Peter Reynolds

The life and times of Peter Reynolds

Archive for the ‘Biography’ Category

Every Politician Needs Special Advisors…

with 21 comments

…Why Do You Think They Call Me The Anti-Prohibition Pit Bull?

Written by Peter Reynolds

April 16, 2011 at 12:56 pm

These Are The Trolls And Liars

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These are the identities (aliases and pseudonyms no doubt), IP and email addresses of the people who have been spamming my site with abuse, accusations of belonging to the EDL and just about any sort of foul allegation you can imagine.  Some of them have attempted to post their lies up to 40 times.

The pathetic names they’ve used reveal their state of mind.  The really sad ones are the multiple identities at the same IP address.  It’s interesting that there do seem to be at least four individuals at different IP addresses co-operating on the peterreynoldsmonitor site.  It takes four of them to make a bad job of trying to discredit me?

Anyway, draw your own conclusions.

(I have removed these details as they are now evidence)

Written by Peter Reynolds

April 3, 2011 at 1:33 pm

Evidently My Work Is Succeeding!

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I have my very own hate website!  Somebody has gone to a great deal of time and trouble to put up a site all about me, seeking to… well I’m not sure what actually but you can judge for yourself: http://peterreynoldsmonitor.wordpress.com/.

I am hugely flattered and inspired by this.  Why would anyone go to all this trouble if my work wasn’t having a real and significant impact?

And this hasn’t been put together by some numpty.  I’m afraid it’s way, way beyond the ability of the LCA old guard.  Whoever the author is, he or she can write, spell and even construct a coherent sentence. The site is well put together.

Of course it is abusive, defamatory and infringes my intellectual property and copyrights from beginning to end.  I will be writing to WordPress asking them to take it down for those reasons – but not just yet, please allow me to revel in the flattery and attention just a little longer!

I think we can all recognise that this is a mark of progress.  For someone to use their evident intelligence and ability to attack me like this means I am succeeding.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I never have been.  All my experience of life teaches me that it’s cock up then cover up that is the reality behind most conspiracy theories.  However, I have been persuaded recently that there may well be undercover police or intelligence activity in the cannabis community.  It was the revelations about the undercover cop in the climate change movement that convinced me.  I mean the cannabis lobby has made so little progress and there’s been so much infighting.   How can so many people campaign for so long about something that is so self-evidently wrong and make no progress at all?

So this could well be undercover activity promoted by a government that wants to defend its policies.  I’ve been accused of being an undercover cop myself.  Derek Williams of UKCIA has enjoyed laying into me and questioning my past but I don’t think this is Derek.  It has some of his hallmarks and he has the ability but I give him credit for more integrity than that and he’s been very supportive to me about CLEAR and recent developments.

Anyway, the longer this goes on the more comfort we can take that we are making progress.  I certainly won’t be bothering to read the nonsense that’s being published.  It’s all innuendo, suggestion and “maybe” and “perhaps” and “possibly”.  In fact,  it rather reminds me of reading another report on cannabis and psychosis except that the courageous seeker after truth who has written it is grovelling in cowardly anonymity.  Let me be clear (!), I’ll happily answer any question about me or my past including the darker and more unhappy times (yes, I am human!) but not to some internet troll.  Let the author of this hate site publish his or her name, picture, email address and location online as I do and I’ll happily answer any questions.

Of course, the real disappointment will be that I don’t have any skeletons in my closet.  Oh, I have skeletons for sure but they’re all out in the open.

So that’s enough.  I won’t dignify this sordid little trickster by any further comment.  I am hugely flattered though, encouraged and inspired.  The war on prohibition is making progress!

New LCA

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I take on the leadership of the LCA as a serious responsibility.  I shall do my best to represent the interests of the six million regular users of cannabis in Britain.  The government should now move urgently to permit the medicinal use of cannabis. It is not only unjust to deny such relief to those in suffering, it is deeply cruel.  Ministers should be ashamed at their treatment of the sick and disabled. I shall also be campaigning to bring the multi-billion pound cannabis market into a system of proper regulation where children and the vulnerable can be protected and quality and safety are assured.  Prohibition is a failed policy which causes far more harm than cannabis ever has.  It also deprives the nation of billions in tax revenue and in wasted law enforcement costs.

