The estimated death toll, which appears in a paper published by the British Medical Journal, is based on the known risks of cigarette smoking and assumes that cannabis causes as much harm.

But how do we get to such an assumption? Should a nations drug policy be built around what amounts to nothing more than guesswork and supposition?

According to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the answer is a resounding "no".

Pharmacology - The science of drugs, including their composition, uses, and effects.

In what was one of his last official duties as chair of the ACMD, respected Professor of Pharmacology Sir Michael Rawlins wrote a covering letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. The letter accompanied the ACMD report in which the council gave their recommendations to government.

How the government acted in light of these recommendations has been well documented ever-since, but this is what Professor Rawlins recommended;

You will note that, after a most careful scrutiny of the totality of the available evidence, the majority of the Council’s members consider – based on its harmfulness to individuals and society – that cannabis should remain a Class C substance.

It is judged that the harmfulness of cannabis more closely equates with other Class C substances than with those currently classified as Class B. In providing this advice, however, the Council wishes to emphasise that the use of cannabis is a significant public health issue.

Cannabis can unquestionably cause harm to individuals and society.

The Council therefore advises that strategies designed to minimise its use and adverse effects must be predominantly public health ones. Criminal justice measures – irrespective of classification – will have only a limited effect on usage.

We therefore urge you to invite the UK’s Chief Medical Officers to develop, on behalf of the government, a public health strategy that will meet our shared goals.

Anything less will prejudice the health of future generations.

The ACMD's experts deduced criminal justice measures will have only a limited effect on usage, and the council recommend creating "strategies designed to minimise its use and adverse effects".

By way of education perhaps?

The ACMD report went on to make some important comparisons between tobacco smokers and those who consume cannabis either with tobacco, or without. Bearing in mind these statistics are directly related to the headline used for this article, their findings make interesting reading;

Effects on the respiratory system
4.3 Unlike sedative intoxicants such as diamorphine and barbiturates, cannabis does not cause respiratory depression or suppress the gag reflex even during extreme intoxication.

4.3.1 Cannabis has been reported to produce short-term modest dilatation (opening) of the normal airways but – paradoxically – it can worsen asthma.

4.3.2 Smoking cannabis is associated with longer-term damage to the respiratory tract and the lungs, with an increased risk of chronic bronchitis. There is also a potential long-term risk of lung cancer. Severe cases of lung damage (bullae formation) have been reported in young heavy cannabis users. The extent to which these longer-term effects are causally related to cannabis use is uncertain: such changes also occur in people who use tobacco over long periods of time. In Britain, cannabis is commonly smoked with tobacco. Due to the nature of cannabis use, fewer joints are smoked by an individual over long periods compared with cigarettes. The Council therefore considers that smoking cannabis, even when mixed with tobacco, is less likely to harm lungs than if tobacco is used alone.

Going back to what Sir Micael Rawlins recommends in his covering letter, surely the course of action needed to minimise the harms associated with cannabis use is a program of education?

A concerted effort by the government to inform those cannabis users who will use the substance and regardless of its legal status, on how they should consume cannabis with more regard for their personal safety, as opposed to simply saying "we will imprison you if you do not do as you are told", because we already know this approach doesn't work.

Anything less is a gross negligence of responsibility by the government.

Vaporisation
Vaporisation technology has presented a means for people to consume cannabis without any - not a single one, of the poisons which manifest as a by-product of smoking, and by smoking we mean smoking anything, not just cannabis.

According to the ACMD, "The Council therefore considers that smoking cannabis, even when mixed with tobacco, is less likely to harm lungs than if tobacco is used alone."

Surely here exists a fundemental building block for a public health campaign if ever one existed, and to add weight to this compelling argument, the Netherlands are about to enforce a nationwide smoking ban which comes into effect this summer.

From July 1st, no tobacco smoking is permitted in public buildings, but Dutch Health Minister Ab Clink has thrown a spanner in the anti-cannabis works when he announced "cannabis joints may only be consumed in a public building such as a coffee-shop, as long as no tobacco is used in the mix."

So what does that tell us about the dangers associated with consuming tobacco Vs cannabis?

All across the European Union, in Belgium, in Holland, in Spain, in Portugal, governments are making allowances for the tiny percentage of their people who wish to consume cannabis instead of alcohol or tobacco.

Germany recently allowed its first bona-fide medical cannabis patient, and the Supreme Court in the Czech Republic recently overturned not one, but two convictions brought against a woman approaching pensionable age, who used cannabis she grew herself in her vegetable garden, to treat a medical condition.

But here in the UK we're going the other way, by increasing penalties, higher fines, and longer prison sentences.

As freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke said recently when she took on and beat Parliament over MP's housing "perks" which accounted for £12 million in tax-payers money every single year, "This ruling makes clear that in a democracy it is the people who are the masters and politicians must be directly accountable to them."

The governing Labour party are already under pressure to force a turn-around in the diabolical first twelve months of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's tenure at No.10 Downing Street, and dealing with an increasingly beligerent UK cannabis community is just what they don't need right now, so clearly keeping pressure on the powers that be is important at this juncture.

Jacqui Smith said she wanted to protect future generations by reclassifying cannabis, but the ACMD think a program of drug awareness the likes of which has never been seen before, is the correct course of action to take when it said "The Council therefore advises that strategies designed to minimise its use and adverse effects must be predominantly public health ones.

"Criminal justice measures – irrespective of classification – will have only a limited effect on usage."

By reversing the decision to reclassify cannabis, and implementing a program of public awareness which includes advertising the health benefits of vaporisation over smoking, this government could bring about real harm reduction if they so choose.

Isn't that after-all, what a national drugs policy is meant to do?

Canna Zine - Join us!

This article forms part of the Canna Zine "name & shame" campaign which is running to hi-light the mis-truths, the rumours and the spin, which surrounds the greater cannabis debate.

Canna Zine Cannabis Directory - reach out to the world.

If you run a cannabis blog, website or other organisation which is related to the cannabis community, drop by the new Canna Zine "Cannabis Directory" and add your details to what will become the largest directory of cannabis related organisations in the world today.

Entry to the directory is FREE for a limited time only, so be quick. 

Click here to visit the Cannabis Directory.

http://cannazine.co.uk