worked for several years as a group therapy leader in the forensic section of a large psychiatric hospital in South Africa, mostly in their maximum security ward. Many of my friends in that group were multiple murderers and the focus of my therapy was the development of a sense of responsibility for their personal actions. I called it 'nouthetic counseling', from the New Testament Greek word for confront/correct/admonish (encouraged by Jay Adam's in his book Competent to Counsel) because the therapy was designed to confront the individual with responsibility for personal choice and its consequence.

primary common factor among these men was not race, education, or background. It was the high level of consistent marijuana use, particularly in combination with alcohol, during their brain's formation phase, from late childhood into early adulthood. Their natural empathy for others was simply non-functioning.

The idea has often been expressed that marijuana relaxes the smoker and so promotes peace. It does seem to do that, but this is as a side-effect of a don't-care attitude with ominous implications.

South African marijuana is known to have a stronger effect when smoked through a bottle-neck because the venturi effect raises its burn temperature to where it undergoes a chemical transition that gives it a far greater impact in leaping the blood-brain barrier.

Yet, in spite of the calming effect of a don't-care attitude, marijuana/hashish's history in Africa is specially associated with vicious actions.

Zulu impis (regiments) are reported to have used it before each battle in earlier times, and in more recent conflict, associated with the independence of the Congo from Belgium, marauding groups calling themselves 'Simbas' stoked themselves high on marijuana before attacking towns with wildly care-free violence and vicious cruelty.

In my forensic psychiatry therapy group, those with a heavy use of marijuana during their teenage brain development phase seemed to not need to be aroused in order to perpetrate the worst of crimes. Cutting someone's throat while smiling after shaking hands was quite easy. Their natural human empathy was totally gone!

Then I discovered the origin of the word assassin: 'hashish', from the Arabic word for marijuana because of its psycopathic-effect in the human brain. So it has a history of violence!

Whereas Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor's Body-guard, according to sworn testimony before his Hague tribunal in the International Criminal Court, were required to eat human flesh once a week simply to destroy any empathy/feeling for other humans, marijuana achieves a similar result in young brains over time far more gently if less dramatically.

the anti-prohibition argument then, consistency is called for – and therefore the total lifting of the prohibition on the free sale of medicines without a doctor's authorisation/prescription, should also follow. Legal restrictions and their policing take a lot of time and money that could be spent on other things. Unrestricted merchandising of medicines would certainly bring the prices down and save the cost of a medical consultation unless the person really wanted it. Perhaps?

Concerning Cannabis: could we do that to our neighbour in the vote we register?