Immediate Plans Following My Election As LCA Leader

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First of all, I want to say thank you to all who voted for me and to the membership as a whole for placing its trust in me. I take the leadership on as a serious responsibility. This is the dawn of a new era and of what I’m calling for now,… “New LCA”.

I intend to work by consensus with both the management committee and the membership. We will carry forward the plans that I set out in my manifesto. However, even before that, my first priority is our registration as a political party. The membership voted for that before it voted for me.

I have reviewed all the information from the Electoral Commission. The most important part of registration is the submission of the party’s constitution. The existing constitution is not suitable for a political party with a leader and so it will have to be revised. This then is the time to review all aspects of the constitution and so include the plans I put forward in my manifesto which the membership voted for.

I have co-opted Stuart Warwick on to the management committee. The members of the committee are now: Don Barnard, Mark Palmer, Peter Reynolds, Stuart Warwick and Janice Wells.

The committee is now working together to produce a draft constitution for New LCA. It will consider everything about our future strategy including our name and identity. I anticipate that there will be a formal committee meeting in two or three weeks when we will publish the new draft constitution. We will consult widely as we go along. If possible, I am going to try and build in a formal consultation process so that members can comment or propose amendments to the draft. Then there will be a new ballot of the membership on the committee’s proposals.

Clearly, we cannot contest the Barnsley by-election on 3rd March. The Electoral Commission requires a minimum 20 working days to process a registration. We must plan to have completed the consultation, ballot and registration process in time to contest the May elections.

There is an exciting new campaign in development on the theme of “Reform. Regulate. Realise”. I am working with independent scientific experts to ensure the credibility of our message. I promise you will see the details soon,

Other important matters for consideration by the committee will include the website, the forum and the level of membership fees. Anyone, member or non-member, is welcome to write to me with their views, ideas or proposals. Email me at peter@peter-reynolds.co.uk.

Paradise Valley

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There’s just the very slightest suggestion of spring in Paradise Valley.

See here for the latest.

The LCA Leadership Election

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The ballot papers have been mailed to members today.  The candidates are Stuart Warwick and myself.  Voting closes a week today.  The result will be announced shortly afterwards.

Peter Reynolds

Dear LCA member,

I am seeking election as leader of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.

I have been campaigning for an end to the prohibition of cannabis for more than 30 years.

If elected, I can promise you radical change in the way that LCA goes about its business. We will launch a new campaign based around the theme: REFORM, REGULATE and REALISE.

That is REFORM the law to end prohibition, REGULATE production and supply based on facts and evidence and REALISE the huge benefits of the plant both as medicine and as a £10 billion net contribution to the economy.

This will be a tightly focused campaign aiming for the urgent availability of cannabis for those who need it as medicine and a properly regulated supply chain for the millions of British citizens who use it recreationally. That means we will take the business out of the hands of criminals, allow commercial growers to produce the plant under properly regulated conditions and permit small scale personal cultivation of up to six plants.

We will advocate sales of cannabis through licensed outlets such as tobacconists and/or coffee shops to adults only. It would remain a criminal offence to supply cannabis to under 18s. We accept that cannabis should be taxed, partly to cover the costs of the regulatory system and a health advisory service but also so that the entire country will benefit from bringing this huge market out of the black economy. Based on research by the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit and the Transform Drug Policy Foundation we estimate that with reductions in law enforcement costs and new tax revenue, there will be a net contribution of approx £10 billion to the UK exchequer.

We will not be diverted by peripheral issues such as the many uses for industrial hemp, although we will be glad to see progress in that area. We will run a campaign focused on achieving practical change, not promoting a philosophy. That means that our main concern will be to educate and influence MPs and get our message across in the media. MPs are the only people who can change the law and it is through the media that we can influence voter opinion so we will deal with them on their terms, in Westminster, in newspapers and television studios. We will bring a new professionalism to this issue and demand the attention and respect that our proposals deserve.

The prohibition of cannabis is unjust, undemocratic and immoral. Most cannabis users are reasonable, responsible and respectable people and I will demand our right to be heard and treated fairly.

I shall stand for parliament in every by-election and in the next general election on this single issue. Being realistic, we do not expect to win a seat but we will put cannabis back on the political agenda and we will be taken seriously. No longer will we allow the Daily Mail or other media to publish lies and propaganda uinchallenged. No longer will we allow prohibitionists like Debra Bell and Peter Hitchens to misinform and promote scare stories without any balance.

