This might be the only article I will write on this issue. Not because it does not merit adequate and sufficient attention, but because this government pretends to raise topics for discussion when it has already decided what it is going to do, so in effect there is no real debate but only a semblance of one. Before the live and let live ‘do whatever you like’ brigade starts to regale us with the benefits of a liberal philosophical approach to let everyone get stoned to high heaven. And before all exponents of the subjective philosophies that exist start to spew out sophisms to a nauseating degree, I should state that I found it extremely insensitive that the first comments to allow the liberal legal use of marijuana were made by the Minister of Health Dr Chris Fearne and Deputy Prime Minister!
This nation ought to ask itself certain questions. Granted that the use of drugs is such a blight on our society and especially our young people, and granted that the state and civil society including the Church spend so much energy, human resources and money to correct the wrongs that drug abuse brings about. We already have problems with all types of drugs and alcohol in particular, so do we need to add another problem or do we need to make the situation better? I am not countering that there might be some future medical use for ‘Pot’, in which case it should be available by prescription and under medical supervision alone, but I am alluding to the widespread personal choice of free use which would add to the problems we already have.
Do we really need to have a stoned nation with all the implications that this goes with it for work, health, driving and social fall-out. The constant use of marijuana causes both short term and long-term damage to the individuals who use it. It causes social upheavals but, most important of all, for many it is a prelude to entering the evil world of drug use on a higher scale. Sixty per cent of adolescents who smoke marijuana go on to use cocaine and then heroin! It is a prelude to the use of cocaine which is unfortunately already socially widespread in Malta and ultimately to the Babel of heroin which surrounds me every day of my working life. I worked in psychiatry as a junior doctor and come across these cases every day in general practice now. I see the destruction these drugs cause to young people, adults and families and I see the destabilising and confusing effect drugs have on educational and other establishments and also on the work ethic of a nation. Western society needs to look to Eastern Asian countries who were first exposed to the spectre of social drug use long before we had, and see the havoc that this has caused to their social landscape to the point that their approach is more heavy-handed if somewhat demeaning and undignified to humans. To let up on drug control rather than to show a zero policy approach to drug use and drug trade is tantamount to national suicide. I will just list a few of the immediate and long-term use of marijuana that has bothered medical science. The short-term effects include short-term memory problems, severe anxiety, including fear that one is being watched or followed (paranoia), very strange behaviour, seeing or hearing or smelling things that are not there, not being able to tell imagination from reality (psychosis), panic, hallucinations, loss of sense of personal identity, lowered reaction time, increased heart rate (risk of heart attack), increased risk of stroke, problems with coordination (impairing safe driving or playing sports), sexual problems (for males), and up to seven times more likely to contract sexually transmitted infections than non-users (for females).
The long-term effects include decline in IQ (up to 8 points if prolonged use started during adolescence); poor school performance and higher chance of dropping out; impaired thinking and ability to learn and perform complex tasks, lower life satisfaction, addiction to marijuana itself (about nine per cent of adults and 17 per cent of people who started smoking it in their teens), potential development of opiate abuse, relationship problems, intimate partner violence, antisocial behaviour including stealing money or lying, financial difficulties, increased welfare dependence and a greater chance of being unemployed or not getting good jobs.
Well, I do not know about other people, but I do not want to add these woes to my political, social and economic daily life as a state. The government’s latest flirting with this idea and issue should be wholly and resoundingly rejected! I have picked up and still pick up the human and family pieces of what remains of dignity after drug use. I do not wish this evil on anybody else around me, neither do I wish to lend support to an accommodating ‘drug culture’ by society. The PN and civil society should resoundingly reject this idea and if they do not, then we are simply letting ourselves in for a much harder time socially and economically and a much heavier expenditure on our financial social budget in the near future!
I will leave you with some food for thought with a quote from one of those brought down by drug use.
“I was given my first joint in the playground of my school. I’m a heroin addict now, and I’ve just finished my eighth treatment for drug addiction.”
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Dr Asciak is Senior Lecturer II in Applied Science at MCAST