1968 - British Doc endorses cannabis use

~Zen~ · Aug 20, 2010

In the news from Britain via the Guardian comes this historical perspective on cannabis use.

From the archive, 13 August 1968: Doctor says 'pot' preferable to some activities

Originally published in the Guardian on 13 August 1968

A strong and impassioned case for a "more realistic" view of cannabis smoking was made by Dr Nicolas Malleson, director of Student Health Service of the University of London, yesterday. Dr Malleson, who is a member of the Home Office advisory committee on drug dependency, said cannabis was not a dangerous drug, and it was high time that people looked more seriously at the reasons behind the young who failed or became alienated from society and less at cannabis, which presented a "very very minor problem."

Speaking at the International Congress of the World Federation of Mental Health, at Holland Park School in London, he recalled the terrifying things people once said about masturbation and coffee. About one in ten of his students used pot fairly regularly. It presented no medical problems to him as a psychiatrist and the students were able to maintain perfectly adequate lives.

There were no clinical grounds for thinking the drug was dangerous, and [no] evidence that cannabis played any part in causing alienation of youth from society. It was important that doctors and social workers did not lose the young's confidence by telling them of the dangers of pot when it is not dangerous at all and young people knew it.

Dr Malleson did not say that the drug should be legalised. The effect of any drug depended on the social environment, the dose, and the person taking it. Cannabis was like sex: you could catch syphilis, but sex itself was not a bad thing because of that. He would rather his two adolescent sons smoked cannabis on alternate weekends – provided they were not caught – than they raced around on motor-cycles, got drunk on alcohol, or got their girl friends into trouble.

The degree of sophistication was too much for some. Dr Elizabeth Tylden, psychiatric assistant at University College Hospital, was so incensed by Dr Malleson that her prepared speech, with allegations that teachers gave pot parties and provided a useful source of the drug, went almost out of the window. She brought her audience back to first principles, back to explanations of what "stoned out of your mind" really meant, which brought a wry acknowledgment from some expert Americans in the audience.

Dr Tylden first met marijuana in all the seriousness it now has for her when her children asked for treatment of a friend, whom she diagnosed as a schizophrenic. It turned out he was stoned. Since then she has collated information on the incidence and gravity of pot smoking among the young, based on information from smokers themselves. "This is not fun and games with masturbation – it is people I know."
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Dude111 · Aug 29, 2011

Good article!!!

1968 was BEFORE the medical industry became mostly nothing but a SCAM to get as much $$$$ coming in as possible........ (And with Cannibus they cant get any $$$ w/o properly adopting it)

Rocklobster · Aug 30, 2011

Thats actually quite a funny artical.

Funny how things were simpler back then. now days to keep there selfs in jobs everything must have a box and if there is.nt one then they make one.

McLeodGanja · Aug 30, 2011

No link for that then?

Dude111 · Aug 31, 2011

I found this here

www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/aug/13/archive-doctor-says-pot-preferable

Rocklobster · Sep 1, 2011

doctors endorsed smoking once

Beefy1980 · Sep 5, 2011

A lot of doctors will tell you its probably a good thing if you tell them your smoking weed or cigarettes. They probably determine it on a case to case basis though

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1968 - British Doc endorses cannabis use

~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

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1968 - British Doc endorses cannabis use

~Zen~ California Tripper Administrator

Dude111 An Awesome Dude

Rocklobster Senior Member

McLeodGanja Banned

Dude111 An Awesome Dude

Rocklobster Senior Member

Beefy1980 Member

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