Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Nick Hurd MP, The Times. ‘Out-of-date rules must not come before compassion for those who need medicinal cannabis’
Nick Hurd MP
This article by Nick Hurd MP, the Home Office Minister, is re-published from the Times of Friday, 29th June 2018.
It is the most significant recent government statement on cannabis.
“Out-of-date rules must not come before compassion for those who need medicinal cannabis
There are times when life presents a situation for which the status quo is no longer viable; when the case for compassion stands in direct challenge to the rules of the day. This is perhaps no better illustrated than in the case of two young boys and their need for a medicine current legislation does not allow within the UK.
The laws restricting access to cannabis-related medicine in this country have stood for decades. The highly emotive cases of Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell have brought home the urgent need to reconsider those rules.
It is impossible not to feel huge empathy for parents expressing their desperation at the difficulty of accessing a treatment they consider essential to the health and wellbeing of their children. I am very aware that behind those high-profile cases stand other families and individuals experiencing the same frustration at the current restrictions.
The home secretary and I are in the process of reviewing the case for rescheduling cannabis-related medicine. This review will be evidence led and should be completed in the autumn.
If medicinal and therapeutic benefits are identified, the intention would be to reschedule cannabis-related medicine as a treatment available through GPs. Whilst recent cases in the media have involved epilepsy this would be open to patients suffering from all illnesses where such treatment is identified to benefit them.
While we await this review, we are confined to working within the existing rules which require a licence. I am delighted that we were able to issue one on behalf of Alfie Dingley — the first ever licence for the long-term treatment of an individual using cannabis-related medicine in the UK.
However, this process took too long and I want to thank Alfie’s family and the clinical team for their patience in working with us to reach this landmark.
We have also issued an emergency licence to treat Billy Caldwell at the request of his clinical team at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. I have assured Ms Caldwell that Billy will continue to have access to the medicine should his medical team request it and have made clear that we will do what we can to facilitate a long-term licence application for Billy.
We have worked intensively to put in place a much better route for clinicians to secure licences on behalf of their patients until a decision is taken on rescheduling. An expert panel of clinicians will advise Ministers on individual applications. I want to reassure those involved that we are determined to strip this process of any unnecessary bureaucracy. As such, any application can expect to receive a final decision within two to four weeks.
We also want to remove anxiety on fees and are committed to urgently reviewing the fees paid for licences that are awarded as a result of the advice of the expert panel.
The bottom line is that we do not want people to suffer needlessly because of rules and processes that no longer feel fit for purpose.”
Cannabis for Medical Use And How The Royal College Of GPs Is Letting Us All Down.
The last couple of weeks have brought an enormous breakthrough for those who need cannabis as medicine but with the release of the government’s interim measures for licensing, the difficulties of how this will work in practice are obvious.
Unless doctors are properly informed and educated about cannabis many patients are going to remain without any help and forced to continue in the illegal market.
The Royal College of GPs was supposed to have issued guidelines to all GPs by the end of 2017 but evidently politics have interfered. It seems that either there has been external pressure from government to hold back or there’s been internal wrangling with some senior doctors opposed to any information being released.
What is astonishing is that this directly contradicts a resolution of the RCGP Council last September when it resolved (unanimously according to reports) to publish guidelines on the use of cannabis as medicine. This raises very serious issues about the governance of the Royal College and also an ethical issue in failing to enable doctors to fulfil their professional duty to patients.
It was at the end of 2016 that CLEAR first wrote to all the Royal Colleges suggesting that guidelines on the use of cannabis as medicine should be considered. The letters went out from Professor Mike Barnes, CLEAR’s scientific and medical advisor. We referred to evidence that about a million people were already using cannabis for medical reasons and particularly the explosion in the use of CBD products. We acknowledged that clearly doctors couldn’t endorse the use of an illegal drug but certainly for CBD and because of the reality of what’s actually happening they needed to be properly informed.
Professor Nigel Mathers of the Royal College of GPs took up our proposal enthusiastically. Through 2017, Mike Barnes and Peter Reynolds of CLEAR attended a number of meetings at the Royal College and detailed plans were made. A formal proposal was put to the council, the ultimate governing body of the Royal College at its meeting in September and approved. It was agreed and announced that the guidelines would be on the college’s website by the end of the year. It was even reported in The Times.
Professor Mike Barnes, CLEAR Advisory Board
Mike Barnes produced the first draft which covered the endocannabinoid system and a summary of the clinical evidence including side effects and a risk/benefit analysis. Peter Reynolds contributed a section on methods of ingestion and harm reduction.
Professor Nigel Mathers finalised the guidelines to make them compliant with the Royal College’s standards. It was his last project before retiring from his position as Honorary Secretary.
