Cannabis Other names Other names include weed, hash, puff, draw, spliff, ghanja (or 'ghange'), skunk, bush and many, many more.

What is it?

• Cannabis for intoxication comes from the female cannabis plant, the male plant producing the tough fibres from which hemp cloth and rope are made.
• Mainly growing in equatorial regions through South America, Africa, India and other parts of Asia there is an increasing amount of cannabis being grown in the UK.
• Cannabis is available as 'hash' - slabs of black/brown/green/yellow plasticene like resin from the plant which has been caked - and 'weed' - the flowering tops and leaves of the plant which looks like chopped herbs or mown grass. Cannabis oil, a sticky greeny/brown liquid which is around five times more potent than hash is very rare. Cannabis is usually either smoked or eaten.
• The earliest recorded use of cannabis is around 5000 years old in a book of Chinese herbal remedies as a treatment for fever and for period pains. The Ancient Greeks used it to help digestion, George Washington grew it at his home for his own medicinal use and Queen Victoria's doctor called it "one of the most valuable therapeutic agents we possess".
• So what's the problem with it? In short, cannabis became a controlled drug at the Opium Conference of 1924 when the Egyptian and Turkish delegates won support for harsh action after the Egyptian stated that cannabis was the "principal cause of insanity" in his country. Even though the British had done thorough research themselves some twenty years before and found no reason to put controls on the drug, they signed the control agreement for trade and diplomatic reasons. Prohibition was born and with prohibition came the propaganda to convince people that it was the right decision.
• · Cannabis is not addictive, although it can be difficult to give up if it is smoked. Cannabis does not lead to the use of any other drug any more so than tobacco and alcohol do and it cannot be injected. There is no known overdose from cannabis, it doesn't cause brain damage and there is no convincing evidence that it causes mental health problems. There is evidence to suggest that it can, if smoked, cause similar damage to tobacco. And it can lead to a criminal record, exclusion from school / college, loss of job and the like.

How much does cannabis cost and how popular is it?

• Cannabis is generally sold in quantities of a sixteenth of an ounce (a "teenth") or an eighth of an ounce. Hash will cost around £5 and £10 respectively and good quality weed or skunk for £10 and £20 respectively.
• An eighth of an ounce will, if it's being smoked, be enough for about twelve "joints" (cannabis cigarettes). If it's being eaten, there are roughly twice as many "doses" weight for weight.
• Cannabis is the most widely used controlled drug with an estimated five million people using it in the UK and an estimated 50% of young people having tried it by the time they leave school.

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Because of the wide range of cannabis resins and weeds, the influence of "set and setting" and the method of use, it is difficult to give anything but a very general account of the effects.

• Smoking - smoking a small amount of cannabis resin mixed with tobacco in a joint will have a less dramatic effect on the brain than smoking it without tobacco in a "bhong" ( a water pipe). However, no matter which way it is smoked, the smoker will only have to wait a few minutes for the effects to begin. These effects will peak sometime between 15 minutes and an hour and gradually reduce over the next two hours. In general, the user will feel dreamy and uninhibited, have a greater awareness of sound, colour and texture. Thoughts and ideas will drift around the brain and the user will want to tell them to friends, to giggle and to eat a great deal - this latter effect being known as the "munchies". Stronger forms of cannabis, including "skunk", can heighten these effects and can, on occasion, bring on vomiting.
• Eating - the cannabis eater may have to wait up to ninety minutes for the effects to be noticeable. Whereas the smoker can simply stop smoking if he feels he has had too much, the cannabis eater has no such measure. There is no wastage of smoke floating into the atmosphere and so cannabis eaters needs less to feel similar effects to smokers. For some people then, the effects can be too intense to really enjoy.

What are the risks?

It could be said that the biggest risk with cannabis for a young person is being caught with it by parents, police, school or college, employer and so forth. Parents may worry that their child may move onto far "harder" drugs within a matter of weeks, the police may prosecute which leads to a criminal record and the resulting consequences, school or college may decide to exclude to protect other pupils or students, the employer may decide to sack the young person, and so on. All of these can be said to be more damaging in both the short and long term than the cannabis itself.

However, this is not to say that cannabis use in itself is risk free..

• Feelings of paranoia are quite common amongst new cannabis smokers and can affect more experienced users (although they are far less likely to admit it).
• Cannabis affects short-term memory - though this is temporary and only lasts while a person is intoxicated. Doing homework or any sort of reading or studying after smoking cannabis, therefore, may be ineffective.
• If cannabis is being smoked, it would be safe to assume that there are similar risks as smoking tobacco and can contribute to lung disease or cancer.
• Driving or operating machinery whilst intoxicated can result in accidents.
• Although there is no conclusive evidence that cannabis use during pregnancy affects the foetus, it is best that pregnant women try to avoid any non-necessary drug use during pregnancy.

The law

Cannabis is a Class C drug.

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