Cannabis: Drugs are bad, (m'kay)

Of all the drugs in all the world, illegal ones are by far the most 'cool'.

Sadly this doesn't amount to the level of street cred films and American TV shows give it, since generally drug users which every day people come into contact are frowned upon, just as cigarette smokers are beginning to be more and more.

Today campaigners for mental health called for warnings on the dangers of cannabis use to be printed on hand-rolled cigarette papers. The company in question, Imperial tobacco, which owns Rizla; the best selling brand of cigarette papers in the UK.

The campaign has been launched by Rethink, a national mental health charity, to call attention to how the company is 'being irresponsible' over it's marketing and representation, claiming more members of the public associate the product with cannabis than tobacco.

It's true Risla's are popular among the cannabis smoking festival crowd at least, since year after year the grass at Reading Festival the floor is littered with empty packets, but there are many other negative associations which haven't had attention called to them to the extent of a campaign.

In many ways it isn't the company's fault, the product they sell just happens to have a use which is outside the realms of the law, but how far can that defence hold? Are Limewire, Morpheus and other p2p programs innocent of the piracy going on within them?

Whether the company intended it to be used that way or not, what is true is that warnings do have an impact, and cannabis is a rising concern for police, particularly in young people, since it was down classified to a class C drug in 2004, which led to many young people now believing it to be 'basically legal'.

The head of campaigns at Rethink, Jane Harris, said:

'Health warnings work: 12% of people quit smoking as a result of warnings on
cigarette packets. Our research shows that young people want this information -
we think they should receive it as a right.'

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7226058.stm

Despite the negative press and public scepticism the company remains adamant, a spokesman said:

'We don't endorse the illegal use of cannabis using any of our products, and we
meet all the legal requirements with regard to packaging'.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7226058.stm

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Now playing: The Vapors - Turning Japanese
via FoxyTunes

Introduction and Britain's water supply

So, 'blogs', they tell me.

I was under the impression they were just something to update people about the latest Big Brother gossip or rant about things they don't like, like a glorified letters section of a broadsheet or, heaven forbid, electronic agony aunt stories.

In fact there's a code of conduct, a list of ethics by which we should all abide. Many are obvious such as don't copy people without asking or clearly distinguish opinion from fact, but others are more cryptic, such as 'recognise common standards of decency', which raises the question what the definition of all those words is in this complex modern world.

I suppose in order to fill the aforementioned criteria I should point out that they came from an information pack for my Journalism module, for which this blog was created.

We have been split into groups of our own choosing and must each tackle a topic from the following four: Sport, Entertainment, Health and Politics. Since my group members (who's blogs you can find in the links list on the right) chose politics and entertainment, I chose health, since I have no strong interest in sport whatsoever.

So, without further ado I must endeavour to educate about health, but first what is health? It could mean the National Health Service, which has had numerous trials and tribulations over the last decade to do with improvement of services and efficiency, or perhaps it refers to the day to day health of people and the onslaught of healthy eating and living, or even how new diets and new packaging on products in our supermarkets drive us towards 'the healthy option' in a move by government watchdogs to attempt to combat obesity.

Today health ministers have said they back plans to add fluoride to drinking water, because it strengthens children's teeth. Fluoride itself, commonly found in and advertised on toothpaste tubes across the country, is found in around 10% of the country's water supply, but only a couple of areas, namely Hartlepool in the North West and parts of Essex, have high enough level to benefit dental health. (source: http://www.dentalhealth.org.uk/faqs/leafletdetail.php?LeafletID=17)

This is what has led to the idea of intruducing it into the water supply as: "effective and relatively easy way" to reduce tooth decay among children in poorer areas. (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7224743.stm) Opponents to the idea claim there is risk of bone cancer from increased levels of the element, and it's difficult to know how long-term exposure could effect children, since the 6 million people already benefiting from the increased levels in the North West are a minority of the total population, and many water companies are apprehensive to take the idea forward, despite MPs making the process easier in 2003.