Author Archive
“War On Drugs Has Failed, Say Former Heads Of MI5, CPS And BBC”, The Daily Telegraph, 21st March 2011
The “war on drugs” has failed and should be abandoned in favour of evidence-based policies that treat addiction as a health problem, according to prominent public figures including former heads of MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Drug availability and use has increased with up to 250 million people worldwide using narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin
Leading peers – including prominent Tories – say that despite governments worldwide drawing up tough laws against dealers and users over the past 50 years, illegal drugs have become more accessible.
Vast amounts of money have been wasted on unsuccessful crackdowns, while criminals have made fortunes importing drugs into this country.
The increasing use of the most harmful drugs such as heroin has also led to “enormous health problems”, according to the group.
The MPs and members of the House of Lords, who have formed a new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, are calling for new policies to be drawn up on the basis of scientific evidence.
It could lead to calls for the British government to decriminalise drugs, or at least for the police and Crown Prosecution Service not to jail people for possession of small amounts of banned substances.
Their intervention could receive a sympathetic audience in Whitehall, where ministers and civil servants are trying to cut the numbers and cost of the prison population. The Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, has already announced plans to help offenders kick drug habits rather than keeping them behind bars.
The former Labour government changed its mind repeatedly on the risks posed by cannabis use and was criticised for sacking its chief drug adviser, Prof David Nutt, when he claimed that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.
The chairman of the new group, Baroness Meacher – who is also chairman of an NHS trust – told The Daily Telegraph: “Criminalising drug users has been an expensive catastrophe for individuals and communities.
“In the UK the time has come for a review of our 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. I call on our Government to heed the advice of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that drug addiction should be recognised as a health problem and not punished.
“We have the example of other countries to follow. The best is Portugal which has decriminalised drug use for 10 years. Portugal still has one of the lowest drug addiction rates in Europe, the trend of young people’s drug addiction is falling in Portugal against an upward trend in the surrounding countries, and the Portuguese prison population has fallen over time.”
Lord Lawson, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, said: “I have no doubt that the present policy is a disaster.
“This is an important issue, which I have thought about for many years. But I still don’t know what the right answer is – I have joined the APPG in the hope that it may help us to find the right answer.”
Other high-profile figures in the group include Baroness Manningham-Buller, who served as Director General of MI5, the security service, between 2002 and 2007; Lord Birt, the former Director-General of the BBC who went on to become a “blue-sky thinker” for Tony Blair; Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, until recently the Director of Public Prosecutions; and Lord Walton of Detchant, a former president of the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council.
Current MPs on the group include Peter Bottomley, who served as a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher; Mike Weatherley, the newly elected Tory MP for Hove and Portslade; and Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge.
The group’s formation coincides with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which paved the way for a war on drugs by describing addiction as a “serious evil”, attempting to limit production for medicinal and scientific uses only, and coordinating international action against traffickers.
The peers and MPs say that despite governments “pouring vast resources” into the attempt to control drug markets, availability and use has increased, with up to 250 million people worldwide using narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin in 2008.
By Martin Beckford, Health Correspondent
They believe the trade in illegal drugs makes more than £200 billion a year for criminals and terrorists, as well as destabilising entire nations such as Afghanistan and Mexico.
As a result, the all-party group is working with the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, to review current policies and scientific evidence in order to draw up proposed new ways to deal with the problem.
Cameron On Cannabis Part 3
This is part three of the story but, in a way, it’s just the beginning.
The story is our prime minister, David Cameron, the leader of our country and his recent interview about cannabis. It was on Al Jazeera in association with YouTube and is one of a series of interviews with world leaders. You can watch the video and read the previous parts here:
Mr Cameron, It’s You Who Needs Education About Cannabis
Don’t Let Cameron Get Away With His Untruths About Cannabis. Write A Letter!
So I wrote to Mr Cameron asking for a meeting about several factual inaccuracies in his answers. I know that many of you wrote in support.
