Is cannabis legalisation a feminist issue?

[traceyracer]

I know there are mixed views on the good/bad effects of cannabis but my understanding is it relaxes those who use it and violent acts from stoned people are virtually nil (compare that to drunks).

Do you think women would be safer in a nation where cannabis is legal and socially acceptable?

Hmm.

If it qere legal theres a risk more women would be at risk of violence. More likely to pick up slack for a stoned father (seen regularly on the relationship boards).

Women are mire likely to suffer from invisible illness that could be treated by cannabis.

Some research shows it ti be beneficial to women with morning sickness who cant eat and not dangerous when not smoked

Useful in labour.

No. My ex smoked loads of weed and he abused me. Has was paranoid and jealous. I thinks it's worse than alcohol tbh

Cannabis dependency (which we can expect to see more of if cannabis use is further normalised) is associated with increased risk of alcohol dependency. So, if anything, the effect is likely to be the opposite of the one you suggest, OP.

Also, there is (contested) research linking cannabis use to mental health issues. In particular, schizophrenia and anxiety. Generally seen as encouraging earlier/more severe onset in those already genetically predisposed. Mental health issues impact men and women differently (both on the basis of gender and sex) so there is potential for there to be feminist issues with how cannabis is legalised and it’s negative effects mitigated, especially if most policies are designed around male use.

However, women may find greater benefit from cannabis use than men, in terms of relaxing and from medical use, so there may also be arguments there.

Also, there is (contested) research yes, very contested and highly dubious.

A lot of women use cannabis, often as tea, for menopause and endometriosis.

IMO I find it ridiculous alcohol is legal but cannabis is not. The UK is one of the biggest exporters of cannabis for medical use and Theresa May’s husband has shares in a company that does this.

At the very least cannabis for medicinal use should be legalised.

Cannabis can be an incredibly helpful drug for a number of medical conditions, including chronic pain and fatigue.

It is completely insane that GPs are prevented from prescribing it to patients who need it, allegedly as there is insufficient research into it, while children are being prescribed harmful, experimental hormonal treatments for gender dysphoria on the NHS.

Where I live there are many elderly people who have cancer, chronic pain, arthritis and other conditions who have asked their GPs for cannabis but who are unable to get hold of it.

Meanwhile the streets smell of cannabis due to children and teenagers smoking it.

The current legal situation does nothing to stop kids taking cannabis, on the contrary it ploughs money into the hands of organised criminals and contributes towards kids getting recruited into county lines with all the associated risks to their physical and mental health.

yes, very contested and highly dubious

Not highly dubious at all. High quality research both finds links and doesn't find links. Over time there has been more and more high quality research finding links, but it's wasn't possible to research well until recently (because of laws that made it v. difficult to set up high quality experiments), it's difficult to get ethics clearance for trials that may harm people, some effects can be very long term, and cause and effect and compounding factors are, in any case, often difficult to distinguish. More research needed but it is very much not a matter of "highly dubious".

It's interesting to note all the countries and US states that have either decriminalised (eg Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, S.Africa) or legalised cannabis for recreation/medical (eg approx half of the USA, Canada, Uruguay) that after many years none of these places seem to have had an outbreak of mental health issues or schizophrenia.

Last Nov the UK legalised cannabis for medical use but I understand only certain specialists can prescribe it, you would need a very extreme case to get a prescription for it and the NHS won't fund it (you would have to pay the entire price yourself). But it's a start.

Portugal is an interesting case it decriminalised not just cannabis but possession of all drugs back in 2000 I think treating illicit drug use as a medical issue rather than a criminal one as users were given support rather than arrested (dealers are of course still treated criminally).

Also, there is (contested) research linking cannabis use to mental health issues. In particular, schizophrenia and anxiety. Generally seen as encouraging earlier/more severe onset in those already genetically predisposed.

Certainly if a person has an underlying MH issue such as schizophrenia smoking cannabis, especially high THC content cannabis, may make the illness manifest earlier than if the person concerned had not smoked cannabis. A direct causal factor is difficult to prove.

