Cannabis, Hemp, Marijuana

I believe that as a valuable renewable resource hemp should be re-introduced into agriculture and that its drug products should be legalised for medical and recreational use and, in the latter case, be subject to regulations and taxes similar to those for alcohol and tobacco.

No one should be punished for consuming hemp in the privacy of his own home. Like alcohol, tobacco and even food, hemp can be abused (i.e. used excessively or under the wrong circumstances) but usually its effects are relatively benign.

It does not make sense to enforce laws in a way that causes far more harm to people's lives than the behaviour these laws are meant to discourage or prevent, especially if there is no "victim" other than the person being punished. Being locked up with violent criminals is far more dangerous than smoking hemp.

Documents on cannabis / hemp / marijuana

• Voices on prohibition is a collection of quotes by well known people on prohibition of recreational substances and the "war on drugs". Nobel prize winners, presidents, the head of Interpol and many others have spoken out against the status quo in drug policy.

• Luebeck State Court ruling (151 KB) . In 1990 a court of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein ruled that laws punishing small scale users of cannabis were violating the German constitution and referred the case to the Federal Constitutional Court. The ruling was well argued, citing expert witnesses, and based its findings on the relative dangers of the legal substance alcohol vs. the controlled substance cannabis. The subsequent Constitutional Court ruling, despite refusing to interfere with parliament's right to prohibit substances, acknowledged that the harms associated with modest Cannabis use were not sufficient to warrant criminal penalties to small scale users.

• Hemp as herbal medicine (1896) . This is a chapter from an old German herbalist book published in 1896 which quotes some of the numerous medical uses of Cannabis commonly known then.

• taima.org: Hemp in Japan. The long and rich history of cannabis in Japan has almost been forgotten after five decades of U.S. imposed strict prohibition.

• Medical uses of marijuana: Information about marijuana as a medicine.

• Pittsburgh Press series on forfeiture: The "war on drugs" in the U.S. has undermined the Bill of Rights to a point where the state can take people's property without ever charging them with a crime, let alone having to prove that they are guilty. In the "war on drugs" you are presumed guilty.

• DEA propaganda: Questions on drug policy that reformers are not afraid to answer.

• Books on marijuana and drug policy, with ISBNs and links to online book stores.

• How to add this button to your website!

International Government Publications

The World Health Organization (WHO)

• The WHO-report on Cannabis (the first in 15 years) that the World Health Organization doesn't want you to read.

National Drug Strategy papers on cannabis (Australia 1994):

• The health and psychological consequences
  of cannabis use
  
• Legislative options for cannabis use in Australia

Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport

• Drugs Policy in the Netherlands (Adobe PDF)
  
• Drugs Policy in the Netherlands (local HTML version)
  
• Trimbos-instituut (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction)

Websites and organizations on cannabis / hemp / marijuana:

• DRCNet Online Drug Policy Library is a great source of information on drug policy. Its DRCNet mailing list currently has over 4000 subscribers and provides one or two drug policy updates per week.

• Carl E. Olsen's Marijuana Archive is one of the best sites on the internet for information about marijuana. Carl E. Olsen of the Iowa Libertarian Party is a grassroots activist who has accumulated a treasure trove of documents on marijuana prohibition.

• The Drug Policy Alliance is a drug policy research institute supported by financier George Soros. Their site features full-text articles from the academic & popular press focusing on drug policy from economic, criminal justice, and public health perspectives. The Center also hosts an ongoing seminar series and sends out mailings regarding media events and new articles via both email and smail.

• Marijuana Policy Project is an organization lobbying in Washington D.C. towards a harm-reduction oriented marijuana policy.

• NORML is the longest established marijuana reform organization in the U.S. Their web site contains information on federal and state marijuana laws.

• The New Zealand Drug Foundation, a distinguished group of academicians and clinicians, released a discussion paper concerning the cannabis (marijuana) policy of the island nation. The paper, authored by Dr. David Hadorn, recommended several alternatives to prohibition, ranging from civil fines in place of criminal sanction, to a system of regulation, under which adults could buy cannabis legally from licensed vendors.

• taima.org is a new website dedicated to information about hemp in Japan. It covers history, religion, industrial and recreational use.

• The UK Cannabis Information is the best site in the UK for information on cannabis and cannabis policy.

• Cannabis Culture is one of the best magazines dedicated to cannabis culture, cultivation, etc.

• High Times is a magazine dedicated to marijuana culture, cultivation, etc.

• Quick Trading is Ed Rosenthals's own website, selling books and videos about marijuana, hemp, cultivation and the law. Ed Rosenthal is the author of the "Ask Ed" column in High Times (featured on this website) and a well known expert on marijuana cultivation. Age 18 and above only.

Websites in Japanese:

• Marui-san's website on taima. Marui-san is a lawyer and hemp activist in Shizuoka prefecture. He holds a license to grow hemp and in 1997 managed to obtain another hemp growing license for a local farmer, the first one in many years.

• Taima Do is a hemp shop in Tokyo.

Interesting websites by private individuals:

• N.P.Kaye's Marijuana Archive contains many articles and pictures off usenet, including the "Yield-O-Rama".

• Dave Olson's research on Hemp in Japan.