Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
A Hate Preacher at the Top of UK Government
The disgrace and shame that Suella Braverman has brought on Britain is without parallel. Some have compared her words to Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech but she is far, far worse. Powell was talking about his rather hysterical fears for the future. Braverman directly incited hatred and violence on our streets. Yesterday her wishes were fulfilled by gangs of hard right thugs desperate to create violence as more than half a million people in London marched for peace in Gaza.
The Metropolitan Police deserve great credit for their management of yesterday’s events. The person they now need to arrest is she who is inciting hatred and violence. The most disgraced and disgusting politician Britain has seen in a hundred years.
Remembrance and Peace in Gaza are the Same Cause
The despicable criticism of the Palestine peace marches exposes the true character of our politicians.
Suella Braverman’s description of them as ‘hate marches’ is to be expected from her. It is she who is expressing hate. Rishi Sunak’s failure to sack her for such disgusting words demonstrates his weakness, compounded by his own attack on the marches as “provocative and disrespectful”.
In fact, there is no more appropriate day to protest for peace than on Remembrance Day.
The Israeli Psychosis. Its Biggest Threat is Itself.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering extraordinary pain and trauma right now, yet one people’s suffering does not erase the suffering of another. Express horror at the Hamas atrocity and one is accused of defending Israel, a state that is undoubtedly engaged in war crimes. Or express horror at the Israeli massacre of more than 400 children every day in Gaza and one is accused of defending Hamas, a terrorist death cult.
Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians are equal and deserve justice. Similarly, both the Israeli state and Hamas are engaged in mass murder and both deserve the strongest condemnation. Both must be stopped.
But there can be no doubt that the Israeli response is disproportionate. It seems crass to keep score but it cannot be avoided. 1400 Israeli deaths fom the Hamas atrocity. 8,000 Palestinian deaths from the Israeli response. Prior to these events, since 2008, 251 Israeli deaths from the conflict, 5,590 Palestinian deaths. These disproportionate outcomes cannot be ignored.
But ignoring or denying them is a common response from people defending Israel’s position, probably because it is indefensible. But it goes further than that because it’s not just this time, it was the same in 2014 and 2009 and every time the Israeli state goes on a murderous rampage. It extends into every aspect of Israeli politics and is seriously delusional. For instance, a complete failure to accept that the activities of the ‘settlers’ in the West Bank are terrorism, exactly the same as Hamas.
I do wonder whether this is now a condition, a type of psychosis, that needs to be codified. I know there are many Israelis and Jewish people that do not suffer from it but there’s a hard core that is seriously affected and they are driven by the behaviour of Netanyahu and other zealots in the Knesset.
This continuing behaviour is incompatible with Israel continuing to be recognised as a functioning state. It has failed.
Israel was created by the Western powers after World War II as a homeland for the Jewish people after the Holocaust, the greatest ever crime against humanity. But the land for the new state was cleared in 1948 by the violent expulsion of at least 700,000 Palestinians who already lived there. There is no easy way to say this but that the British and Americans who were principally responsible, placed less value on the lives of Arabs than Jews. It is this racist crime that continues to echo strongly after 75 years and is why the UK and the USA keep compounding it by unconditional support for Israel. It’s like a murderer who thought they got away with the crime but new witnesses keep on turning up who also have to be murdered.
Israel’s ‘right to exist’ is the mantra that has dominated its conduct since 1948 and understandably because many Arab states are sworn to destroy it. But its greatest threat is itself and it is precious close to forfeiting its right to exist because it cannot comply with international law and reasonable standards of civilised behaviour, even in war.
Everything depends on how long Israel can sustain the support of the USA and even that must have its limits. I can see it withdrawing its supply of weapons and the time for that is now.
There have to be some standards in civilisation. We know that death cults such as Hamas and theocracies such as Iran have no respect for such ideas but if Israel want to continue to be part of the family of nations then it has to rein in its murderous revenge and abuse of power. It must stop the reckless killing of civilians.
Voting at the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use was Rigged
Just a few hands raised to support the voting process
With discontent growing in the room, the chair Paul Reid called for a vote to confirm that the process had been clearly explained. About five hands were raised in agreement. A majority of about 94% were against. Reid did nothing about this. He moved on and continued to force through an increasingly complicated series of votes. Some were by a simple majority. Some were by a single transferable vote. Few people understood what was going on.
