Pop Star Joss Stone Under Attack for Marijuana Comment
English pop singer Joss Stone has come under fire for highlighting the fact that marijuana is safer than alcohol, a viewpoint that has sparked intense debate this month in the UK.
As Stone told the UK Daily Mail:
Weed has been given this evil stamp, but how is it dangerous? It's going to make you laugh your arse off? You might go to sleep? I think alcohol is much more harmful. People beat the f**k out of each other on alcohol. But I don't smoke weed all day long. I live in Devon and hardly ever go to clubs. When I do, I'll drink three or four beers then move on to a vodka. I don't want to take all those horrible drugs. Although some sound fun, so I might dabble now and then!
She was unapologetic about her outburst, adding:
I'm very honest and I've been punished for that over and over again. Every time I say what I think I get s*** for it. But that won't stop me from being an honest person.
Yet Stone is not alone, both in her belief that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, and in the absurd treatment she is enduring for conveying this simple fact. Rather, she has some pretty solid back-up amongst the UK's scientific community.
Just last week Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the UK's official drugs advisory body, was fired after giving a lecture in which he described marijuana as less harmful than alcohol.
Following the home secretary's request that Professor Nutt resign, the remaining 28 members of the ACMD issued a joint statement expressing serious concerns about the situation and threatening to resign if they were not addressed. Some (including the nation's top chemist) have since resigned in protest. The UK government's chief science adviser and the chief executive of the Medical Research Council, Britain's leading medical research organization, also spoke out against the treatment of Professor Nutt, citing the all too frequent and often dangerous clashes between politics and scientific evidence.
Like UK pop star Stone, Professor Nutt did not go quietly, speaking out vigorously in defense of his evidence-based position.
Last night Professor Nutt said he stood by his comments. 'My view is policy should be based on evidence. It's a bit odd to make policy that goes in the face of evidence. The danger is they are misleading us. The scientific evidence is there: it's in all the reports we published. Our judgments about the classification of drugs like cannabis and ecstasy have been based on a great deal of very detailed scientific appraisal.Gordon Brown makes completely irrational statements about cannabis being 'lethal', which it is not. I'm not prepared to mislead the public about the harmfulness of drugs like cannabis and ecstasy. I think most scientists will see this as an example of the Luddite attitude of governments towards science.'
He repeated his view that cannabis was "not that harmful" and that parents should be more worried about alcohol.
The greatest concern to parents should be that their children do not get completely off their heads with alcohol because it can kill them ... and it leads them to do things which are very dangerous, such as to kill themselves or others in cars, get into fights, get raped, and engage in other activities which they regret subsequently. My view is that, if you want to reduce the harm to society from drugs, alcohol is the drug to target at present.
Clearly Professor Nutt -- a University of Bristol professor of psychopharmacology who is certainly more qualified in this area than the politicians who fired him -- was not out to harm anyone; he was just doing his job, working in the best interest of the citizens he had been charged with serving. And Stone was not encouraging anyone to use marijuana; rather, she was speaking honestly about why she sometimes prefers to use it instead of drinking, and why she thinks she should be able to do so. Both have plenty of scientific evidence to back up their shared viewpoint, as every objective study on marijuana ever conducted has concluded that it poses far less harm than alcohol to the user and to society.
In the end, this all begs a very important and timely question that has yet to be addressed by opponents of marijuana policy reform or the mainstream media: just what is the bloody problem with pointing out the facts when it comes to cannabis and drink?
Mason Tvert is the executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and the co-author of Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (Chelsea Green, August 2009).
Follow Mason Tvert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SAFERchoice
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Stone is right. It is truly time for insane marijuana laws to change. It is time to stop wasting billion$ and taking up more than half of the prison space with those who shouldn't be there.
I totally agree with Joss Stone. My husband drank himself to death, you NEVER hear of anyone smoking so much pot it kills them or the kill someone else. I have smoked for over 30 years now. Lead a productive life have great children and grandchildren. They are all in college with good grades, have a nice house. Nothing wrong with my life because i smoke.
What is the big deal, it is a weed !!!!
Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit…Need I say more?
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Back in 1984, I went to see a U2 Concert in Los Angeles. I had purchased 2 marijuana cigarettes (joints) for the event. As I was walking towards the venue, I made an effort to conceal those cigarettes between the waistband of my jeans and tucked in shirt. As I tucked them into my pants, they went off, causing an explosion that blew of my genitalia... Oh wait, no, that didn't happen... instead, two undercover cops stopped my girlfriend and I and proceeded to book us for possession of marijuana - less than an ounce. She was arrested, for the simple reason that I asked her to hold the paper I had wrapped it in - without knowledge of what it was. We were going to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles a month later to appear in court to fight the citation, but at the last minute our transportation fell through. When we called the court to ask for an extension, we were forced to plead No Contest via Fax and had to pay the $90 fine. The marijuana possession conviction has been on my "permanent record" since. That incident has been the only bad thing that has happened to me in relation to marijuana. I am a productive member of society, despite the fact that many jobs I could have applied for, I didn't, as the applications asked if I had ever had a drug conviction and I was informed there would be a criminal background check.
"just what is the bloody problem with pointing out the facts when it comes to cannabis and drink?"
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I'll tell you what I think the bloody problem is: control. Or lack, thereof. Big Alcohol, Pharma and the like do NOT want this plant legalized in any way, shape or form, because they know their profits will take a very steep fall indeed if it were.
The benefits of medicinal use of marijuana seem to far outweigh the hazards--indeed, sometimes the 'hazards' don't seem to exist, though smoking anything can't be all that good for you.
Still, you have to ask yourself this: why the heck are they all riled up about a plant that, as countless studies have suggested, provides pain relief for a variety of ailments, not to mention provides a much more sustainable form of cloth/paper/material, etc. as hemp?
I don't pretend to have a thorough understanding of all sides of this debate, however, based on the many articles/studies/papers I've read, and in talking to patients/pain-sufferers and recreational users, I'd say let them blow trees instead of taking shots any day of the week.
Right on about the control. I would much prefer to smoke weed for pain (although I don't) than take supposedly "safe" pain medications. I was given a scrip, years ago for something called Tramadol for lower back pain. OMG, that stuff is evil. I took it for two days and on the third day I didn't take it and it was like a detox from hell. I felt absolutely horrible. And that was from just two days on the stuff. I tossed it out.
as a daily user of at least 13 years, I can tell you -- definitively -- that I have had no more adverse affects from pot than alcohol. thank goodness Obama has had the tenacity of good judgment to limit the arm of the law with regard to this benevolent gift of nature.
relax.
fire it up.
relax.
it's not like we're even chain smoking a joint for crying out loud. just a few 'water pipe' hits
Legalize it and save the world!!!
Imagine the boon to the economy.
Imagine the drop in crime.
Imagine the relief felt by those with chronic illness and pain.
Imagine PREVENTING cancer.
Imagine re-enfranchising millions of the underclass.
Imagine poets, priests and politicians who are not so uptight.
There's a song in there...
the law is wrong not the bong.
The marijuana laws are creating an endless cycle that has done more than oppress the poor American citizens that just can't get ahead. I am sure they would rather be doing better things with their time if they had money and an opportunity. Mean while the laws against marijuana have done nothing more than line law enforcement and attorney pocket's while increasing the profits for the pusher man. The only way to combat this would be to take the money out the picture already. Let people grow it at home with some limitations. And yes alcohol is more harmful than marijuana and everybody seems to knows that!! But alcohol can be taxed, so therefore it is legal.
....Now i dont have to try n articulate this. Thanks
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