Atheist Age

Irony is watching “Christians” cheer a war on evidence

May I make a crude attempt for your attention? Just when you thought we finally agreed that 0.00175% of pot smokers suffer symptoms of schizophrenia, as reported by The Lancet in 2007 [PDF], The Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology last month published data suggesting synthetic THC can improve the symptoms of schizophrenia. Yet it’s not the conflicting data I find compelling. It’s the wild media ride fuelled by drug free hysteria in the interim I must say I have never, ever seen the like of.

The “drug free” movement is primarily a loosely associated group of fundamentalist Christians who conclude humanity has moved “away from our God as He intended”. Most problems they identify are directly attributable to Charles Darwin. This idea, and the claim of “problems” are both false. The real problem is faced by Christians: that we now have an alternative to monopoly via indoctrination is the end for baseless tales and witchcraft.

They reject the facts of evolution and believe only the bible is indicative of human needs, desires and of course, eternal fate. Simply put, “drug free” is as God intended. Whilst illicit drugs are publicised most frequently we must accept groups like Drug Free Australia, Drug Beat, Teen Challenge, Scientology,  Seventh Day Adventists, etc want all drugs removed from society. Drug development, sometimes known as Big Pharma, is possible only once all principles of evolution in the designing of living systems are applied and/or understood. It is this one single “abomination of a lie” [evolution] – as one erstwhile associate once boomed – that renders the advance of medical science as “Satans work” – another boom. Forget all the disease we’ve erradicated, the lives we extend, the limbs and organs we attach or implant. No, you’ll see that mouse with an ear on its back and the caption: “How will your grandchild be born?”.

“Drug-free” is the medicinal equivalent of “gay-free” or “masturbation-free”, “pre-marital sex free”, “single mother free”, “atheist-free”, or “abortion-free”. Put simply, one must internalise only negative notions of drugs, to even begin to grasp why an invented anthropomorphic sky dwelling icon gives a toss over what our perception of reality is pre or post ingestion of medications. Must I point out it’s already one heck of a bad mind trip to hallucinate – under the force of a major delusion – that the world is 10,000 years old and a guy built a wooden boat that “even carried the HIV virus”?

We call such intuitive – and tempting – conclusions Binary Opposites. The quality of the one [in this case being 'drug free'] is defined as generally cosy, desirable if not essential, utterly positive and… “good”, by the quality of the animated variable: in this case every horror story imaginable related to the illicit and criminally controlled chemicals, we call drugs. See!? The sun almost set early when you read that. If you’re of the mind that humankind “has fallen” since Eve ate the apple, it’s apparently quite easy to see all of life as “fallen”, “spiritually dead” or dysfunctional. Or rather, not Born Again.

Ironically, binary opposites must be controlled. You will not find a whisper about physical disability or cognitive disability as day to day expression modern humans live with. Only drug abuse causes deformities in body or mind. Do they expect us to believe the disabled – who have the yummiest of all drugs on hand all their lives – do not abuse drugs, alcohol, tobacco? No, they know average Bruce and Sharon Oz is still sqeamish about disabilities. It’s too real, and drug free is all about illusion – not reality.

Even more subtle is the overarching hint one must make a choice in this crucial judgement of character. Parental fear, past guilt and regret, ignorance of topic at hand, the anxiety of watching loved ones express their uniqueness, the family name, what the neighbours will say, oh my – what they did say about the… the… was it the Smiths?…, and so on. Who said you need a child star to assuage your puny past life? You can thrash your child to be the perfect little drug free darling. Like a non drinker, yeah? Um – no. Sure drugs are abused, but they keep us alive and render science more powerful than any god in the mind of the devout. So, feign obsession with The Wrong Message.

I’d imagine having ones appendix removed whilst fully awake and managing post operative pain with prayer is hardly a script for Law and Order – Special Believers Unit. In preparation for this, the drug free cronies have moved to falsely label cannabis as causally leading to psychosis in the vast number of cases. Yes we have figures. Miniscule in significance, but I hasten to add there is no such thing as “not enough” when we discuss the value of human life. Yes, at some point we are forced to decide. Fortunately here, I have little qualms in admitting I feel the pain of those with a loved one struggling with psychosis as much as I have disgust for criminally managed money siphons like Drug Free Australia.

The Lancet published a meta-analysis that set the world spinning, even fooling Australias ABC Catalyst programme. Let’s peruse the data. Of 6.2 million cannabis smokers, 800 reported symptoms of psychosis. Or 0.00125% of cannabis smokers suffered a psychotic episode. No, we do not know what caused the episode – only that they also smoked cannabis. Also of the 800 out of 6.2 million we can see that 99.99875% of cannabis smokers do not experience a psychotic episode. Please remember 200% changes are considered lower level in the significance stakes. Lancet report a 40% increase. Also please remember alcohol causes an 800% increase in the risk of schizophrenia. And to watch it all fall down, please read this most recent study abstract claiming there is no causality arising from cannabis use, or discussion here.