To begin with the voting had started with a simple majority vote where over 95% had voted against maintaining the status quo in drugs policy. By the end of the voting, Reid had effectively reversed that vote and the end result is a recommendation barely any different from the health diversion policy that is already supposed to have been in place for five years but which the government has failed to legislate for.
Contrary to widespread misreporting in the media, the recommendations which Reid has manipulated through do not decriminalise anything. Even personal possession of small amounts of drugs would remain a criminal offence.
The confusion started when Reid presented a series of options to vote on which had never been seen before. They were certainly not prepared by or with the support of the Assembly. They were ambiguous, contradictory, confusing and clearly designed to split the vote on measures for decriminalisation or legalisation.
Throughout the Assembly’s meetings, there has been dreadful bias in the selection of presentations and evidence. Apart from government departments and government-funded organisations, not a single expert on drugs policy was allowed to give evidence. Despite the strong interest in regulation from the members, out of 200 hours of evidence, just seven minutes was allowed for a presentation on regulation of cannabis. Nothing was permitted on regulation of any other drug.
Neither have any of the 800 submissions to the Assembly been published. A statistical summary of their content was published, showing well over 90% argued for substantial reform. They were supposed to have been published as part of the Assembly process but they have been kept secret and the meetings are now over.
Discontent and protest continued to grow in the room but Reid would have none of it. There were suspicions from the very beginning as to why an establishment figure, closely associated with the drugs policy failures of the past, had been appointed as chair. These appear to be confirmed. It seems that Reid has done as instructed and manipulated a conclusion that maintains the status quo.
If Britain had responded to IRA terrorism as Israel is to Hamas, then the RAF would have carpet bombed Belfast, Derry and Dublin.
Israeli jet bombs civilian targets in Gaza
The Terrible Error of Unequivocal Support for Israel
The slaughter, rape and capture of Israeli civilians by Hamas is a crime of dreadful proportions. It warrants unreserved condemnation and those responsible should be hunted down like rabid dogs.
Yet the rush by Western politicians to offer unconditional support to Israel is an awful mistake. The monster that is Hamas is the product of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. Though much Israeli blood was spilled over the weekend, it is a few drops compared to the gallons of Palestinian blood that Israel has been responsible for.
Already, Israel is enacting brutal, disproportionate revenge. Half of Gaza’s densely packed population is children and the IDF is raining down missiles, bombs, artillery shells on them, including banned phosporous munitions which cause agonising burns, even to internal organs.
Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron gave the go ahead for this. They and other Western leaders have encouraged it. The spectacle of Downing Street being lit up with the blood-drenched Israeli flag sickens me. These vile, self-serving, craven hypocrites are beneath contempt and they place themsleves in the same category as Netanyahu. As far as I am concerned they are war criminals and they should be taken to the Hague, locked up and put on trial.
This will never happen, although if he lives long enough, Netanyahu might be the exception. A few days from now these same politicians will be urging restraint on Israel but it will be too late. The beast has been unleashed and it will turn Gaza into an abbatoir.
Israel is the aggressor in this conflict. In 1948, the Western powers led, to our eternal shame, by Britain, forcibly expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their own land to create the state of Israel. From that moment on, Palestine has been acting in self-defence.
This forced explusion was an act of genocide, a war crime, yet the culprits stitched-it up into an international agreement to give it a fraudulent legitimacy. Ever since they have tacitly and sometimes explicitly supported Israel in its unlawful oppression of Palestine.
I suppose the hope was that eventually Palestinians and Israelis would live together peacefully and most do. For decades the ‘two-state solution’ seemed to be the conclusion that would bring conflict to an end. It is primarily extremist Israelis who have sabotaged this, the religious extremist Zionists who believe God gave them the land. In recent years, when most reasonable people were expecting the situation to improve, they have made it worse. Under Netanyahu, an apartheid system now exists where Palestinians are the lowest of the low. Through all this the West has sat on its hands. Much blame lies with Republicans in the US Congress but Britain and the EU cannot escape responsibility.
Where this goes now I cannot predict. Too many devious actors are at play but it is going to get much, much worse before, if ever, it gets any better. The mix of Iran, Russia, the Ukraine war and now this could lead to a final conflagration.
Within my world, those who I was entitled to rely on for prudent statesmanship, British politicians, have disgraced themselves yet again. There are no great leaders anymore. There are no leaders of any worth. They are small, contemptible rats in the failing experiment of humanity.