I want to transform the LCA into a professional, effective campaign that will achieve results. I believe that I am the right man for this job. Please vote for me. Vote to REFORM, REGULATE and REALISE.

My website at http://www.peter-reynolds.co.uk contains a wealth of information about cannabis and many articles that I have written on the subject. If you want more detailed information about me and what I stand for, that is the place to look.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Peter Reynolds

Stuart Warwick

Dear Member,

As one of the candidates seeking election for leadership of the LCA, I’ve been asked to write a short letter outlining my plans for the direction and actions I’d like to see the LCA take.

As Leader I would not seek to limit our campaign to the medical and recreational issues only (although I believe this should be our focus) but use the plethora of other applications that cannabis has in industry to gain support from as wide a demographic as possible.

I intend to campaign for legalisation, regulation & taxation.

Legalisation, done properly would remove the cannabis market from the hands of criminals and terrorists and open it up to legitimate businesses & entrepreneurs, giving the substantial profit back to society.

Regulation will help prevent dangerous contamination, ensure good quality and be more effective at keeping it out of the hands of children.

Taxation to put some of the profit back into the country – everyone benefits.

I think licensed outlets and growers is what we should be aiming to achieve. Licensing should cover not only the supply of cannabis but should also cover growing set-ups to ensure electrical and fire safety as this is a known hazard with some badly fitted installations. This would allow local growers to provide more variety in outlets, allowing users to clearly identify the strain that suits their needs the best.

Licenses should be available to cover a wide range of grow sizes to encourage both local and national business opportunities.

I think fact-based policy is a must, with genuinely unbiased research. To base policy purely on knee jerk emotional and moral arguments while ignoring scientific research is unjust and unproductive.

We know there are people in power who understand this but are forced to repeat the same prohibition mantra.

We need to let people know that if they decide to make a stand against prohibition we will be there to back them up. They will not want to make a move unless they know that when they do, they are not left hanging, We just have to give them the nod and be ready when they do.

By standing for elections, I hope to challenge not only my local MP’s and the other candidates but also policy on a national level. As leader of the LCA I hope to unite all of the voices in our community to achieve just that.

I have 2 sites that I have used to promote my ideas so far. Feel free to visit them, although there are some very early attempts on there, so quality isn’t always great, sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NovictimNocrime08

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hunar-for-Prime-Minister/238421977309

Thanks for your time – , this wasn’t as easy to write as I thought it would be!

Regards

Stuart Warwick.

Legalise Cannabis Alliance Votes To Return To Politics

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Last week the LCA announced the result of its membership ballot – that it would re-register as a political party and elect a leader.

Stuart Warwick

Two candidates are standing for the leadership:  Stuart Warwick and myself.  Voting will close on 14th February 2011 and the result will be announced a few days later.

At a meeting last Sunday, a new management committee was formed consisting of:

Don Barnard, PR & Political Liaison
Alun Buffry, Treasurer & Coordinator
Mark Palmer, IT & Media Development
Peter Reynolds, Speaker
Janice Wells, Secretary

Two official spokespersons were appointed:

Chris Baldwin
Stuart Warwick

Alun Buffry, co-founder of the LCA,  said:

“In 2006, LCA members voted to de-register as a political party in the mistaken belief that the Liberal Democrats and Greens would take up the complex issues surrounding the cannabis plant.  Sadly that did not happen.  Now, LCA members have voted to re-register as a political party.  The LCA will once again offer voters a platform to register their discontent over the unjust prosecution of victimless users of cannabis.”

Don Barnard added:

“I am over the moon that the membership has voted to get politically active again. I look forward to raising concerns about the dubious reasons for complete prohibition of the cannabis plant with government and parliamentarians.”


For myself, I am excited to be involved in the management committee and the leadership election.  Whatever the outcome, I will do my utmost to represent the LCA, its members and all cannabis users to the best of my ability.  It is time that the discrimination against millions of British citizens who choose to use cannabis was put back on the political agenda.  No longer can the misinformation and false propaganda put out by government ministers go unchallenged.

The Blagger, The Blogger And The Pot Plant.

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The extraordinary wit and talent of my friend Cannaseur.

Written by Peter Reynolds

January 24, 2011 at 12:49 am

Paradise Valley

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