If you want a back pocket figure: 99.9% of heavy cannabis smokers do not ever, ever, ever develop psychotic symptoms – much less schizophrenia. Do something usefull and read up on memory, attention, concentration, reaction time, spatial awareness, attentive salience, pattern recognition, anger management, conflict resolution – all the stuff that does not sell newspapers.

Drug Free Australia is chaired by disgraced magistrate Craig Thompson. His role in removing medication and hospital care for a psychotic young lady is concerning.  She murdered two family members and almost her mother within hours. Thompson meanwhile, demands action over his claims that cannabis smokers can develop psychosis. Our hospitals are “being overrun” by psychotics wild on cannabis, he once lied to an Inquiry. Yet in the entire history of rising cannabis use, global diagnosis of schizophrenia has been falling. In drug free Sweden, their use is the same as the European average. To be fair, cannabis is quite low comparatively. Not surprising when red eyes is grounds for arrest. Sweden has breached the international right to health more than any developed nation on Earth. Why? Its drug free policy.

There’s a veritable feast of insanity festering away in drugfreedom. Yet the very fact our community is on this ‘anything-goes’ free for all over a mild euphoric that one British mother called “the lethal, killer skunk” as she evicted her “addict son” to save her family from the woes of Fleet Street tabloid mania, is telling. If a little knowledge is dangerous then a little ignorance is worse.

The human habit of using drugs for purposes other than medicinal does not reflect, offer insight into or qualify in any way the medicinal arsenal made from identical compounds that we all rely upon. We’ve fought the opium poppy for centuries now, and would be in dire need without its medical potential. And just as humans produce endogenous opioids we produce endogenous cannabinoids.

The use of medicinal cannabinoids is common already and of crucial interest in combating motor neuron disease symptoms, MS, effects of chemotherapy, nausea, glaucoma, epilepsy, migraine and more. Synthetic preparations are presently in use and research continues apace. Australians have presented data on the adverse effects of cannabinoids in patients, which proved “not serious”. Despite claims by our drug free moral guardians that the entire global push to exploit cannabinoids in a medical sense is “legalisation by the back door” it’s euphoria that patients complain of frequently.

Just as with stem cell research, appealing to compassion by explaining the suffering patients who benefit from medicinal cannabis endure is utterly futile. Ideology demands disproportional responses including global conspiracies by “drug industry elites” [public health officials supporting harm reduction, fighting killer viruses] which is backed in the media by “pro-drug activists” [my linking to a medical cannabis site just above is an example of 'pro-drug activism', as is reporting of any but negative stories] and these activists are tackled by “media monitors” [Page 5 - point 2.6].

The World Forum Against Drugs was held after the international NGO Beyond 2008 Forum on drug policy. Their point by point rejection of progressive policy may be read here. So, let’s avoid the ‘he said, she said’ and read the oral remarks of Paul Hunt, the [then] UN special rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health [HTML address to UN - pls scroll]. Thus, essentially the much lauded model for Australias spartan puritan godly devotion to end our social ills turns out to be in breach of the basic right to health. And that’s illicit drugs! These guys want no drug therapy if any voodoo Freudian schlock can be found to match. No pills or potions if prayer will do.

Oh! Plus they all stand to reap hundreds of millions if we employ their policies. Why? They own rights to the alternative drug detox options, will reap funding, just like Fresh Start, who advertise Christian teaching as a recovery technique and already offer alternatives to residential rehabilitation. A kinda boot camp for god – USA style. This article in Crikey by Alex Wodak – a known “drug industry elite” – is like a slap in the synapse when we realise millions have vanished into the coffers of gods detox angels, not one study exists and yes, the medication used is not registered having not passed any trials.

But hey! It “blocks the effects of heroin”. Somewhere, someone did a very good job of confusing this isolated neuropharmacokinetic curiosity with the multifaceted, multisystem disease we call addiction. The best we can say is it blocks the high – ergo, it stops sin. Suffering is of no moment dear reader.

The point to remember is Drug free is Evidence free.

From The Australian: July 4th, 2009.

John Ryan is chief executive of Anex, Australia’s peak public health organisation for illicit drugs.

THE drug war policy wonks are in retreat. The UN’s World Drug Report makes this clear.

Enjoy.

Tags: Crime, Discrimination, Drug War, Harm Reduction, Human Rights, Morality, Politics, Terror, USA