Then everything stopped. Both Mike Barnes and Peter Reynolds followed up regularly but were fobbed off, given a variety of excuses until eventually six months had passed and we came to realise that there was a determination from somewhere to prevent publication despite what the council had agreed.
The extraordinary progress of the past few weeks leaves the Royal College stranded. It has let down doctors and through them their patients. It had every opportunity to be in front of these developments and to enable doctors to offer advice that patients are now clamouring for.
Mike Barnes said:
“It is a great pity that there has been this delay. Given the events of the last couple of weeks it is now really important that the RCGP lead the way and publish guidelines for their members, as the public will be asking more and more questions about the medicinal value of cannabis.”
Prejudice against and misinformation about cannabis has been rife for many years. At last that is changing and cannabis for medical use is going to be available legitimately in the UK. We remain ready to assist the Royal College in ensuring GPs get the information they need.
Letter To Nick Hurd MP, Home Office Minister, About Alfie Dingley’s and Billy Caldwell’s Urgent Need For Cannabis Medicine.
From: Peter Reynolds
Sent: 12 June 2018 10:16
To: ‘nick.hurd.mp@parliament.uk’
Cc: ‘Charlotte Caldwell’
Subject: Give Billy back his medication.
Importance: High
Dear Mr Hurd,
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 makes specific provision within it that the Home Secretary may licence any action under it that would otherwise be unlawful.
There can be no credible excuse whatsoever for refusing to licence Billy Caldwell’s and Alfie Dingley’s cannabis medicines when they have been proven to work under the supervision of senior doctors and the medicines themselves are produced by reputable, government regulated companies.
UK drugs policy is now the most regressive, backwards and cruel of any first world nation. Specifically on the medical use of cannabis it is evidence-opposed and causing great harm, far more harm than is prevented by a policy that is based on nothing but ignorance and prejudice.
It is nothing but an excuse to argue that all drugs must be properly tested. Cannabis is the oldest medicine known to mankind, it has been used safely and effectively for at least 10,000 years. Only in the last 100 years has this diabolical experiment of prohibition wreaked havoc across the world in exactly the same way as the prohibition of alcohol.
Cannabis contains around 500 molecules and it is impossible to regulate in the same way as a single molecule pharmaceutical product synthesised in a lab. Trying to force regulation of cannabis into the MHRA process is absurd. The MHRA was designed by the pharmaceutical industry for its products. It is run by people from the pharmaceutical industry. It is not fit for the purpose of regulating plant based medicines.
This is why in every jurisdiction throughout the word where there is legal access to cannabis, it is regulated by a special system separate from pharmaceutical products. This is the nettle that the UK government needs to grasp if it is to fulfil its responsibility.
In the meantime though you must ACT NOW for Billy and Alfie. Any further procrastination will amount to negligence and dereliction of duty for which you and other ministers will be held to account.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
President
CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform
Lazy, Self-Serving, Incompetent MPs Decide To Blame Drug Consumers For The Consequences Of Their Failed Policies.
David Gauke MP, Justice Secretary
This is the latest propaganda and falsehood in the war on drugs. According to David Gauke MP who is the justice secretary, James Cleverly MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP and Cressida Dick , the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, it’s our fault, people who consume drugs, that their failed policies have created a gigantic criminal market which uses violence in its turf wars and takes no responsibility for the quality or safety of its products.
James Cleverly MP
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
These arrogant fools expect to sit in their ivory towers, issue edicts as to what we may or may not put into our own bodies and expect us to comply as well-behaved, dutiful, worker drones.
Their first duty in government is to protect us and they are failing abysmally. They should be creating safe, regulated drugs markets where people can buy what they want in civilised conditions knowing that quality is assured, strength is known and proper labelling tells us exactly what we are getting. Instead they are doing exactly the opposite. They abandon all responsibility to criminal gangs and their hands are dripping in the blood of the violence and deaths that ensue.
All the arguments have been won. There is no doubt that way to minimise the harm of drugs is to regulate them and make them available under strict conditions in accordance with their potential for harm. At a stroke this will virtually eliminate the harms of the criminal market which are by far the most significant harms for drugs such as cannabis and MDMA. In known strength and quality the health harms of these drugs are almost insignificant. For dangerous drugs such as opiates, cocaine and alcohol, regulation should be much stricter, opiates probably prescription only but their health harms will be minimised and decent services can be put in place, funded by taxing legal markets, to help those who fall victim to them.
Cressida Dick, Metropolitan Police Commissioner
The war on drugs is actually a war on people who choose different drugs from the ones these arrogant and deluded politicians determine to be acceptable. This latest, vile denial of their responsibility for the highest ever rate of drug deaths and for the epidemic of drug-related violence is disgusting. It is a direct attack on the people they are supposed to protect. We must bring these tyrants down. Anyone who seriously espouses this idea that consumers are responsible for their failed policies is unfit to hold public office. It’s negligence, malfeasance and the most serious dereliction of duty.
