The Editor
The SAMJ
P/Bag X1
Pinelands 743022
October 2001
Dear Sir,
Re: Your article on the decriminalisation of marijuana
I have been involved in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts for the past 10 years.
Last year Doctors for Life (DFL) was asked to testify in the Western Cape Supreme Court case about the medical effects of marijuana. Consequently evidence from international experts was collected and presented by DFL. Amongst the experts were people like Dr. Eric Voth (who has treated thousands of people for Cannabis addiction). Evidence included the CASA White Paper on Non-Medical Marijuana (considered the most comprehensive study on marijuana up to date).
This also served before the U.S.A. Supreme Court in 2000, through which the medical use of marijuana was struck down.Marijuana’s damage to the lungs is undisputed . One marijuana cigarette contains the same amount of tar as 4 tobacco cigarettes, results in the amount of carbon monoxide intake of 5 tobacco cigarettes, and causes the same amount of damage to the airways as 10 tobacco cigarettes . Cannabis causes chromosomal changes in spermatocytes and ova. It impairs concentration and short term memory as well as the ability to perform normal tasks. The consequences are an increase in motor vehicle accidents, accidents at work and a lack of interest in work at school . The active ingredient, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) crosses the placental barrier.
Cannabis use during pregnancy has been correlated with low birth rate babies, an increase in miscarriages, smaller head circumference, disorders in mental development, and cognitive problems later at school . The argument that by legalising marijuana you can control the trade and block the illegal trade is, to say the least, archaic and has been proven wrong. Once an illegal drug is made legal, it creates a legal outlet for the "Mafia" to sell their products. Consequently drug cartels simply create Front companies through which to sell their goods. Legalisation also relieve the drug markets of high expenditures e.g. bribes, middlemen, expensive camouflage of drugs, tortuous transport routes, the cost of keeping these secret etc. Numerous studies have shown that, once drugs are legalised/decriminalised, their use increases dramatically .
Thus the legalising of substance abuse simply serves to absorb organised crime into the economy of the country and make their profits rocket. The battle against drug abuse is very much similar to the battle against international terrorism. If one country opts out, it becomes all the more difficult for other countries to root out the illegal drug cartels, because this country offers a safe haven for the cartels from which they operate. I am not sure whether Dr. Ncayiyana is aware of the fact that South Africa is a co-signatory (together with the USA, France, England and some other countries) to two international conventions on drugs: Firstly, The United Nations Vienna Convention Against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotrophic Substances of 1988.
Secondly, we only recently signed The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. Both prohibit the legalisation/decriminalisation of Cannabis. South Africa cannot simply break ranks and start doing its own thing.I can only hope that the editor was ill informed when he wrote the editorial. But even if that is the case, may I issue a word of caution to the editor of such an elite magazine not to take sides in such a controversial issue, especially when the evidence for his stance is so scanty.
Source: "Preliminary Results from the 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse," Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, August 6, 1997.
Source: National Drug Control Strategy, 1997, Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House, Washington, D.C.: Michael McGinnis and William H. Foege, "Actual Causes of death in the United States,:
Journal of the American Medical Association, November 10, 1993, Vol 270. No 18, pp 2 2207-2212.
Source: Substance Abuse: The Nation’s Number One Health Problem; Key indicators for Policy Institute for Health Policy, Brandels University, prepared for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, October 1993.
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