Ireland’s Best Chance Ever for Effective Drugs Policy Reform
As the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use meets for the fourth time (2nd, 3rd September), it is at a crucial point which will determine its usefulness. Either it will move on to examine the broad range of drugs use and wider policy or it will continue to ignore and exclude 90% of its subject from consideration, focusing only on problematic use and treatment services.
Whatever recommendations the the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use makes, it is up to the government to decide on them. Same-sex marriage and abortion rights achieved legislative reform through this route but response to the recent Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has been very different. The government and our political leaders have failed to implement any its 150 recommendations to protect nature. It was almost certainly a mistake to make so many recommendations and this has given politicians the excuse they need to turn away and fail to act. It could well be the same on the difficult and controversial issue of drugs.
Yet nothing demands more immediate and urgent action. All the violence, disorder and anti social behaviour about which there is so much concern is driven by criminal drugs markets. Demand for drugs comes from within our communities. It is our families, our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers that are the customers of these criminal gangs. While in 90% of cases their drug use causes no harm to themselves or others, they enrich and empower the gangsters and government has done nothing to regulate these markets to reduce all the harm they cause.
While politicians refuses to acknowledge and provide sensible and safe legal access for drugs, particularly cannabis, all they do is turn the forces of law enforcement against the communities they are supposed to protect and add to the power and wealth of the drugs gangs.
It is the criminal markets that cause so much harm and only a small proportion of drugs users that suffer health harms. Street dealing, violence, child exploitation, debt intimidation, human trafficking, modern slavery, all these evils stem from the criminal markets which bad drugs policy has allowed to proliferate. And the health harms of drugs are maximised when criminals control their production and distribution, when there is no regulation, quality control, age limits or harm reduction infomation and education provided.
This is Ireland’s best chance ever for effective drugs policy reform and huge responsibility now rests on the shoulders of Paul Reid, chair of the Citizens’ Assembly. In the remaining three meetings, will he encompass the broad agenda which the issue demands or will we continue only to hear about one, narrow aspect?
Clearly, problematic drug use has a terrible impact on those involved and their families but we already know that the answer is properly funded treatment services. Also, problematic drug use drives violent and acquisitive crime as users have no option but to access drugs from criminals at high cost. The answer here is also properly funded treatment services but also regulation of markets, so that legal access is possible but in controlled and safe circumstances.
We need properly funded treatment services, safe consumption rooms, decriminalisation of the user, legally regulated access for adults at least to cannabis, MDMA and possibly cocaine, drug testing services, education and harm reduction services.
Such intelligent, evidence-based and progressive drugs policy will drive the gangsters off our streets. It will stop the violence, the mugging, the anti social behaviour of feral youth, It will reduce health harms, overdoses deaths and all sorts of crime. But it requires courage. It needs politicians to take decisions that will attract the fury of the older, reactionary, authoritarian wing of society but unless we takes these steps then Ireland’s drugs problem is only going to get worse. The demand isn’t going away and unless we find a sensible way of meeting it in safe, regulated fashion then the violent gangsters and everything that flows from their activity will continue.
There Will Be No More Misinformation on Cannabis from Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners
Conservative Party Conference 2022, left to right: PCC Mark Shelford, Professor Neil McKeganey, PCC David Sidwick, Unknown, Unknown
For the past nine months I have been engaged in series of formal complaints against Conservative PCCs concerning their seriously misleading anti-cannabis campaign. I am pleased that they have now stopped their silly scaremongering. If they try to go down this road again, they will be back into a costly and time-consuming process which they can never win because nothing they have claimed can be supported by evidence.
None of my complaints have been upheld despite exhausting all routes of appeal but this is no surprise to me. Such complaints procedures are not designed to hold officials to account as you might hope. Their real purpose is to find excuses for misconduct. However, by any measure, I have defeated every absurd claim they have made by adducing published, peer-reviewed evidence.
This all started with the ridiculous proposal that cannabis should be made a class A drug, announced at the Conservative Party Conference 2022 in Birmingham. Inevitably, all the tabloid newspapers loved this and when home secretary Suella Braverman endorsed the idea, well, it was a wet dream for the Daily Mail and every hack who believes the role of the press is to sensationalise rather than inform.
