Police swoop in cannabis raid (From The Oxford Times)

It is mentioned here that not only was Cannabis found, but some class A drug was found as well. This happens because of the way all drugs are lumped in together in the eyes of the law. In many other countries now they have successfully started to separate the Cannabis market from the market for other drugs. They have done this by the simple expedient of establishing a legal Cannabis supply route for consenting adults. The results have been very good with the use of Cannabis by children being very markedly reduced, and much lower usage all round of Heroin etc.
People will look back on this era of Cannabis prohibition much as we now look back and see how stupid alcohol prohibition was. This is all so damaging to society and every day the damage gets worse and harder to recover from. Can you imagine the power that the likes of Al Capone would now wield if the alcohol prohibition had been allowed to continue for nearly 100 years? They would have enough legislators in their pockets so that they could influence governments and ensure that alcohol prohibition continued. Now that is exactly the position the "drug barons" are in today. For this reason I believe that legalisation of Cannabis is the most urgent issue on this planet today.
What we need, instead of a blanket prohibition of Cannabis, is a proper legally regulated supply that will benefit the U.K. economy through huge tax revenues and free up the resources of the police and courts to deal with real crimes. Most of all a properly regulated supply will protect young people, as it is in the area of Age Limits that prohibition has proven such a huge failure. In countries where there is provision for the legal supply of Cannabis to adults the use of Cannabis, and indeed other substances as well, is greatly reduced amongst youngsters. This is because the licensed suppliers know full well that if they are caught supplying to minors they stand to lose their licence, so they just don't do it. Whereas in good old Blighty we have to soldier on with prohibition giving the whole market straight into the hands of dealers who simply want to see your money, they will sell Cannabis to anyone of any age. And that's not all! A few unscrupulous dealers will sometimes say "Oh sorry, I couldn't get any weed this week, this other stuff is all they had, why don't you try some?" and then proceed to offer Heroin.
So, legalise, regulate and tax the supply of Cannabis for a Britain that is happier, less violent and more affluent.”

to loveunity.
Had you lost someone close to you as my family has , you might be less tolerant of these evil drugs.
Our son developed paranoid schitzophrenia, an then progressed to much harder substances, which finally took his life.
Before making sweeping comments like yours in the future, perhaps you could dwell on that for a while!!

ooooo well done police. what have you actually achieved here mmmm...nothing because this is a extremly small amount of cannabis.

You have destroyed another mans life by dragging him through the courts when he was hurting no one else, giving him a criminal record so it will be harder for him to find a job excellent for our recession.

But what have we learned here???
when it comes to a young person wanting to buy cannabis the dealer has stronger drugs...hard drugs, which he will try and get young people hooked on for a larger profit.

This proves the point that cannabis is not a gateway drug the gateway drug is the drug dealer.

Take cannabis away from the dealer by regulating it, let the user get it legal from a proper shop and properly grown and you will see less young people pushed onto harder drugs and less crime as you are taking this drug from the dealers.

END PROHIBITION!!!

mikeg1 wrote:
to loveunity.
Had you lost someone close to you as my family has , you might be less tolerant of these evil drugs.
Our son developed paranoid schitzophrenia, an then progressed to much harder substances, which finally took his life.
Before making sweeping comments like yours in the future, perhaps you could dwell on that for a while!!

Yes I bl00dy well have. I had a very good friend, we were at school together and remained friends for many years. Unfortunately he was tempted to take Heroin by exactly the route I described above. I tried to help him but eventually we lost contact. Then a few years ago I discovered he had died from some contaminated Heroin. I was gutted. It is my memory of this, amongst other similarly tragic events, which has spurred me on to campaign for an end to prohibition.

Some people prefer coffee to tea, some cannabis to alcohol, the latter two often taken alongside tobacco. They are all drugs. Some people decide according to environment and timing.
I know of people who appear better on alcohol than weed and more vice versa, and as the posters above have pointed out, some aren't ok on them at all. My gut feeling is that it's horses for courses then.
Our funds are wasted in a war against something that could be benefiting the economy (and removing the gateway per the above) whilst the government more than condones opium production at larger scales than ever in another war based on lies, which is using more of our funds to send our troops to die, and we are supposed to be ok with that situation?

"And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?"

Why don't we try taking a completely new approach to cannabis? Around three million people in Britain are regular users and whatever we do we're not going to be able to stop them.

We waste billions every year on police, court and prison resources when a large proportion of society uses cannabis without any problem at all. In fact, the only real problem with cannabis is that it's illegal.

The risks to health are very small - much, much less than alcohol or tobacco. By a recent analysis of mortality, hospital admissions, toxicity and propensity to psychosis, cannabis is nearly 3000 times safer than alcohol. Why not introduce a tax and regulate system and realise the benefits?

That way we'd have a properly regulated supply chain with no criminals involved, no theft of electricity, no human trafficking, no destruction of property and disruption of neighbourhoods. Then there would be some control over this huge market. There would be thousands of new jobs, sales would be from licensed outlets to adults only with guaranteed quality and safety. Then our police could start going after some real wrongdoing instead of trying to fight a crime that exists only because of a misguided government policy.

Also, very importantly, science now proves that cannabis is one of the safest and most effective medicines for a wide range of conditions. While the government promotes the lie that "there is no medicinal value in cannabis", it has granted an unlawful monopoly to GW Pharmaceuticals to grow 20 tonnes a year for, you guessed it, medicine!

Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research on 14th September 2011 that shows a cannabis tax and regulate regime would provide a net gain to the UK exchequer of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms.

The only thing that keeps the present absurd status quo in place is weak politicians corrupted by Big Booze and the GW Pharma monopoly.

Go to the CLEAR website for full details: www.clear-uk.org

I'll be honest. I've been in the town and I've seen plenty of the effects of alcohol. Vomit on the pavement, fighting, broken windows, food wrappers everywhere when people have finished their kebabs. Alcohol reacts badly with some people and their emotions become more acute and as a result things can boil over easily and things go wrong.

We've all heard the phrase "Did you spill my pint?" or "Are you looking at my bird?", the latter having no correct answer earning the person looking a chance to fight the asker.

That said, I've also been in pubs where the vast majority of people are inebriated and the only thing that has happened is that they get louder with their general enjoyment of the moment.

In general people who smoke weed tend not to be violent (I said "tend"; there are exceptions) and a few do get serious problems with paranoia. I've witnessed this first hand. However, the worst thing that happens is the smokers of weed may not have enough munchies and the trip to the local late night garage ensues, and the biggest cause for concern is the lack of pasties at the garage. They don't get violent on it, they just tend to shuffle around and then go home. I've never heard of anyone being a victim of a violent assault when they're high on weed. That's usually because the smoker cannot be bothered and are too glued to their sofa and unable to move very far and only concerned with some cheese on toast.

It needs legalising and regulating. That will take the dealers out and the violent element of that trade. It will also be a huge boost to the economy in tax.

It won't be legalised however, because it is too much of a political hot potato and there isn't a party that would risk legalising it despite the benefits.

For the record, I have known several people succumb to drugs but never weed directly. They have progressed but it is always because the dealer pushes a few freebies on them to tempt them into harder drugs knowing full well that a person with an addictive personality will in all probability become hooked on the harder stuff.

Personally I don't touch the stuff but that's my choice despite the legalities. I do smoke cigarettes which are currently legal and more addicitive that weed unyet they are still freely available. You don't see the vast majority of smokers progressing to harder drugs because the shopkeeper simply supplies them their cigarettes.