Medical use cases like Billy Caldwell’s aside — this is why we need cannabis control
I’M not the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when sense was seen and 12-year-old Billy Caldwell was granted a licence for the use of cannabis oil to treat his severe epilepsy.
Last week, officials at Heathrow confiscated Billy’s supply of the oil after his mother attempted to bring it into the UK from Canada — because it contains the substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is illegal in the UK.
But his mother, pictured with Billy, says his seizures are reduced when he takes the oil and wants it to be freely available.
Partly as a result of Billy’s case, the Government is now creating an expert panel to look into individual cases — which is great.
I am all for the controlled use of medical cannabis oil, especially if it is life-saving, as Billy’s mother says it is. But while I support it for medical use, I couldn’t be more against cannabis being legalised for recreational purposes, as some people were quick to suggest it should be this week.
If cannabis is legal, people will think it is safe — but it is not.
It slows your brain and makes you spaced out and unmotivated. But it’s also bad for your lungs and bad for your heart. And cannabis smokers are more likely to develop mental health problems such as schizophrenia and depression.
It’s also highly addictive. Studies show up to one in ten users develops dependence on the drug over time.
Stopping using it can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and irritability.
Making it legal will mean more people will use it and more people will become addicted.
The other thing that people forget when they compare it to, say, a glass of wine, is that cannabis itself is getting stronger. The stuff people used to smoke in the Sixties was around one per cent THC — levels today can be over 30 per cent. But my fears are not just about cannabis. I genuinely believe it starts with cannabis and finishes with heroin. Addiction experts agree, regarding weed as a gateway drug that potentially introduces users to more serious substance abuse.
Research in New Zealand found regular cannabis users were 60 times more likely to try other illicit drugs than young people who had never smoked cannabis.
The more you take any drug, the more you mix with people who take it.
The more immersed you are in that drugs culture, the more you think it’s OK to take drugs.
Obviously, one big question in the mind of all parents is how to talk to our children about drugs.
Of course, when kids are young they want to experiment.
But without being alarmist, it’s important to be really honest with them about the possible downsides of taking drugs so they have a healthy fear of what might happen if they do.
I certainly grew up terrified that if I took drugs I’d end up in a very bad place indeed.
As a result, the one and only time I’ve been offered a pill, and felt peer pressure to take it, was as a teenager — and I flushed it down the toilet.
I have never taken a drug in my life. And none of my friends take them either.
We’re always hearing about middle-class dinner parties being dens of iniquity, but not the ones I go to. I’m sure that has a bearing on our kids.
But the most helpful thing you can teach your children is to resist peer pressure. If they don’t want to do something then they should be strong enough not to.
We certainly had a frank discussion with our kids when they were teenagers. I told them all my concerns about drugs. I told them that choosing to take drugs interferes with the path of life you take, because it’s impossible to be stoned and productive.
On which note, I’d say it’s almost impossible not to notice if your kids are taking drugs, so this is something all parents should tune into.
Above all, I tried to keep communication channels open. I told them to talk to us if they were curious about drugs.
Most parents don’t judge. Having said that, I’d rip my kids’ heads off if I thought they were taking drugs.
And if I thought the Government was considering giving this dangerous drug the OK, I’d have a similar reaction.
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The beauty-full game
I KNOW it’s the World Cup and I AM focused on the football, honest.
But also, forget for a moment how well our boys are doing – look at our wags, Fern Hawkins, Rebekah Vardy and Annabel Peyton. Best-looking bunch in the world.
End to skirting around the law
THE practice of upskirting – taking a photo under a woman’s skirt without her knowledge or consent – is nothing new. It’s been going on for ages.
It’s just that mobile phones have made it possible for any saddo to have a go at violating a woman’s privacy.
It’s a sort of adult, and much more serious, version of the boys who used to lift up girls’ skirts in the playground – because they could.
It’s a way of asserting power and control over women.
I’d just like to get some things clear about upskirting, a term which is misleading as it sounds so frivolous – it’s sexual assault and that’s what we should start calling it.
It’s an abuse of women, a real violation, and any man that gets a kick out of doing it deserves as much jail time as we can give him.
And it has nothing whatsoever to do with what a woman chooses to wear, despite what lawyer Nick “Mr Loophole” Freeman says.
He recently tweeted: “While this is totally unacceptable conduct, if women assumed some responsibility for their attire, they would not be in jeopardy.”
Luckily, this point was so obviously outrageous that Freeman’s daughter, Sophie, tweeted him to say this was “one of the top three stupidest comments you’ve ever made”.
I dread to think what the other two might be.
But the very idea that men can’t be expected to control themselves, or stop themselves from photographing women’s crotches if one is provocative enough to wear a skirt, is as preposterous as suggesting that women who are raped are “asking for it”.
Thankfully, legislation making upskirting a criminal offence is to be introduced by the Government.
If passed, offenders will face up to two years in prison.
Good. About bloody time.
Bros and brows
NEW boy on Love Island Sam Bird has come under fire on social media for having mismatched eyebrows and some people are telling him to sack his beautician.
I’m so naive. Seriously, do men pluck their eyebrows now? Apparently so.
But really, that’s neither here nor there.
So what if Sam plucks his brows? And so what if his brows are mismatched?
Why do both men and women have to be perfect these days?
A Blue movie-in
BEYONCE and Jay Z’s daughter, Blue Ivy, turned away, shielded her eyes then ducked behind a barrier to block her view of the extremely raunchy video that’s part of her parents’ stage show tour this week.
I guess she was forced to come face-to-face with the ultimate taboo – her parents appearing to have sex.
She’s only six but it looks like she’s got more sense than her parents, who should never have let her go to the show in the first place.
Parents schooled on mobiles
OFSTED chief Amanda Spielman has said the arguments for having mobile phones in schools are “dubious at best” and phones make life “miserable” for teachers trying to deliver lessons.
She says Ofsted will give full support to schools which ban phones altogether.
Which, of course, they should.
But also. . . maybe parents should instil a bit of discipline in their kids before they even get to school and stop them from being glued to their screens 24/7.
Mum's the nerd
WHAT is it about women who claim their daughters are their “best friends” and “more like a sister”?
This week I read about a woman called Louise Smith, 42, and her daughter Ellie, 22, who often go on nights out and to pool parties in Ibiza together.
Ignoring their 20-year age gap, they describe themselves as “best friends”, swap clothes and say they do everything together.
Something about this story makes me sad. A mother is meant to be a mother, not a best friend.
A daughter should be going out with her friends, who should be her own age.
But it’s the mother who should GROW up.