I would like to submit the following comment on the Record’s front-page article, High Time? of 1 December.
Firstly, medically prescribed, processed natural substances to relieve pain or aid sleep are not new. Such use is well established; the Concise Oxford and Merriam-Webster Dictionaries state it in defining words like ‘opiate’ or ‘narcotic’.
So, if the Medicines Control Council and the Portfolio Committee on Health are satisfied that medicinal cannabis can affordably yield similar or related benefits, legalising prescribed use just broadens well-established medical practice. In prescribed use, it is dispensed under controlled conditions by professionals who can judge when it is beneficial, notwithstanding side-effects, in a patient’s circumstances.
Secondly, legalising cannabis’ non-medical, recreational use is a different matter. Here, many are attracted to it because it seems desirable or helpful in life. It gives pleasure; it makes life’s pleasurable experiences more so; or it provides temporary escape or relief from life’s difficulties and stresses. So there is a strong market for it; strong enough to reward illegal trade. However, just like alcohol, the most widespread legal drug, it can be addictive. And for those who become addicted, it progresses from desirable to essential, justifying any measures to keep getting it. Also, it may open the door to ‘harder’ drugs.
It must be remembered that any narcotic, or a hallucinogen such as cannabis, all too easily prejudices judgement, reasoning and discretion. Some people claim that it enhances creativity and perception, but woe betide people so affected who believe that they can still safely drive, work with machinery, or handle dangerous situations! Police, paramedics, hospitals and rehabilitative agencies will testify otherwise. Consider: if recreational use is legalised, how will one’s insurance premiums be affected if one has to declare recreational use of cannabis as well as alcohol?
For the sake of patients seeking more affordable relief for pain or other chronic conditions, let us trust the professionals to prescribe medicinal use. But on recreational use, I would say beware. “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself” (Romans 14:7). If cannabis is legalised for recreational use, let those who want it enjoy it responsibly, as for alcohol; but let us beware of setting undesirable examples, especially for the young, that may render our fellow-people less able to face and cope with life’s difficulties.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that new ways of alleviating severe, dehumanising pain are emerging, for example, electrical stimulation of the central nervous system. A forthcoming article, entitled Spinal Cord Stimulation for Pain in Pain-Free Living gives an outline of the principle and three case studies. (Incidentally, under the heading Alternative Therapies on that website, the article entitled Cannabis for Pain is worth reading.) Let us use whatever is best and available in any sufferer’s situation.
