Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
The MS Society's statement on cannabis last week flew under the news radar, but it's an important development in the drug debate. For the first time, the organization said the drug should be "legalized for medicinal use for people with MS to relieve their pain and muscle spasms when other treatments haven't worked". This would include about 10,000 people in the UK. The charity argued that on balance the plant seems to aid symptoms.
This is a significant shift. I was researching the British cannabis world and how it intersects with MS patients six months ago and didn't get the sense the charity was willing to take the leap into defending cannabis use. Sure, there were positive testimonies and encouraging evidence, but the thing was still illegal. Clearly something's given.
The statement broadened the growing medical consensus on the potential uses of cannabis. But it did something else too. It showed that arguments for drug reform can be repackaged and used in unusual ways, to people who would otherwise be resistant to them. These moments are always worth paying attention to, because at some point someone is going to have to change the mind of the Conservative party on drugs, and we might as well start now.
Prohibition, like the parochial beliefs which sustain it, is pervasive. But the MS Society statement puts a much needed spotlight on the plight of thousands of MS patients pushed to the margins of society and legality in their pursuit of relief. In Westminster, the deeply entrenched anti-weed sentiment is cross-party, but the party with the power - with the hearts and minds in need of some gentle polemics - is the Conservative party.
"There hasn't really been much engagement in drug reform arguments from Conservatives," says Henry Fisher, science and health policy director at Volteface, the drug policy think tank working with small c conservatives to establish arguments that might cut through. "Not necessarily out of the explicit animosity, but because their natural instincts would side against drug reform arguments, and they've not thought about them at all. We've had to work to change their level of understanding to get them to support what we're advocating."
Volteface conducted a poll and found medicinal cannabis was popular with all political parties, but that regulation of cannabis for general adult use didn't have as much support. The case for medicinal cannabis for MS patients is rather clear-cut in that it can help pain and spasticity and is relatively cheap, while certain MS medications are ineffectual, cause difficult side-effects and can be a profligate exercise for the NHS.
John Liebling, political director of the United Patients Alliance, an organisation entirely made up of patients with various illnesses who medicate with cannabis, has been looking at how things have gone in US states which allowed medicinal cannabis use. If the lowest estimates of cannabis-exclusive users with MS were applied to the UK MS population, it would constitute a saving of £480 million for the NHS a year in prescriptions.
Research has found cannabis to be beneficial to varying degrees of effectiveness for an array of conditions. MS patients make up about five per cent of the cannabis medical community in the UK.
But what about a general legalization? One socially conservative argument is that people continue to use cannabis despite its illegal status and the police doesn't have the capacity to enforce the law effectively anyway. "So the only sensible argument for keeping people safe - and in particular young people safe - is regulating drugs much more effectively than we are right now," Fisher says. "Obviously the economically right wing argument is the fact that you can make more tax from it and that can be put into services, that can then effectively combat the problems of drugs."
But there's clearly a reason why cannabis has been illegal in this country for almost a century. "There will always be a certain of element from socially conservative people in particular that have a more moral aversion," Fisher says. "A lot of people sort of have a blind spot for alcohol because it's legal, while anything that's illegal is wrong just by definition of being illegal. They're the harder arguments to win because you're essentially going against someone's moral stance on the issue rather than actually looking at the facts."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Getting the Conservatives behind cannabis
Author: Nick Thompson
Contact: Editorial Contacts
Photo Credit: iStock
Website: Politics news, UK political features, views and analysis - politics.co.uk - Homepage
This is a significant shift. I was researching the British cannabis world and how it intersects with MS patients six months ago and didn't get the sense the charity was willing to take the leap into defending cannabis use. Sure, there were positive testimonies and encouraging evidence, but the thing was still illegal. Clearly something's given.
The statement broadened the growing medical consensus on the potential uses of cannabis. But it did something else too. It showed that arguments for drug reform can be repackaged and used in unusual ways, to people who would otherwise be resistant to them. These moments are always worth paying attention to, because at some point someone is going to have to change the mind of the Conservative party on drugs, and we might as well start now.
Prohibition, like the parochial beliefs which sustain it, is pervasive. But the MS Society statement puts a much needed spotlight on the plight of thousands of MS patients pushed to the margins of society and legality in their pursuit of relief. In Westminster, the deeply entrenched anti-weed sentiment is cross-party, but the party with the power - with the hearts and minds in need of some gentle polemics - is the Conservative party.
"There hasn't really been much engagement in drug reform arguments from Conservatives," says Henry Fisher, science and health policy director at Volteface, the drug policy think tank working with small c conservatives to establish arguments that might cut through. "Not necessarily out of the explicit animosity, but because their natural instincts would side against drug reform arguments, and they've not thought about them at all. We've had to work to change their level of understanding to get them to support what we're advocating."
Volteface conducted a poll and found medicinal cannabis was popular with all political parties, but that regulation of cannabis for general adult use didn't have as much support. The case for medicinal cannabis for MS patients is rather clear-cut in that it can help pain and spasticity and is relatively cheap, while certain MS medications are ineffectual, cause difficult side-effects and can be a profligate exercise for the NHS.
John Liebling, political director of the United Patients Alliance, an organisation entirely made up of patients with various illnesses who medicate with cannabis, has been looking at how things have gone in US states which allowed medicinal cannabis use. If the lowest estimates of cannabis-exclusive users with MS were applied to the UK MS population, it would constitute a saving of £480 million for the NHS a year in prescriptions.
Research has found cannabis to be beneficial to varying degrees of effectiveness for an array of conditions. MS patients make up about five per cent of the cannabis medical community in the UK.
But what about a general legalization? One socially conservative argument is that people continue to use cannabis despite its illegal status and the police doesn't have the capacity to enforce the law effectively anyway. "So the only sensible argument for keeping people safe - and in particular young people safe - is regulating drugs much more effectively than we are right now," Fisher says. "Obviously the economically right wing argument is the fact that you can make more tax from it and that can be put into services, that can then effectively combat the problems of drugs."
But there's clearly a reason why cannabis has been illegal in this country for almost a century. "There will always be a certain of element from socially conservative people in particular that have a more moral aversion," Fisher says. "A lot of people sort of have a blind spot for alcohol because it's legal, while anything that's illegal is wrong just by definition of being illegal. They're the harder arguments to win because you're essentially going against someone's moral stance on the issue rather than actually looking at the facts."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Getting the Conservatives behind cannabis
Author: Nick Thompson
Contact: Editorial Contacts
Photo Credit: iStock
Website: Politics news, UK political features, views and analysis - politics.co.uk - Homepage
