found such by Les Hearn effects.

The DHSS were also refusing to allow it to be smoked in this research (this is the most effective way of getting it into the blood stream, particularly as patients suffering from vomitino mioht find it diffiTULI cult to keep down). This restriction is doubtless due to tne tact that smoking is 1 - 11- 41.. 1 1• the usual method of taking cannabis for enjoyment and the DHSS wouldn't want cancer patients enjoying their treatment!

Capitalism can usualiy find a way to benefit from the rectrintinna it alanana hi isuavus it places on our lives - so now British and US drug companies are trying to develop synthetic drugs based on the active constituents of cannabis, but made without using it.

So soon the NHS may be paying large sums for a copyright to synthetic drugs WELL OF COURSE PRE-BOMD SCIENCE YOU KNOW! when the natural substance is teadily and shaanhr aunil able - the NHS could even grow its own!

Socialists need to work out a policy for all the chemicals we fill our bodies with. Too often, bourgeois propaganda is accepted i.e. booze and fags are quite OK, LSD, cannabis and heroin are the devil's work. (Somewhat ludicrously, Militant sees cannabis as a bourgeois plot to sap the revolutionary vigour of our youth).

In fact, cannabis is remarkably safe for a drug, while even herin taken ^TrI: VTVIL STEALTAIT taken hygienically and in moderation has few if any longterm effects (and that is on the authority of an expert on opiates), while the proven hazards of alcohol and tobacco (or even valium) are horrific.

Over-indulgence in any drug is likely to be harmful or dangerous, but the way to make over-use unlikely is to remove the sort of pressures that lead people to seek such psychological crutches.

Information: The Guardian and British Medical Journal. army, in the endless line of the unemployed - like so many desperate youth today in Thatcher's Britain.

It is an irony of programme planning that Looks and Smiles should be shown virtually on the eve of the Falklands invasion.

But if the labour movement is not to see thousands of youth like Mick sucked from the dole queues into the armed task forces of imperialism, then it must organise its own offensive against the Thatcher government. Turkey Solidarity Bulletin - new issue out now. 30p from TSC, Box BM 5965, XX>. NL. JA UVUUU I 14.R..

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Conference -1881 Thursday 27 May,

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