Is there a feminist position on legality of cannabis?

[fayyive]

A Google search brings up a surprisingly number of results. Most seem in favour for reasons including relief of menstruation discomfort (Queen Victoria allegedly used cannabis for this), to aid recovery of rape survivors, and to break the stereotype of recreational cannabis use being a "guy thing".

Opinions?

The reason most cannabis is now strongeris down to it being illegal though - when penalties for possession and trafficking are based on the weight of a drug, there's a commercial reason to encourage more potent versions of it (see also crack cocaine).
Where cannabis is legal, skunk isn't popular.

When I was in a country that didn't provide gas and air (pretty much straight to epidural) I did as much research as I could find on the effects of cannabis and labour and pregnancy. From what I could see from people who bothered to research it, it seemed fairly safe (shouldn't be smoked obviously) and unlikely to cause long term issues for babies and that the main problem was that statistics tend to lump all drugs together when it comes to birth defects and dangers for babies.

So I actually think if we have something that can make women feel comfortable in their labours and pregnancy and are denying it to them while offering drugs that are known to cause complications in labours (epidural etc) .. I do think that is a feminist issue.

I know several women who suffer from fibromyalgia (an illness that affects more women than men) who would appreciate the pain relief benefits of cannabis but who are legally not allowed to use it. 80% of people with auto immune disorders are also women who might benefit from it too.

*In the end I didn't use it because I found that my children could be taken away if I were found to have consumed it during pregnancy. And I suppose also be at risk of arrest. Apparently routine testing of first nappies happened there This to me is also a fucking huge feminist issue.

Hmm actually, i wonder if it is a feminist issue? Women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain than men and legal prescription drugs are crap at treating it, whereas cannabis is supposed to be better? So an issue that is more likely to negatively affect women is at the control of men, again...

X post!!

A friend did say she self-medicated with cannabis in the earlier stages of labour for one of her births.

It's odd that there hasn't been so much research into medical cannabis use until recently - after all, we've been using opiates in a formal medical context forever, but it's not legal to use them unless they're properly controlled (you have to ask the pharmacist for stuff containing codeine, I think.)

My morphine comes seperately packaged to the rest of my meds, with "controlled substance" stamped all over it. No reason the same couldnt be done for cannabis. It doesnt have to be fully legal vs illegal. But anyway, irrelevant tothis thread

An MP told me the main sticking point with decriminalising cannabis (aside from the US-led UN moralistic view that drugs=bad) is the lack of a test to tell whether someone is still under the influence, as opposed to used some weed in the last few weeks.

Personally I think being able to use it for pain relief even if you were then banned from driving for 3 weeks would be progress. With most drugs you get to decide yourself if you're fit to drive - right now I've taken enough codeine I shouldn't drive, but legally if I thought I was ok, I would be able to.

I'm not certain about this stoners stay home giggling thing. I don't have much experience with drugs, and sure, some mates were quiet laid back stoners, but I had a boyfriend who turned positively malevolent after a couple of cannabis roll ups. I had always classed it much like alcohol - that most people were fine and just got a bit shiny, but some people totally change after consumption.

I thought they'd been working on a test to see if you were clear to drive. Though even if they were, that doesn't mean it has worked as hoped so far.

Isn't that why heroin is more popular in prison than cannabis?

Because cannabis will show up in a test weeks later while heroin clears out of the system after a couple of days?

Not read full thread yet so excuse me if someone's covered this already.

Read a book not so long back, struggling to remember title or author, but covered prohibition of drugs as well as alcohol. From memory: cannabis is illegal because the hemp manufacturers lost. I forget what product won (paper? alternative sources of rope? v v sketchy memory). But basically two products in competition, one is hemp, opponents fight to have its cultivation criminalised so their alternative-to-hemp product corners the market.

I think cotton in the USA - the first jeans were made from hemp.