There are four crucial issues involved:
Mr Cameron said that cannabis is:
1.”incredibly damaging”
2. “very, very toxic”
3. “and leads to, in many cases, huge mental health problems”
And then, with regard to medicinal cannabis, he said:
4. “That is a matter for the science and medical authorities to determine and they are free to make independent determinations about that.”
Now these are all inaccurate and false statements. Mr Cameron is, at the very least, misinformed. Clearly, there is an absolute obligation on him to correct these errors and to do so immediately.
When I hadn’t received a reply after about a week, on 9th March 2011 I wrote again:
Dear Mr Cameron,
I wrote to you just over a week ago (copy attached) asking for a meeting concerning your Al Jazeera YouTube interview about cannabis.
I represent a very substantial body of opinion in Britain which is deeply concerned at how inaccurate and misleading your words were. I know that you will have received many letters supporting my request for a meeting with you.
I still have faith that you do want to take account of public opinion and promote a policy that is fact and evidence based as well as having the consent of the majority. Please will you now agree to see me?
Personally, I am very worried when I see my prime minister speaking such untruths about a subject that I know about. It makes me wonder how accurate is your understanding of other issues. I hope that our economic, defence and social policy is being run on the basis of knowledge, rather than the misunderstanding you seem to have about cannabis.
Please can we arrange a meeting?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
I had written to Mr Cameron on LCA letterhead showing the LCA headquarters address in Surrey. I was a little surprised then to receive a reply at my home address the following day!
Click To Enlarge
My response dated 16th March 2011:
Dear Mr Cameron,
Thank you for your reply dated 7th March 2011 which crossed with my letter of 9th March 2011.
With respect, this question is not for the Home Office. It is you who made the inaccurate and misleading statements about cannabis during your YouTube interview. Only you can correct the errors that you made.
In any event, I know what the Home Office will say. I could probably write their response myself so often have I seen the tired, formulaic replies they give to enquirers. I know their phrases off by heart!
Last week during the debate in the House of Lords on a Royal Commission into drug policy, every speaker condemned government policy. It was clear that Baroness Neville-Jones was embarrassed at having to defend what is an absurd and irrational policy that has little support in the country and has no basis in facts or evidence.
It is vital that the government steps back from its bigoted, wasteful and deeply damaging drugs policy. You are wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, creating and supporting organised crime and causing immense harm to our society. Specifically on cannabis, and in direct contradiction to the untruths you told on YouTube, you are denying hundreds of thousands of people access to the medicine they need.
Mr Cameron, we are respectable and responsible citizens who are being persecuted and oppressed by an iniquitous and irrational policy of prohibition. It seems that you can only defend your policy by telling untruths. That cannot be allowed to stand.
Please will you meet with me so that I can explain just how inaccurate your remarks on YouTube were?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
“Ignorant, Misleading And Downright Evil Tabloid Headlines”
Baroness Joan Walmsley, LibDem peer, during the House of Lords debate on a Royal Commission on drugs policy, 9th March 2011
My Government, who were elected with 60 per cent of the vote, should have the confidence to defy the tabloid newspapers. They should get the facts and act on them. We should not be afraid of ignorant, misleading and downright evil tabloid headlines. It is the right thing to do. Please let us do it!
Watch the debate here from 19:48 onwards. See the full transcript here.
Brokenshire Resigns. New Drugs Minister Appointed.
James “Broken Britain” Brokenshire has resigned as drugs minister in order to spend more time with his family. The new drugs minister is Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, a long time friend of the British government, well known for his intelligent and forward thinking policies and a legend amongst freedom loving people throughout the world.
