Comment: UK HOC Home Affairs Committee hearing on drugs

Comment by Manuel Pinto Coelho MD, PhD; Chairman of APLD – Associação para um Portugal Livre de Drogas

David Nutt (DN) quoted: “there is a very exaggerated perception about the harms of drugs”
Definitely DN is a very brave man (living in a very civilized country). It is obvious he is not afraid to deal with countless parents’ children overdoses, mental deterioration or physical decay induced by DN´ s “harmless” drugs. Moreover I am sure he never visited a drug rehabilitation center or one of the growing number of facilities who care for DN´ s “harmless” drug victims i

“Alcohol is considerably more dangerous than cannabis”
Idem to the growing number of parents visiting their sons and daughters who, despite their youth, are suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis/schizophrenia.

“Portuguese model”
No one in Great Britain or in the rest of the world should believe in this ludicrous/pathetic “role model” any more.

“We can measure each harm of each drug. Everything is harmful – this is harmful” (while shaking a glass of water)
False. Drugs harm depends much more on the host characteristics than the drug characteristics. Everybody knows, except DN obviously, that a “light” drug used by a teenager (with an immature nervous central system) can be much more harmful than a “hard” one used by an adult.As for considering water a harmful beverage – just another pathetic intervention that discredits his credibility before UK Parliament officials.

About addictive behavior Dr. Les King (LK) quoted:”Methadone is not as addictive as heroin”.
LK is right. Methadone is not as addictive as heroin. It is five times more addictive! Furthermore LK should be taught that the methadone withdrawal syndrome is much more painful and difficult than that of heroin.

LK continues: “Criminality is only connected to heroin and cocaine”.
False. As methadone is more addictive and toxic than heroin, badly controlled distribution of methadone is “responsible” for criminality as well. Someone should invite LK to visit Denmark, which is the European country with the largest number of methadone-related deaths.

LK: “There is little criminality in connection with cannabis”.

False. Dr. K. F. Gunning, former president of the Dutch National Committee on Drug Prevention, cited some revealing statistics about drug abuse and crime. Cannabis use among students increased 250 percent from 1984 to 1992. During the same period, shootings rose 40 percent, car thefts increased 62 percent, and holdups rose 69 percent (K. F. Gunning, “Statistics on the Netherlands,” President, Dutch National Committee on Drug Prevention, Rotterdam, Holland 22 September 1993).
In “Marijuana Legalization: The Issues” (March 2012) – www.healthydrugfreecolorado, it is revealed that a study by the U.S. Department of Justice showed that 35% of inmates reported they were under the influence of drugs at the time they committed their crime. Marijuana and hashish were cited as the most frequently used at the time of the crime (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Profiles of State Prison Inmates,” 1988.) In the same paper a study published in the International Journal of Addiction involving interviews with 268 inmates in New York prison for homicide revealed that 70% had used marijuana within twenty-four hours of committing the crime and felt they experienced some effect of the drug at the time of the crime (David Evans, executive director, Drug Free Projects Coalition, “In Support of the United Nations Drug Convention, the Arguments Against Illicit Drug Legislation and Harm Reduction,” 2009). Finally, a study conducted in Denver, Colorado revealed that 39% of violent crime arrestees and 34% of domestic crime arrestees tested positive for marijuana” (Colorado Drug Investigators Association, “Talking Points on Marijuana,” 2009).

Talking about alcohol-related criminality, DNcontinues: “If cannabis was legal people would switch from alcohol to cannabis, in that way lowering the alcohol use. Significantly less harm with alcohol would happen if people used more cannabis.” DN´s statement provides a very original idea to governments worldwide to tackle street and public criminality: Legalize bank robbery!

Finally, when asked what would happen if drugs were decriminalized or legalized worldwide, Mrs. Annete Dale Guerra stated “nobody knows”.
That is not correct. That has been tested before with very bad results. In England and Sweden doctors were authorized to prescribe opioids and the result was a sudden rise of dependency, related criminality, and social misery.