If I Believed Corbyn Could Bring Down This Corrupt Conservative Government I’d Join The Labour Party. But Can He?
I truly believe that tribalism is one of the most destructive forces in politics. Sticking with same party just because you’ve always done so and perhaps because your parents did too, will not advance our society. We should cast our vote for a reason, not out of blind loyalty.
In the 42 years that I have been entitled to vote I have only ever voted Conservative (with one exception which I shall explain later) but as we now have the most corrupt government in my lifetime, I will vote for whichever candidate is most likely to get the Conservatives out of office. I’ll go further in that I am now seriously considering joining the Labour Party.
Self-Serving and Corrupt
Our government is corrupt because it pursues self-serving policies for its tribal advantage and not on the basis of evidence. Astonishingly it has managed to destroy the opportunity that Brexit presented. That the cabinet is still bickering two years after the referendum and has no agreed policy is conclusive proof that the party is reckless, irresponsible and unfit to govern.
The Conservative Party is in crisis and is dragging Britain down with it. It has moved so far away from its fundamental principles of individual liberty, individual responsibility, small government and free markets, that it has become unrecognisable.
Instead we have a party and a rump of aging opinion that has become an authoritarian, bureaucratic, self-serving, repressive enforcer of an austere nanny state. It is so out of touch with developing opinion and values that it is doomed.
My area of special interest, drugs policy, is a pillar of this crumbling mausoleum. What Theresa May and her allies have imposed on us for so long is now causing immense harm throughout our society and it is a microcosm of the wider problem with the party.
As an advocate for drugs policy reform and a Tory, I’ve been unpopular with the party I have voted for all my life and with the left which has tried to hijack this liberal cause as its own.
As I pass 60 I am delighted and rewarded to see so many joining my progressive cause. However, I am no more optimistic about the Labour Party on drugs policy. This reform is being driven from the bottom up and will happen regardless of the buffoons who have resisted it for so long. It is vital now that we overturn this tyrannical government which has failed on so many policies but in particular has destroyed the great opportunity of Brexit and left us in the worst possible position.
In future, I will vote for whichever candidate best assures me of overturning this government. The bigger question is whether I should now join the Labour Party. I will never be a socialist but I am pragmatic and that means I am precious close to becoming a Labour Party member and I will certainly be voting for Jeremy Corbyn.
We must demolish the old Conservative Party before we can rebuild a party of the centre right that is fit for the future.
Let’s Nail the Home Office’s Latest Smokescreen About Medical Cannabis
As the evidence and support for legal access to cannabis for medical use grows, so the Home Office adjusts and reframes its arguments in denial.
This should come as no surprise. The ‘hostile environment’ revealed by the Windrush scandal runs through the Home Office like a stick of rock. The culture of this department is defined by Theresa May and it reflects her character and personality. It is secretive, demands total control and micro management of everything it touches and whenever it is challenged it finds another excuse to maintain its iron rule. It is institutionally dishonest.
A Home Office spokeswoman said:
“We recognise that people with chronic pain and debilitating illnesses are looking to alleviate their symptoms. However, it is important that medicines are thoroughly tested to ensure they meet rigorous standards before being placed on the market, so doctors and patients are assured of their efficacy and safety.”
The truth is rather different. In every jurisdiction throughout the world where medicinal cannabis has been legally regulated, it is through a special system outside pharmaceutical medicines regulation. You cannot regulate a 500 molecule plant-based medicine in the same way as a single molecule synthesised in a lab.
Regulation by the MHRA is the final excuse, the last obstacle to a revolution in healthcare in the UK. We need an ‘Office of Medicinal Cannabis’ as there is in the Netherlands, or ‘Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations’ as administered by Health Canada. Colorado has its ‘Medical Marijuana Registry Program’ and other US states have similar arrangements. Israel’s Ministry of Health has its ‘Medical Cannabis Unit’. In Australia, its equivalent of the MHRA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, has established its own set of medical cannabis regulations.
Every other government that has recognised the enormous benefit that medicinal cannabis offers has come to the same conclusion: cannabis is a special case. It is far more complex but much, much safer than pharmaceutical products.
So next time you hear this, the last, lame excuse from a government ideologically opposed to this long overdue reform, treat it and them with the contempt they deserve. They prefer that people should continue in pain, suffering and disability than that they should do what science and medicine says is right.
UK Parliament Will Lose Its Legitimacy If It Fails To Act In Defence Of Palestine
Netanyahu is nothing but a murderer.
In Israel, he and his IDF gangsters use tear gas and live ammunition on people who are throwing stones because their land has been stolen from them. Israel calls this self-defence.
Anyone who stands idly by without at least speaking out is complicit in murder, most particularly our political leaders. If the British Parliament fails to act on this it no longer has any legitimacy. If Theresa May fails to act she bears personal responsibility and cannot be immune from revenge.
