Cannabis Health Research Attracts $14M Government Investment
While Prime Minister Gordon Brown continues on what many see as a unilateral mission against cannabis and its +/- 4 million UK users, in Australia there is a difference of opinion on how a nation should create and implement a national drug strategy, and one which has the well-being of the population at the forefront of policy implementation.
Whilst the use of cannabis remains a concern in Australia just as much as it does in the UK, a report broadcast recently on Radio National in Australia, goes on to explain why the Australian government has taken a "polar opposite" stance to the actions Gordon Brown would like to implement, when he attempts to reclassify cannabis.
In short, the UK Labour governments answer to the spiralling drugs problem facing the United Kingdon, is to increase the penalties which are meted out as punishment for being found in possession of, using or selling cannabis.
But in Australia they think things should be done a little differently, and when you read the reasoning behind their actions its hard to disagree, even from a pro-reform stand-point.
According to radio presenter Mark Colvin, "For decades the debate has raged about the potential harms of marijuana, now there's an attempt to create the definitive information collection
The number of marijuana-smokers is already falling in Australia, but the Federal Government's pumping $14-million into a new cannabis research centre.
New figures show that young Australians are now more likely to have tried marijuana than cigarettes."
NCPIC This, in answer to the Australian governments announcement that they plan on investing $14m AUS dollars into a "National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre."
Youth Affairs reporter Michael Turtle picks up the story;
"Based at the University of New South Wales, the centre is the first of its kind in the world to focus on just one type of illicit drug. The main aim of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre is to use scientific research to provide the public with accurate information about the drug."
Which is all great news. Isn't it about time cannabis was brought out of the closet and some good honest research was undertaken on it?
Turtle continues, "The $14-million was originally promised by the previous federal government, but despite the Rudd Government's emphasis on alcohol, the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon has agreed to continue the funding."
"The latest figures show the use of cannabis has been consistently falling for more than a decade, but it's still the most common illicit drug.
These days, 750,000 Australians use cannabis weekly and 300,000 use it daily.
The most common age of use is in the 20s and one in eight teenagers have smoked marijuana in the past year."
"Having said that," he states, "it's not just young people the new centre is targeting."
Director of the new centre Jan Copeland says mass media campaigns have managed to reduce the number of user in those age groups but the level of cannabis-use has remained relatively constant for older Australians, forming much the same pattern as exists currently in the UK.
"The group that are getting more entrenched, are the 30 to 39-year-old and even the older age groups, who started smoking 10-20 years ago and are now in a position to think, what they once thought was a recreational habit, is in fact a dependence."
It's hoped the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre will give the younger generation the information they need to make informed decisions about whether they want to end up as entrenched cannabis smokers when they're older.
Lets wish the Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre well, and just hope that its allowed to publish all of its research, good and bad, and not just that which the government wants to use as party-line propaganda, because then its nothing more than an expensive government funded "spin" machine.
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