The leader of the campaign was David Sidwick, PCC for Dorset. He advanced all the old chestnuts of addiction, psychosis and the ‘gateway theory’ but went much, much further:
“the pernicious influence of cannabis on our society”
“nothing soft about this drug. Its impact can be brutal — damaging lives and promoting crime”
“make no mistake, this stuff does the same harm as crack and heroin”
“a factor in numerous random acts of violence”
Such was the content of Sidwick’s article in the Daily Mail, a platform the newspaper gave him to coincide with his event at the Conservative Party Conference which was titled ‘Cannabis: Just a bit of weed or a Class A drug?’
Sidwick also claimed that his experience in the pharmaceutical industry gave him a special understanding of the health harms of cannabis and during the complaints process he implied he had some sort of medical expertise. In reality, he was a pharmaceutical salesmen and this attempt to blag some extra credibility for his claims speaks volumes.
To be fair, Sidwick has been taken in by the work of Professor Stuart Reece, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Western Australia. Reece is ‘reefer madness’ personifed. His claims and theories are as extreme as they come and have made him a laughing stock amongst his professional peers. See here for more details.
Sidwick claimed that Professor Reece’s work amounted to “a wealth of new data on the drug’s effects which merited a re-evaluation”.
The basis of my complaint was that under the Nolan Principles of Public Life, with which all PCCs are obliged to comply, they must
“act with integity and diligence and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias” and “act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner”.
It is self-evident that Sidwick’s claims could not pass this test, so I submitted a complaint against him and also Alison Hernandez, PCC for Devon and Cornwall; and Mark Shelford, PCC for Avon and Somerset. These were his principle accomplices. Hernandez has a particularly poor record with a quite ridiculous attitude to all aspects of drugs policy. Matthew Barber, PCC for Thames Valley, was also in my sights but to be fair to him, he readily engaged with me. We debated the issue on a radio programme and had a lengthy discussion on a Zoom call. While we didn’t come to any agreement, he listened and took on board what I had to say.
Sidwick and his office did make an attempt to respond properly to my complaint but what they offered as evidence was almost exclusively just Sidwick’s opinions. Hernandez was, as I might have expected, high handed and arrogant. She made no attempt at all to deal with the substance and just dismissed my complaint, claiming in effect that she was entitled to say whatever she wanted. Shelford also failed to deal with the issues, saying he was entitled to express his opinion and had “drawn from a large number of sources to inform his views” – without saying what those sources were!
Of course, they are perfectly entitled to hold any opinion they want but in their role as PCC they must comply with the Nolan Principles which they have all clearly failed to do. Their campaign did not use “best evidence” and neither were they “open and transparent” about their claims.
So that’s it. A great deal of work was involved on my part but more importantly it required a great deal of work from the PCCs and their staff. I’m confident they won’t want to go down this road again. Of course they’re perfectly entitled to be anti-cannabis and uphold the law as it currently stands but they won’t be spreading misinformation and ridiculous propaganda anymore.
For the record, this is how I responded to Sidwick’s claims.
CLAIM THAT CANNABIS IS A ‘GATEWAY DRUG’
I accept Sidwick’s ‘real-world definition as meaning an increased desire for taking Class A drugs’. I do not accept that cannabis is a ‘gateway drug’ ‘meaning an increased opportunity for taking Class A drugs’. As now widely accepted by experts, the real ‘gateway’ is the illegal status of cannabis meaning that anyone purchasing cannabis will be in contact with an illegal supplier who is likely to offer other drugs including Class As.
In 2008, the government’s expert advisors on drugs, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), investigated the gateway theory and concluded:
8.14 The “gateway theory” is the term that describes the possibility that use of cannabis leads to use of more dangerous drugs such as opiates and cocaine. It arises from the observation that users of the most harmful (Class A) drugs have generally used cannabis first. The interpretation of these studies is extraordinarily difficult because of the confounding effects of alcohol, tobacco, solvents, stimulants and psychedelic drugs, whose use frequently precedes that of Class A drugs. Moreover, although there is no evidence that there are physiological mechanisms leading to more harmful drugs, the social milieu of drug use may result in some users trying them. The shared market for cannabis and other drugs would increase the potential for escalation.
8.15 In 2002, the Council concluded that it was not possible to state, with certainty, whether or not cannabis use predisposes users to dependency on Class A drugs. Nevertheless, it considered the risks to be small and certainly less that those associated with the use of alcohol and tobacco. No further convincing evidence has been identified by the Council to alter this conclusion.
The ACMD comprises the most senior, highly qualified, experienced drugs experts. I particularly draw your attention to the unequivocal statement “there is no evidence that there are physiological mechanisms leading to more harmful drugs”.