David Cameron, commenting on Brokenshire’s resignation said:
“James has done a wonderful job spreading government propaganda and misinformation. Without his tireless and courageous work we would have been unable to restrain the public outcry against our drugs policy. If it wasn’t for James, thousands of medicinal cannabis users might have found relief from their pain and suffering and strayed away from the poisonous and harmful products that our friends in Big Pharma supply. It was only through James’ personal guidance that I was able recently to dismiss any idea of legalising cannabis during my YouTube interview. James told me the right lies to tell. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
David Oliver, Head of the Drug Strategy Unit at the Home Office, welcomed the new minister saying:
“I look forward to working with Muammar Gaddafi. He has exactly the right experience and personal qualities needed in a British drugs minister. He is a denier of science. He has no interest in the will of the people and he can tell bare faced lies without even blinking. I cannot think of anyone more suitable for the post”
Medicinal Cannabis And Its Impact On Human Health
This is an excellent US documentary featuring three of the most eminent advocates of medicinal cannabis: Dr David Bearman, Dr Donald Tashkin and Dr Donald Abrams. You can watch the film here.
Home Office Drug Strategy Blog – Brokenshire The Buffoon
James Brokenshire introduces the new Home Office drug strategy blog here.
It is difficult to contain the contempt in which I hold this odious and dishonest little man. His brazen cheek in believing that he has anything of honour or relevance to publish on the internet is astounding. Is he really so isolated in his ivory tower that he doen’t realise how much he and his polices are despised and reviled? Does he not know that he is subject to intense ridicule and disrespect at his absurd ideas and propaganda? Doesn’t he know that he is universally regarded as a complete prat – by all his colleagues, doctors, scientists, members of the ACMD, everyone who comes into contact with him?
This is my comment. I did my best to restrain myself and stay polite. I wonder whether it will be published?
There are many, many things wrong with Britain’s drug strategy. We now have one of the most regressive, authoritarian and oppressive drug policies anywhere in the world. Only in places where they execute people for drug possession such as Malaysia or China are there more backwards, unjust and outdated ideas being implemented.
No omission or error is more heinous though than the failure even to mention the medicinal use of cannabis. With the new understanding of the endocannabinoid system and its vital importance to all aspects of human physiology, the power of cannabis as medicine is self-evident. Throughout Europe, doctors are able to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients. Extraordinary results are achieved in multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain, Crohn’s, cancer, ADHD and many other conditions. Meanwhile the British government continues with what can only be described as its inane response that “there are no medicinal benefits in cannabis”. It is not just a stupid policy. It is cruel. Hundreds of thousands of British citizens are denied access to the medicine that could relieve their pain and suffering. Meanwhile, in virtually every other country in Europe except France, in Israel and in 15 US states, cannabis is being used as medicine and achieving wonderful results.
Those denied their medicine in Britain are humiliated that European patients can bring medicinal cannabis into Britain and use it under the protection of the Schengen Agreement. This is a cruel and unusual punishment for the crime of being resident in Britain.
The British drug strategy is a joke throughout the world except amongst those agencies and drug workers that depend upon it for their living. It is a shame on our great nation and an extreme indictment of our political system which allows such discredited, cruel and self-defeating policies to persist.
The prohibition of medicinal cannabis is perhaps the best example of how utterly useless, out of date and hopeless is current government drugs policy.
STOP THIEF! £6.5 Million Banker Robber
Scumbag
Barclays Bank is to pay its chief executive a £6.5 million bonus. See here.
The putrid, toady scumbag Bob Diamond is the worst banker robber of them all. This man (and I use the term loosely) is a dishonest, lying, conniving, scheming, fraudster, thief and conman. He takes the food out of children’s mouths and robs old people of their savings. He destroys people’s lives, throws innocent victims of his crimes out of their houses onto the streets. He is the embodiment of everything that is bad and evil and worthless in our society. His greed, selfishness, deceit, mendacity and arrogance knows no bounds.
Barclays Bank is an immoral instituition that causes great harm. It should be dismantled and permanently proscribed. All its directors and senior executives should be banned for life from being involved in the management of any business. Their assets, including pension funds should be sequestered. They should all face criminal bankruptcy and stand trial on charges of conspiracy, fraud and theft. Once Diamond has served his sentence he should be deported and banned from ever entering this country again.
Peter Reynolds 