The fact that current levels cannabis use relative to alcohol and tobacco represents a much lower health risk to the general public does not imply that given different legal statuses or the widespread or heavier usage that situation would persist.

It’s early days for open, honest and broad studies of cannabis and it’s negative or beneficial effects. As seen above no mention is made of any studies of cannabis’
effect on existing psychological conditions such as schitzophrenia. What studies I have seen quoted regarding risks are usually limited in their sampling and the results skewed to suit the argument. Many health workers and myself disagree with this idea that marijuana is not harmful (from my personal experience with family members with skitzophrenia).

The most provable benefit from decriminalisation would be to break the ties between marijuana and organised crime. Marijuana is only a gateway drug when it is lumped together with harder drugs and these harder drugs are often more accessible to youth.

I am not anti-cannabis. It’s something that a lot of people do enjoy, including myself – although much more rarely these days. However I feel that it’s being presented as benign is not responsible or balanced. It is in fact just more rhetoric from people that have bought the argument that dope smoking is a right, an expression of individuality, self expression or somehow holistic and ‘natural’ or maybe they just saw that Woody Harrelson doco and were easily convinced about it’s merits…

I get your point about repeating stuff, but then partly this is because the same issues are important each year. For example, last year we had a two page feature on the campus hub project, but since this has a significant influence on students and is still developing, we’re covering it again next week.

At the end of the day, we only have a small number of people currently doing features, and we all have our pet topics. But it’s your magazine, so tell us what you you want to read about.