More Lies From The Home Office. A UK Government Department That Is Institutionally Dishonest.
This deceit from the Home Office needs to be called out straightaway. Andrew Gilligan, the Sunday Times journalist, did a great job of getting the Victoria Atkins cannabis scandal out into the mainstream and I thank him for that. I gave him a great deal more evidence of Home Office maladministration than he used but he managed to bring out yet more brazen dishonesty in the process.
The Home Office said: “When she was appointed . . . the minister voluntarily recused herself from policy or decisions relating to cannabis, including licensing.” This is absolute nonsense. It is a lie of the sort that you might expect from a small child that doesn’t really understand what is dishonesty.
Ms Atkins was appointed a Home Office minster on 9th November 2017. Since then she has spoken or provided written answers on aspects of drugs policy which either directly or indirectly concern cannabis. In fact, for decades our government hasn’t had a drugs policy, it has its inane drug strategy which treats all drugs exactly the same. The only difference as far as the Home Office is concerned are the penalties applied on conviction.
Ms Atkins has enaged on matters relating to drugs policy which either directly or indirectly concern cannabis on 23 occasions that I have been able to identify since she was appointed.
Organised Crime: Drugs. 23rd April 2018
Slavery: Children. 23rd April 2018
Organised Crime: Drugs. 16th April 2018
The UK Government’s Latest Excuse About Medicinal Cannabis Is Yet Another Deception.
Nick Hurd MP, Home Office Minister
Nick Hurd MP, the Home Office minister, said again this week that as far as any consideration of cannabis for medical use is concerned, the government will “await the outcome” of the report on cannabis due from the WHO in 2019 “before considering the next steps”.
In fact, the results of an FOI request show that the UK government has refused to take part in the WHO committee which will “review cannabis and cannabis-related substances on their potential to cause dependence, abuse and harm to health, and potential therapeutic applications”. This despite the WHO issuing a questionnaire to the Department of Health and Social Care “designed to gather information on the legitimate use, harmful use, status of national control and potential impact of international control”.
Aside from the obvious concerns this raises, it is quite extraordinary considering that the UK is the world’s largest producer and exporter of legal cannabis.
Fundamentally the government’s postion on cannabis for medical use hasn’t changed since 1971. Those who follow the Home Office’s statements will have noticed gradual changes but they all seek to reinforce the fundamental premise that cannabis is a dangerous drug of abuse with no therapeutic benefit.
Recent ‘adjustments’, shall we call them, of the official position have dealt with the now overwhelming weight of evidence that cannabis does have very real and significant medical value. The response has been to caution that all medicines must go through the etablished system of testing for safety and efficacy.
This is a deception as well. As CLEAR revealed at the beginning of 2018, in every jurisdiction throughout the world where medicinal cannabis has been legally regulated, it is through a special system outside pharmaceutical medicines regulation.
Theresa May is ideologically opposed to the use of cannabis as medicine, it’s as simple as that. She won’t permit it to be properly considered, discussed or investigated and every time something forces a response, such as a parliamentary question or an enquiry even from a fellow Conservative MP, another deceptive excuse is conjured up.
Victoria Atkins MP, Theresa May MP. Both Have Family Interests In Cannabis For Medical Use.
CLEAR can further reveal that the Home Office’s public position on prospects for licensed cannabis medicnes is also a deception. The statement that has been published is “As happened in the case of Sativex, the Home Office will consider issuing a licence to enable trials of any new medicine…” We can’t name names just yet but we now have first hand knowledge that at least one publicly-quoted company with established cannabis production facilities in two other G7 countries has been refused permission by the Home Office even to apply for a licence.
The UK government’s stance on cannabis becomes murkier and murkier the deeper you look. The stench of corruption becomes overpowering when you consider that Theresa May’s husband’s company is the largest single shareholder in GW Pharmaceuticals and the husband of Victoria Atkins MP, the drugs minister, holds a licence to produce 45 acres of cannabis for medical use.
Peter Reynolds 
Source: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.clear-uk.org/taxukcan.pdf
The £900 million figure being touted around by the Taxpayers’ Alliance as the savings that could be achieved from legalising cannabis is a massive underestimate and isn’t based on the sort of model that is currently being implemented in US states.
CLEAR commissioned independent research in 2011 which shows that a model in the UK simlar to that in Colorado would produce a net gain to the UK economy of around £6.7 billion pa and perhaps as high as £9.5 billion pa.
Ben Ramanauskas, who authored the Taxpayers’ Alliance report, has referenced the research we commissioned in his study but has only considered the savings and not the massive opportunities for additional tax revenue which arise from bringing a £6 billion market out of the black economy.
Full study available here: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.clear-uk.org/taxukcan.pdf