I think that the consensus is that it is a bad idea for children and teens to smoke cannabis as their brains are developing and that kids smoking cannabis is a bad idea, just like kids undergoing hormone treatment and GR surgery is a bad idea.

Unfortunately the current laws do nothing to stop kids smoking cannabis, on the contrary they encourage the consumption of cannabis by children.

It's not a feminist issue IMO. It doesn't disproportionately affect women.

There's a very thorough recent book by the (unfortunate) name of Tell Your Children that takes a comprehensive look at marijuana research over the years and across the globe and pretty thoroughly dismantles the case that it's a harmless drug. The journalist who wrote it, Alex Berenson, was inspired by the work of his wife, a psychiatrist who assesses criminals attempting to claim insanity defenses and who noted how so many of her most violent cases were smoking pot at the time (actually, "they all smoke" is what she says). It contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in the issue, but I'll confine myself to the bits on the links between marijuana and domestic violence:

• "A 2018 study in the journal Translational Issues in Psychological Science showed that among 269 men who had been court-ordered to treatment for domestic violence, marijuana use was associated with physical, psychological, and sexual violence, even after accounting for alcohol use":

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5663469/

• "A 2017 analysis of 11 previous studies in Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that marijuana use was associated with a 45 percent increase in violence during dating by adolescents and young adults, compared to a 70 percent increase for alcohol use":

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5521998/

• "A 2012 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined data from a federal study of 9,421 American teenagers over a 13-year-period. It found that marijuana use was associated with a near-doubling of the risk of committing domestic violence by age 26, even after accounting for factors such as depression and binge drinking ('We found that any use of marijuana during adolescence and young adulthood increases the risk of intimate partner violence')":

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782298/

So, in a way, it IS a feminist issue...but the other way around.

Kennebec I don’t think anyone would argue cannabis has a negative effect if taken in adolescents. I don’t think current laws do anything to prevent young people accessing it, possibly quite the opposite.

I believe also common strains found in London and Amsterdam, like skunk, smoked specifically, and abused ( daily, heavy use ) has some reasonable evidence of a connection to mental health issues and violence. Like most things, abuse is never a good idea.

Medicinal cannabis is quite different to the above.

Not if you use my ex as an example, no.

I don't support the use and abuse of intoxicating drugs, and certainly not if they are illegal and untested. The fact that alcohol is legal, a huge business, and has led to many social ills and health problems is no reason to decriminalize other drugs, and should instead be a cautionary tale in the consequences of legalization. I don't understand the logic of people who use that argument.

The fact that cannabis may have some medicinal benefits is an argument for more research and careful investigation, the same as with any other naturally occurring substance that has potential uses but also potential harms. It is not an argument for blanket legalization.

The only people can see benefiting from legalizing cannabis for any and all uses are those who stand to make a lot of money from the enterprise. I am not swayed by capitalists making full use of stories of suffering children to press their business case, and I am continually astonished that so many people are.

But, no, I don't think it's a feminist issue.

If it was legalised, people would grow their own though. I’m not supportive of legalisation for any and all use either.

@JessicaWakefieldSVH Reread my post. The studies cover adults as well as adolescents. There's a link between marijuana and domestic violence for both groups.

I've noticed a lot of people use the argument "street cannabis is now much more potent than it was x years ago, which means people are getting higher than they would like to which causes problems" for a reason to keep cannabis illegal.

Remember the US alcohol prohibition? All that happened was people were making and selling their own alcoholic drinks. People who drank them had no idea what the strength was and in some cases people were being blinded after drinking 99% ABV beverages.

That's what's happening today where cannabis is still illegal, people who use it have no idea what the potency is (or indeed what else is in it). Where people can buy it legally they will know exactly the potency of what they are buying (and thus know how much to consume to reach their desired effect) as well as the strain and the THC/CBD ratio (THC is what makes people high, but CBD is important for ensuring adverse side-effects are minimised).

I would like to see the UK Government doing research on this plant but unfortunately the catch is the fact it's illegal prevents official research (but doesn't stop the Government growing it anyway to sell abroad). Big pharmaceutical companies probably have a financially vested interest in keeping it illegal too

Sorry, I missed the first link on the study involving men who had been arrested for DV.