Sidwick’s ‘alcohol argument’ is simply an expression of opinion. It is not evidence.
Sidwick’s reference to ‘tolerance’ is an opinion that developing tolerance in cannabis leads to Class A drugs. This is just more opinion, re-stating his belief in the ‘gateway theory’ and is not evidence.
Sidwick’s ‘business model’ is yet more opinion and is comprehensively dealt with by the ACMD’s conclusions above. Dame Carol Black’s report supports the ACMD’s conclusion that it is the “social milieu of drug use” and “shared market for cannabis and other drugs” that is the gateway, not cannabis.
Sidwick’s ‘neurophysiology argument’ is his opinion and interpretation of evidence. It is not evidence.
Sidwick interprets data on hospitalisations during the ‘Lambeth experiment’ to show that Class A use increased. This is not what the data show, nor is it what the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ paper shows. All they show is an increase in hospital admissions which correlates with the depenalisation of cannabis. No causal relationship is shown. Once again, this is not evidence of cannabis being a ‘gateway drug’, it is simply Sidwick’s opinion.
Sidwick’s ‘multi-drug use argument’ is presented as ‘intuitive’, so is merely opinion, it is not evidence.
None of the arguments advanced by Sidwick amount to evidence that cannabis is a gateway drug. They are all just expressions of his opinion.
By contrast I adduce the following evidence:
1.The ACMD’s report as above, Cannabis Classification and Public Health, 2008 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/119174/acmd-cannabis-report-2008.pdf “There is no evidence that there are physiological mechanisms leading to more harmful drugs.”
2. The Gateway Hypothesis, Common Liability to Addictions or the Route of Administration Model. A Modelling Process Linking the Three Theories, 2016 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26431216/ “The ‘gateway’ sequence, tobacco to cannabis to other illicit drugs was not associated with substance use propensity more than alternative sequences.”
3. The health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids: the current state of evidence and recommendations for research, 2017. “Most people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” drugs.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK423845/
4. Is Cannabis a Gateway Drug? Key Findings and Literature Review, 2018 https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/252950.pdf I note that Sidwick himself cited this report. He clearly missed the main conclusion: “No causal link between cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs can be claimed at this time.”
5. Reductions in alcohol use following medical cannabis initiation: results from a large cross-sectional survey of medical cannabis patients in Canada, 2020 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395920303017 “44% reported drinking less frequently on a monthly basis. Moreover, results showed that patients also reduced their use of prescription opioids, tobacco and illicit substances when they consumed medical cannabis.”
6. Is marijuana really a gateway drug? A nationally representative test of the marijuana gateway hypothesis using a propensity score matching design, 2021 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-021-09464-z “Results from this study indicate that marijuana use is not a reliable gateway cause of illicit drug use. As such, prohibition policies are unlikely to reduce illicit drug use.”
7. Trends in Alcohol, Cigarette, E-Cigarette, and Nonprescribed Pain Reliever Use Among Young Adults in Washington State After Legalization of Nonmedical Cannabis, 2022 https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(22)00374-3/fulltext “Contrary to concerns about spillover effects, implementation of legalized nonmedical cannabis coincided with decreases in alcohol and cigarette use and pain reliever misuse.”
8. Recreational cannabis legalization has had limited effects on a wide range of adult psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes, 2023 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/recreational-cannabis-legalization-has-had-limited-effects-on-a-wide-range-of-adult-psychiatric-and-psychosocial-outcomes/D4AB5EB78D588473A054877E05D45F16 “We assessed a broad range of outcomes, including other substance use, substance dependence…and found no detrimental nor protective effects for the majority of these domains, nor did we identify any increased vulnerability conferred by established risk factors.”
Thus I have shown that Sidwick’s claim is not supported by evidence, let alone ‘the best evidence’, nor has he taken any note of the overwhelming weight of evidence which opposes his position. Clearly his assertion that ‘cannabis is a gateway drug’ is unsupportable opinion and he is in breach of Nolan principle 1.3.
CLAIM THAT CANNABIS CAUSES SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS
There is no dispute that there is an association between the use of psychoactive substance and mental health disorders. The issue is whether there is evidence that shows a causal effect from cannabis.
1.Assessing evidence for a causal link between cannabis and psychosis: a review of cohort studies, 2009 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19783132/ “Whether cannabis use can cause serious psychotic disorders that would not otherwise have occurred cannot be answered from the existing data.”
