In the Daily Mail,12/11/02,
Dr. Andrew Wilski, a consultant psychiatrist, unleashed a bitter attack on
something that he clearly knows nothing about - Cannabis. And by doling out
the usual unsubstantiated bits of hearsay and dubious psychiatric assumptions
based on what seems to be an almost pathological hatred of Cannabis, he proves
himself to be the idiot that I thought he was.
His tirade begins with proof from the British Lung Federation that Cannabis
is far more harmful than tobacco. Three joints causes as much damage as a
pack of twenty cigarettes! If they've been well laced, then I can see that.
But what concerns our good Dr. the most is the psychological effects of smoking
dope. So he continues with the statement, "That it [Cannabis] is a highly
dangerous substance". I think that a great deal of members of the scientific
communities would disagree.
And then we get into the realm of hearsay and urban legend. The sneering dope
smoker that hates the world. So here we have Dr. Wilski saying that he knows
someone that knew someone that smoked dope, who is unfortunately too long
dead to come back and give us his side of the story.
I, on the other hand, know lots of people that smoke dope, snort coke, trip
on mushrooms or acid and regularly take ecstasy or speed or both when they
go out for the weekend. They hold down steady jobs, they run businesses, they
study divinity and become ministers, and some of those people are unemployed,
as are a great deal of other people that prefer to spend their benefits in
the pub and then go home and beat up the wife.
It is an unfortunate fact of life that the neo-marxist layabout that his friend
encountered was a product of life and there will always be those that feel
they deserve to be carried by everyone else.
Dr. Wilski continues with a list of nasty sounding cancers and chest problems.
Does he not believe that maybe our enviroment might be doing the damage. We
are forced to breathe a mixture of our Earths natural air and poisonous chemicals.
24 hours a day we are bombarded by microwave radiation and electomagnetic
fields caused by power stations and electricity supplies. We sit at night
literally roasting in front of the television. The food that we eat and the
water that we drink all come with health warnings. But he still blames Cannabis
for lifes ills.
Then in the final paragraph of a 3/4 page spread he finally gets to his specialist
subject, psychiatry.
He talks about "delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thought processes",
"heavy users suffer amotivational syndrome" do we? I hadn't noticed
I've been to busy. Then we get the depression and suicide argument. But perhaps
drugs are just a symptom of depression. And as Dr. Wilski points out, although
the association between drugs and depression/suicide is well documented, it
has not been widely discussed. So I believe that Dr. Wilski should stop making
sweeping psychological statements until he has more reliable data.
Finally the Dr. finishes with reports of unpredictable acts of aggression.
Now, anyone that saw the reports of England fans in Holland a couple of years
ago is going to have trouble believing that. In fact from personal experience
I've found that dope smokers are probably one of the most tolerant group of
people that I know. And if Dr. Wilski still can't understand why Cannabis
tolerance is now becoming "official state policy" then maybe it's
a good job I don't need a psychiatrist. And maybe the Daily Mail should stop
wasting paper.
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