I would like to see the UK Government doing research on this plant but unfortunately the catch is the fact it's illegal prevents official research

Yes but research is being done more recently in other countries. I don’t know how much of it involves methods not involving smoking it though.

Maybe so. I still think unleashing another intoxicant like alcohol or tobacco onto the populace is a foolhardy response to the current issues. The cost, both financial and in terms of health and society breakdown, of trying to put the genie back in the bottle with those two drugs, is enormous. I fail to see why following the exact same pattern with cannabis will lead to a different outcome.

I fail to see why following the exact same pattern with cannabis will lead to a different outcome.

Well I would imagine the idea is not to follow that same pattern.
I don’t drink or smoke, but I’m not convinced making things completely illegal because they can cause harm if abused is the way to go either. Smoking, sure. Not convinced on alcohol- and my dad was an alcoholic.

For reference, I'll note that the link between marijuana and violence holds among both adolescents and adults for regular ol' violence as well as domestic violence. Again quoting from Berenson, linking the variety of studies he cites:

• A 2013 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence used data from a federal survey of more than 12,400 American high school students to examine the link between alcohol, marijuana, and aggression. The researchers' initial hypothesis, which they published as part of the paper, was that alcohol increased violence while marijuana reduced it.

Instead, they found that students who had recently used marijuana - but not alcohol - were more than three times as likely to be physically aggressive as those who abstained from both, even after adjusting for race and sex. Those who used alcohol, but not marijuana, were 2.7 times as likely. Those who used both were almost 6 times as likely:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260512468234

• A 2016 paper in Psychological Medicine examined marijuana use and criminal behavior among 400 boys in London who were followed for more than forty years beginning in 1961; their marijuana use was surveyed when they were 18, 32, and 48. The paper found that marijuana use at all three times was associated with a ninefold increase in violent behavior even after adjusting for other variables:

www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/continuity-of-cannabis-use-and-violent-offending-over-the-life-course/F8E66EC005BDA73865872BD1F398A567

• A 2008 paper in the European Journal of Public Health surveyed 3,000 vacationers aged 16 to 35 in the Spanish resorts of Ibiza and Majorca to find out what factors predicted fighting. Cannabis use doubled the risk. Surprisingly, alcohol use did not change it, expect for visitors who were drunk more than five days a week, who had a 3.5 times risk for fighting:

academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/18/6/569/577795

• A 2017 paper in ^Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology surveyed 2,000 young men in Britain and 4,000 in Chiina to see if different factors led to violence in the two countries. Drug abuse was far more common in Britain and associated with a fivefold increase in violence. The study didn't break out marijuana versus other drugs but noted that "young British men overwhelmingly reported misuse of cannabis." Alcohol abuse was associated with a threefold increase in violence:

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-017-1420-y

Kennebec thanks for adding all those links, it’s interesting, will take a closer look later.

Yes, I agree that making alcohol or tobacco illegal will not help in those cases. You can't put toothpaste back in the tube and so on.

I support a full investigation into the medical benefits of whatever element in cannabis actually helps people who report a benefit. For their sake, that positives as well as the negatives should be fully explored, the same as any other medicine. That is a responsible course of action.

But the increasing clamour for legalization just looks like a wedge, and when an increased possibility of psychosis is beginning to be shown clearly as a side effect, I think that it's more than a little concerning.

Apart from anything else, I currently have zero trust in our ruling classes and the legislature to produce any kind of way forward that will not be a complete dogs breakfast with unintended consequences galore.

I think a conservative approach to a potential danger is realistic when the door is already shut. Once you open it, the game changes entirely. Id prefer not to have to deal with problems any more retrospectively than we already do.

Both of my abusive exes were heavy cannabis smokers, the proliferation of 'flavours' is concerning to me, having tried it, it's far far more potent than skunk which I smoked for years in my teens. I would like to see it legalised and regulated, then the more useful strains that are lower in THC and higher in CBD can be pushed rather than the THC stuff that affects people so strongly.