Whats behind the UK governments ethink of the dope laws?
Once again, the issue of cannabis has raised its pointy fronds as UK home secretary Charles Clarke orders a ‘rethink’ on the current laws (1). At first glance, one might wonder why politicians have spent so much time over the past few years debating the legal status of a naturally occurring substance that happens to make people high when they smoke it. This time it was because the mental health charity Rethink decreed that smoking the herb raises the risk of schizophrenia, or psychosis, or something (2). To be fair, the charity doesn’t seem to be sure which one it is; ‘psychosis’ certainly makes for a better headline – possibly because there is no horror film called Schizo – but reading any of the statements, the more frightening illness gets dumped the second they start talking figures. And even then, there isn’t much of what one might call ‘evidence’. Even the most cursory swatch at this report reveals that: a) the study is being called for, it hasn’t been done; b) ‘most medical expe