It was grown extensively in Elizabethan England, as it made the rope used in ships etc, etc. Towns like Bridport had their fortunes made on it (Bridport still makes the nets used at Wimbledon and in most top-level football pitches among other things. Just not from hemp these days.) It's an incredibly useful plant - not just rope, but fabric, paper, animal bedding, and so on, plus there are lots of things you can do with its oil, not just as a good source of omega 3 & 6.

You can grow cannabis in the UK under licence (as you can opium poppies), but the varieties used for fibre are not usually the same as the ones for drugs.

I live in the United States, in a state where possession of recreational cannabis is 100% legal. Since starting daily use of cannabis (yes, very strong stuff, though I don't think anyone here would call it "skunk" without a skunky scent--the stuff I'm vaping right now as I type this is called Palouse Peach, and it has a fruity, floral odor), my migraines went from several per month to about one per year. I also saw my university GPA go from a 3.2 to a 3.8 because my anxiety was finally controllable enough for me to attend classes.

Sooooo...I know it won't work for everyone. And that some people have significant negative effects. But for me, it's been an incredible relief and doesn't have the brain-deadening sensation of Xanax or its insane withdrawals. But I moved to this state just this week because I could get this stuff legally here with no problems, just an ID. Any doctor would be happy to give me a prescription for habit-forming benzos for the anxiety or brain-fog-inducing Topamax for the migraines ... but I'd be miserable. I've been down those roads. Now I can actually laugh again.

"Well over 80% (possibly nearer 90% now, I don't know) of cannabis sold in the UK is skunk. That is a very different drug to the one that used to be sold 30 years ago resulting in harmless "stoners" (it has a very high concentration of THCs and no cannabidiols and it's the reason cannabis was re-classified from class C to class B)"

IMO the fact "skunk" is thought to lead to an increase in psychosis whereas lower-potency hash does not would actually help the argument of legalising cannabis. If cannabis were legal then users would know the strength of what they were buying and thus would be able to easily avoid "skunk". When it's illegal buyers don't get to choose the strength, they just have to smoke whatever it is the local dealer gives them.

It's interesting to note that the Government's Advisory Council actually advised the then-PM Gordon Brown against returning cannabis to class B, but Brown went ahead and reclassified it back to class B anyway.

"I'm not certain about this stoners stay home giggling thing. I don't have much experience with drugs, and sure, some mates were quiet laid back stoners, but I had a boyfriend who turned positively malevolent after a couple of cannabis roll ups."

I think most or all drugs affect everyone different and any given recreational drug will have users who can have a safe and enjoyable time on it and others who have an unpleasant time and cause a risk to themselves or others. It's all down to the individual's responsibility to avoid things that don't go down well with them.

"Women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain than men and legal prescription drugs are crap at treating it, whereas cannabis is supposed to be better"

Cannabis is also wayyy less addictive than prescription-strength painkillers.

Jackieharris
"The negative health effects of drugs tend to be stronger I women because we have smaller livers and less blood."

Women also tend to be more fat than men.

I wonder how much public funding it would take to get the pharma companies to test female as well as male subjects.

I dont see it as a feminist issue. I see it as an issue for personal liberty that is just as important for any sex/gender.

"The negative health effects of drugs tend to be stronger I women because we have smaller livers and less blood."

Which means to achieve the desired effect a typical woman would need a smaller does than a typical man would. Another reason why knowing the strength and potency is important.

If a young person going through an experimental phrase were to buy a pill of (something illegal) of unknown strength from a street dealer and the strength of the pill turned out to be far stronger than expected, a guy's body would likely be better able to withstand the negative effects than a woman would.

I'd be interested to see stats for drug overdoses and if they're gendered. Anecdotally, I've never known any women who've died from overdosing, only men. So I suspect there are other complicating factors.

Not convinced it's a feminist issue though - the illegality causes major problems for potential users of either sex.

"Women also tend to be more fat than men." Not they don't. They have a higher percentage of body fat, naturally. But if you look at overweight/obese categories then there is quite an even split between men and women not that you'd know it if you watched diet ads and looked at women's/men's magazines.