2. Cannabis and psychosis: Neurobiology, 2014 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927252/ “The ‘transition-to-psychosis’ due to cannabis, despite it being a strong risk factor, remains uncertain based upon neurobiological changes. It appears that multiple other factors might be involved.”
3. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of lifetime cannabis use reveals a causal effect of schizophrenia liability, 2018 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-018-0206-1 “Largest study yet of genes and predisposition to schizophrenia and cannabis use looked at anonymised data from 180,000 people. Cannabis is more likely to be taken by schizophrenics trying to self-medicate than to cause the disorder.”
4. High-potency cannabis and incident psychosis: correcting the causal assumption, 2019 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(19)30174-9/fulltext “We found little evidence for any causal effect of cannabis use on schizophrenia risk.”
5. Adolescent cannabis use and adult psychoticism: A longitudinal co-twin control analysis using data from two cohorts, 2021 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34553951/ “Cannabis exposure during adolescence is not independently associated with either adult-onset psychosis or signs of schizophrenia.”
6.. Cannabis and Psychosis: Recent Epidemiological Findings Continuing the “Causality Debate”, 2022 https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21111126 “While cannabis use may increase the risk for psychosis, its exposure is neither necessary nor sufficient for psychosis, suggesting that it is one of multiple causal components.”
7. Influence of cannabis use on incidence of psychosis in people at clinical high risk, 2023 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37070555/ “There was no significant association between any measure of cannabis use at baseline and either transition to psychosis, the persistence of symptoms, or functional outcome.”
8. State Cannabis Legalization and Psychosis-Related Health Care Utilization, 2023 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800728 “The findings of this study do not support an association between state policies legalizing cannabis and psychosis-related outcomes.”
Thus I have shown that Sidwick’s claim is not supported by evidence. He has distorted the evidence to claim that cannabis causes psychosis when in fact it shows is that it may or may not be one of multiple causal components. This misleading treatment of evidence based on a strong personal opinion is clearly in breach of Nolan principle 1.3. The consensus of expert opinion is that the risk of cannabis as a possible component cause of psychosis is best managed through a legally regulated system where age limits and potency can be controlled, rather than leaving the market under the control of criminal gangs.
CLAIM THAT CANNABIS CAUSES AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER, ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AND ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)
You have already acknowledged that Sidwick misrepresented the single study he adduces to support this claim when he gave oral evidence at the Home Affairs Committee Drugs Inquiry in 2022. You suggest “it is likely that the PCC misspoke”. This does not explain why he has subsequently repeated this claim on multiple occasions in media interviews.
This single study is by Dr. Stuart Reece who is an outlier at the very edge of professional credibility. The study has not been peer-reviewed, cites only other studies by Reece in support of his conclusions and there is no independent evidence supporting his conclusions.
By contrast, there is considerable evidence supporting the therapeutic use of cannabis in the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) which include Asperger’s Syndrome; and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
1.Cannabidiol-Rich Cannabis in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Severe Behavioral Problems, 2019 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30382443/ “Following the cannabis treatment, behavioral outbreaks were much improved or very much improved in 61% of patients.”.
2. Real life Experience of Medical Cannabis Treatment in Autism: Analysis of Safety and Efficacy, 2019 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30655581/ “Cannabis in ASD patients appears to be well tolerated, safe and effective option to relieve symptoms associated with ASD.”
3. Cannabis and cannabinoid use in autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review, 2022 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34043900/ “Cannabis and cannabinoids may have promising effects in the treatment of symptoms related to ASD, and can be used as a therapeutic alternative in the relief of those symptoms.”
4. Cannabis for the Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, 2022 https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/521370 “This report adds to the literature by providing detailed personal accounts from patients and objective evidence of improvement on validated measures for ADHD symptoms.”
Thus I have shown that Sidwick’s claim is not supported by evidence and, in fact, is contradicted by evidence. He seriously misrepresented the only evidence he adduces at the Home Affairs Committee Drugs Inquiry and has continued to misrepresent it in subsequent media interviews. His conduct is clearly in breach of Nolan principle 1.3
OTHER CLAIMS
You have acknowledged that Sidwick’s other claims on issues such as birth defects, cancer, etc are based on single sources of information and the same authors. Clearly this does not meet the test of Nolan principle 1.3 “to act…using the best evidence and without…bias.”
SUMMARY
On all matters relating to cannabis, you have acknowledged that Sidwick relies on a limited amount of research from a limited range of sources. I have shown that the overwhelming weight of evidence does not support his claims and in many instances directly contradicts them.
