Cannabis today got 40 to 80% higher than in the 60s

Association celebrates 30 years anniversary with the distribution of a new flyer about the dangers of cannabis from information tent at the Main Train Station in Copenhagen

Despite snow and cold weather, volunteers from the association Say No to drugs, say Yes to life Saturday set up their information tent at the main train station in Copenhagen, where they handed out flyers and booklets with information about the dangers of drugs. The association has just printed 40,000 flyers about the harmful effects of cannabis, as their contribution to the debate that has taken place in Copenhagen during the municipal election campaign on the legalization of the drug.

Victoria Mortensen, one of the volunteers in the association, said: “We actually don’t go into the discussion about legalization, because there can be many opinions about it. What we want to achieve is for people to understand what it can mean for them to use cannabis in the long run. Because if you know, we believe that most people will simply say No Thanks!”

Some of the facts the association highlights are that cannabis today is far stronger than it was in the past. The strength of cannabis today is approx. 40% higher and can be up to 80% higher than in the 60s. This means that cannabis is a much stronger drug today and that you, therefore, run a much greater risk by using it and this is especially a problem because cannabis is the substance that young people experiment with. It can also be seen in the statistics, which show that out of the young people between 18 and 25 who are in treatment for an addiction, over 70% are in treatment for cannabis addiction, a figure which back in 2003 was only 43%.

Giorgio Sereni, who is the daily leader of the association, said that he had talked to several young men from Vesterbro, who had become addicted to cannabis. Vesterbro is where the train station is located and is known as a main hash district of Copenhagen.

Giorgio said to The European Times that: “These two young men both told me that they first started smoking cannabis to have fun, but that they surprisingly fast became both physically and mentally slow and did not care what was going on around them. After a good chat, they admitted that it was really something they wanted to get out of, but they did not really have the energy and drive to do anything about it. So our 40,000 flyers just need to be handed out here in the area as fast as possible.”

The flyer describes how cannabis can affect both your physical and mental well-being. It can affect the ability to concentrate and make one lethargic and indifferent, making it harder to solve completely ordinary problems. Something that can make it difficult to keep up with school or manage work.

Some simply find that they almost got stuck in their lives. It is well known that smoking is harmful to health, but in fact, smoking cannabis is even more harmful to health and in the long run, cancer occurs 5 to 10 times more frequently in cannabis smokers than in cigarette smokers.

The association Say No to drugs, say Yes to life was founded at Vesterbro in 1991 – and this year celebrates its 30th anniversary of work informing about the dangers of drugs. The association was founded in collaboration with the Church of Scientology Denmark and is inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion, who wrote: “Research has shown that drugs are the single, most destructive element in our culture today.”

For the last 15 years, the association has been part of the international information campaign The Truth About Drugs, which today makes teaching materials available free of charge to educators around the world.