Cannabis is illegal to possess, use, cultivate, transfer or trade in most first-world countries. Although no country in the world

has legalized its use; more than 10 countries in the world tolerate it. Netherlands being the foremost.

India now is being urged to do the same and at least allow its use in the medical field. If legalized its use can be taxed.

Evaluate the ethical violations if any of legalizing cannabis.

What do you think are the Netherlands reasons for legalizing it?

In India with an already established drug market will this prove to be beneficial?

Is it better to provide entry level drugs in the market freely so as to have a better control over people?

Analyze the case based on this

‘Cannabis’ is a family of plants grown all over the world and is the source of one of the most popular mind altering drug.

Marijuana is called by street names such as pot, herb, weed, grass, boom, Mary Jane, gangster, or chronic. There are more than 200 slang terms for marijuana

All forms of cannabis are mind-altering

The effects of cannabis on the user depend on the strength or potency of the THC it contains.

Cannabis is a plant native to Central Asia that has spread all over the world and is probably the most widely used recreational and usually illegal drug in the world.

In the ancient text Artharvaveda, cannabis is described as one of a number of herbs that 'release us from anxiety‘

One of Shiva's epithets was 'Lord of Bhang‘

almost all the common terms for the plant have their etymological root in the Sanskrit word ganja (in Laos hemp is kan xa, in Vietnam can xa, in Thailand kancha or kanhcha, and in Cambodia kanhcha)

in south-east Asia has been in for form of 'grass', i.e. the leaves; flowering tops and stalks were smoked, usually with tobacco

In Cambodia the plant is sometimes boiled and some of the resulting liquid is sprinkled on tobacco and then it is smoked.

Hemp moved westward out of its Central Asian home at a very early date. Evidence for its use in Eastern Europe as a psychoactive substance can be traced to the later part of the third millennium BC

1. Immunity

Cannabis has a possible suppressant effect of on cell-mediated immunity. If suppression occurs, it may only be transient, in the sense that recovery may occur. Further, the degree may not be clinically significant as the reserve capacity of the body to respond to immune challenge may not be exceeded.

2. Chromosomal DamageAdverse effects on chromosomes of somatic cells have been especially controversial. But research on this issue shoes mixed findings. Studies have flaws, and one simply cannot conclude that the issue is settled

3. Pregnancy and Foetal DevelopmentThe belated recognition of the harmful effects on the fetus of smoking tobacco and drinking alcoholic beverages indicates that some caution with cannabis is wise

4. PsychopathologyCannabis may produce directly an acute panic reaction, a toxic delirium, an acute paranoid state, or acute mania. Very high doses of cannabis may evoke a toxic delirium, manifested by marked memory impairment, confusion, and disorientation.

5. AmotivationOne cannot help being impressed by the fact that many promising youngsters change their goals in life drastically after entering the illicit drug culture, usually by way of cannabis. While it is clearly impossible to be certain that these changes were caused by the drug

6. Brain damageThe startling report of cerebral atrophy in ten young men who were chronic users of cannabis aroused a great deal of controversy. It is possible that with longer exposure, heavy users of cannabis might show a similar pattern.

7. Tolerance and DependenceTolerance to cannabis has long been suspected to occur during its continued use. Narrative accounts indicate that chronic users of the drug either show very little effect from moderate doses or require very large doses to produce characteristic intoxication

8. Lung DamageVirtually all users of cannabis in North America take the drug by smoking. As inhaling any foreign material into the lung amy have adverse consequences, as is well proven in the case of tobacco, this mode of administration of cannabis might also be suspect.

9. Contamination of CannabisThe most definite health hazard was contamination of cannabis, largely of Mexican origin, by the herbicide paraquat. Inhalation of toxic amounts of this material could lead to severe lung damage, and some instances of acute toxicity have occurred.

10.Accumulation in the BodyThe major if not sole active component of cannabis, THC, is highly lipid soluble. As the human body has a high lipid content, which includes not only body fat, but also brain and most cell membranes, lipid-soluble drugs tend to leave the blood rapidly to be distributed to fatty tissues.

1. Liberty: People Deserve Freedom to use Marijuana

2. Cost: Keeping marijuana illegal is expensive

3. Failure: Prohibition doesn't help.

4. Hemp

5. Religious Use

6. Medicinal use

Two key factors shaped the evolution of the Dutch policy on drugs during this period:

1. the development of the modern medical profession2. the immense profitability of Dutch colonial drug

operations

Conflict between “primitive-traditional” healing and “rational-scientific” medicine

Opium conference, Shanghai (1909) – role of USA, UK and Denmark

Hague Opium Convention of 1912- Article 9 Opium act 1919 1953 amendment in Opium Act, post WWII

Baan Commission – Overhaul of Opium Act 1976

The key elements as established in the 1976 parliamentary debate are summarized by Grapendaal et al. as:

1. the central aim is the prevention or alleviation of social and individual risks caused by drug use;

2. there must be a rational relation between those risks and policy measures;

3. a differentiation of policy measures must also take into account the risks of legal recreational and medical drugs;

4. repressive measures against drug trafficking (other than trafficking of cannabis) is a priority; and

5. the inadequacy of criminal law with respect to other aspects (i.e., apart from trafficking) of the drug problem is recognized

Normalization and market separation International repressive norm for supply yet unique approach to

the demand side

Narcotics act- criminalizes possession, cultivation, trafficking and importing or exporting

Schedule 1 and 2 drugs

Penalties

The drug policy of the Netherlands officially has four major objectives:

1. To prevent recreational drug use and to treat and rehabilitate recreational drug users.

2. To reduce harm to users. 3. To diminish public nuisance by drug users (the

disturbance of public order and safety in the neighborhood).