Clearly, he has allowed his strong personal opinion on cannabis to distort his communications on many occasions to a very large public audience. Since he first took office his conduct on this issue has been consistently in breach of Nolan principle 1.3.
I note that Sidwick states he has a “pharmaceutical understanding of the science” but his past employment in the pharmaceutical industry is in sales and marketing, so any claim of scientific or clinical expertise cannot be sustained.
I submit it is clear that Mr David Sidwick, the PCC, has acted in this matter without integrity, diligence, transparency and objectivity. With respect, your claim that he has not is incredible and unsustainable.
I consider that in view of his personal responsibility for the misinformation that he has repeatedly and widely communicated, he should resign from office. As a minimum, the Police and Crime Panel should issue a public statement of retraction and apology for these false claims. My overriding concern is that Sidwick has used his office to try and increase the criminal penalties for cannabis by campaigning for it to be made a Class A drug on the basis of false evidence. This supports the criminal market in cannabis and all the harm it causes for which he must be held to account.
The Houses of Parliament, the London Drugs Commission and Cannabis
Last week I was invited to give evidence to the London Drugs Commission on the effectiveness of the UK’s drugs laws, focusing on cannabis.
Later that same day I attended the Cannabis Industry Council’s event at the Houses of Parliament where we launched our ‘Protect our Patients’ campaign to enable cannabis prescribing by GPs.
All in all, a good day in London, a city I appreciate much more from afar than when I used to live there!
Dear Lord Falconer,
It was a pleasure to meet you and your colleagues on the London Drugs Commission last week. Thank you for the opportunity to give evidence.
I am writing to summarise the key points that I made.
- There have been a number of studies and papers published on the costs/benefits of cannabis legalisation and regulation, including the paper by Chris Snowdon of the IEA who was also in our meeting. The IEA, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Health Poverty Action, the Adam Smith Institute, the Beckley Foundation with the University of Essex and the LSE have all published well-researched analyses. I endorse them all but none is as comprehensive or uses the variety of sources (many no longer available) as the study that CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform commissioned in 2011 from the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit. Although now 12 years old, it remains as relevant as ever. The price of cannabis has, if anything, reduced while all other costs have increased.
‘Taxing the UK Cannabis Market’, 2011, Atha et al, projects a net annual gain to the UK economy of between £3.4 billion to £9.5 billion based on a £1 per gram cannabis sales tax in addition to VAT. See the attached table which neatly summarises this. I have also attached a full copy of the study.
- Cannabis is not harmless and you won’t find anyone serious who makes this claim. However its health harms are systematically and consistently exaggerated. Peanuts and shellfish cause more health harms. Finished admission episodes to hospital for ‘mental and behavioural problems’ related to cannabinoids are at one-fifth the rate of such admissions for alcohol. What appears to be a massive increase in community-based treatment for young people is confounded because 89% of such treatment is coercive. That is, such ‘treatment’ is imposed by authorities such as educational institutions or the courts as an alternative to suspension/expulsion or harsher sentences. (Sources NHS, DHSC)
The University of York estimates the risk of a diagnosis of psychosis associated with cannabis use for regular users is 1 in 20,000. Comparatively, the National Geographic Society estimates the lifetime risk of being struck by lightning at 1 in 3,000.
However, the more harmful you think cannabis is, the more irrational and irresponsible it is to leave the market unregulated and controlled by criminals.
- Cannabis prohibition creates deep and far reaching fractures in our society which affect everyone. With the value of the market at least three times that of Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine, it is the principal provider of regular cashflow to organised crime. It drives gangsterism, street dealing, underage use, violence, knife crime, intimidation, exploitation, county lines, human trafficking, contaminated products, societal breakdown and authoritarian policing of people’s private lives.
When government finally takes responsibility for the cannabis market and regulates it, the benefits will transform society, making our streets safer and reducing crime of all sorts. Prohibition of this largely benign and very popular substance has turned the forces of law enforcement against the communities they are supposed to protect. This policy was always destined to fail and persisting with it has caused immense, incalculable harm.
If I can be of further assistance please let me know.
Kind regards,
Peter Reynolds
18 Truths on Drugs Policy
Source: @JamesGierach Retired Chicago-area attorney, former Cook County prosecutor, drug policy reformer, author, Gierach Blogs at http://jamesgierach.tumblr.com
Peter Reynolds 