4. To combat the production and trafficking of recreational drugs.

Non enforcement- ‘soft drugs’

In the Netherlands 9.7% of young adults (aged 15–24) consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%) and less than in the UK (15.8%) and Spain (16.4%),but higher than in, for example, Sweden (3%), Finland or Greece

Few transcend to becoming problem drug users (0.44%), well below the average (0.52%) of the same compared countries although prevalance of drug otherthan cannabis among young people was higher

Criminal investigations into more serious forms of organized crime mainly involve drugs (72%)

Treatment

CANADA

Laws forbid non-medical use

Varying local laws

Coffee shops

SOUTH AFRICA

Cannabis classified as an illegal substance

Justin Ballot 41 unopposed counts

of treason against the president and government in the constitutional court

GERMANY

Consumption legal

Possession laws vary- 5g

Dronabinol

ISRAEL

Medical usage – special permission

2004- use of THC granted to army

Portugal-2001 possession decriminalized (25g)Sale and trafficking- criminal offences

Spain-Oct 2005- therapeutical use of Sativex for 600

patients of a wide set of illnesses, from multiple sclerosis to cancer, in order to avoid nauseas or to relax tense muscles

6 hospitals, 60 drug storesAtomizer form

Uruguay-Consumption legalPossession more than 5g, planting, dealing- illegalPolitical influences

Efforts to decriminalize since 1970s

The Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008

Law enforcement resources argument

Street v/s organized business argument

Gonzales v. Raich, 2005 – cannabis banned even for medical use

1. Economics

2. Reduction of income earned by organized crime

3. Reduction of abuse of other illicit drugs

4. Health

5. Reduction in prison overcrowding and Criminal Justice system

Easy Accessibility

Organized Business

Morality

Government stance on Alcohol

“Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety... all can be mitigated by marijuana....For patients, such as those with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy, who suffer simultaneously from severe pain, nausea, and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer broad spectrum relief not found in any other single medication.”

Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, 1999

1. Nausea and Vomiting

2. Anorexia and Cachexia

3. Spasticity

4. Movement Disorders

5. Pain

6. Glaucoma

7. Epilepsy

8. Asthma

9. Psychiatric Symptoms

10. Autoimmune Diseases and Inflammation

Cannabis v/s Alcohol v/s Tobacco

Tobacco contains Ionizing Radiation whereas marijuana plants do not absorb radioactive elements.

Anti-Cancer Compounds in Cannabis

Cannabis smoke is not as carcinogenic as tobacco smoke.

Cannabis Receptors

According to the University of Oxford, Department of Pharmacology: Long-term marijuana use is far less damaging than long-term alcohol use

Marijuana is far less toxic and less addictive than alcohol

Health problems including gastritis, pancreatitis, ulcers, liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other liver diseases

Aggressive behavior and acts of violence

Clearly the drug with the most evidence to support a direct intoxication-violence relationship.

Highly associated with violent crime, whereas marijuana use is not.

3 million violent crimes occur each year

Tobacco Alcohol Cannabishighly toxic and

addictiveToxic and addictive

less toxic and less addictive

____contributes to the

likelihood of domestic violence

Does not contribute to the likelihood of

domestic violence

_____Contributes to sexual

assaultDoes not contribute to

sexual assault

causes a wide variety of health problems

causes a wide variety of health problems

Causes far less health problems as

compared to tobacco and alcohol

Long term use is highly damaging

Long term use is highly damaging

Long term use is comparatively far less

damaging

Contains Ionizing Radiation

_____Does not Contain Ionizing Radiation

plants absorb radioactive elements

_____plants do not

absorb radioactive elements

Does not contain Anti-Cancer Compounds

Does not contain Anti-Cancer Compounds

Contains Anti-Cancer

Compounds

smoke is more carcinogenic

_____smoke is less carcinogenic

Causes cancer Causes cancer kill cancer cells

_____ _____minimizes some

carcinogenic pathways

second major cause of death in

the world_____ ______

Availability Of Substitutes.

Long term effects of Cannabis.

Strict regulation and legal binding.

Not in favour of Cannabis as a OTC drug.

Raids and catch-up of various drug peddlers by cops.

Illegal selling and plantation of cannabis (ganja) in various parts of India specially north & north western parts..

Mental disorders and growing usage of Cannabis by teenagers in metropolitan cities.

Total legalization of cannabis is not necessary nor is it desirable in this country.

It cannot be denied that cannabis has medical uses. It is rather unjust that this potential be allowed to go to waste merely because it is an intoxicant.

The Central Government can conduct research in this field to ascertain how it can best be used in treatments

Any medicine so produced will not be distributed throughout the country and especially never be made available to pharmacists. The drugs can be kept with a few well reputed hospitals whose number cannot be more than 6 (Zonal Division)

Dosage amount and accessibility (to these few hospitals) to be determined by Government

Storage and use should follow the current double-lock system in hospitals for drugs and every gram used should be accounted for.

Every patient that needs marijuana dosage must directed to one of the above mentioned core hospitals

The government is capable of maintaining such a system; we have already implemented it for TamiFlu tablets during the H1N1 crisis

THANK YOU By:

Jual Days-D’SouzaDarren Fernandes

Jennifer JacobRubina Razvi

Karunesh SinghVaroon Aiyer