IRELAND Dithers Aimlessly on Drugs Policy. Politicians Procrastinate. Media Misinforms.
This week the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use held its first meeting.
In private. This speaks volumes about the way politics is conducted in Ireland.
It’s presented as “standard practice to attend to housekeeping and procedural matters”. But it’s all done at our expense. There is no good reason that these discussions should be secret. They are our business, not the ‘private’ business of those whose wages we pay.
There is every cause for concern. Everything that this government and the Oireachtas as a whole does on drugs policy warrants the closest scrutiny.
I do not know anyone who has any faith at all that this process will be handled honestly and we see from the beginning that it will not be open and transparent.
The recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly have already been brushed aside. Varadkar kicked the can as far down the road as possible and now we have a Taoiseach who is authoritarian, regressive and very fond of the mindless ‘tough on drugs’ sloganeering that has failed for 50 years.
And let’s remember, the Citizens’ Assembly was hobbled, rigged and sabotaged from the beginning. The agenda was manipulated so it was never about ‘drugs use’, it was about drugs treatment, so focusing only on the 10% of drugs users who are problematic, ignoring the 90% of users who, as Prof. Jo-Hanna Ivers explained right at the beginning, cause no harm to themselves or others and actually gain benefit from their drug use.
So it was set up to fail from the beginning. The equivalent of planning alcohol policy on the experience and need of alcoholics.
There was just 15 minutes given to one presentation on cannabis regulation while the gardai were given three bites at the cherry, hours each time, to preach falsehood, moralising and an utterly outdated approach which is proven to fail. Ireland now has a reputation for drugs gangsterism that spans the world and it’s deluded to think the gardai have anything of value to offer. Aside from a few academics and Dr Nuno Capaz from Portugal, not a single, working, practical expert on drugs policy was given a platform.
Then the voting system was rigged! Clearly this was organised to defeat what was obvious – that, even in the face of all the manipulation, the assembly intended to recommend decriminalisation of all drugs and a regulated cannabis market. So we had the absurd conclusion that drugs would be “decriminalised but remain illegal”. You really couldn’t make it up!
Of course, before the committee reaches any conclusions we will almost certainly have an election. This process has been twisted, corrupted, manipulated and sabotaged all the way through. I’ve only touched on the most egregious examples. Many other tricks were pulled which should never have been allowed.
Meanwhile the handwringing and alarm from government and media about the consequences of bad drugs policy continues. The HSE is engaged in drug war propaganda while simultaneously ensuring the failure of both the MCAP and ministerial licence schemes for accessing prescription cannabis.
The media systematically misrepresents the issue. In particular, RTE’s coverage is as far from balanced as it possible to conceive, yet its Journalism Guidelines are peppered with words such as ‘balance, fairness, objectivity and impartiality’. Certainly on drugs and drugs policy it falls far short of these standards. It is obsessed with the partial and opinionated views of Bobby Smyth, Ray Walley and other members of the Cannabis Risk Alliance, the extremist anti-cannabis lobby group. The nonsense and misrepresentation they are allowed to get away with about research and data is a scandal.
The press is allowed to be partial and there is no better example than this week’s article in the Independent ‘Almost 5,000 hospitalised with mental disorders after taking cannabis products‘. The awful journalism, confusing cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids is unforgivable, so dreadful you would think it is deliberate. And here again, the only named commentary is from Bobby Smyth and Ray Walley.
Is Irish media so blinkered that it thinks only clinicians or gardai have any role in drugs policy? The subject requires expertise from many disciplines. Why are experts in drugs policy itself never interviewed?
The Irish Times is similarly biased. Occasionally we get more balanced and intelligent coverage from the Examiner and the Journal.
It is difficult to be optimistic about any improvement in drugs policy in Ireland. Fine Gael is a hopeless case. Fianna Fail has a few bright lights, notably Paul McAuliffe and James Lawless. Labour has Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. The Greens have Neasa Hourigan. There is Gino Kenny of People Before Profit, Violet-Anne Wynne, the independent TD and Lynn Ruane, the independent senator . But there are very few more who seem to be properly informed. Most prefer the knuckledragging ‘tough on drugs’ approach of Simon Harris.
There’s No Such Thing as ‘Medical Cannabis’
I am increasingly concerned about the ‘medical cannabis industry’ and its resistance to wider reform. These people, some of them at least, have forgotten very quickly who got them the business opportunity in the first place!
Of course, there is no such thing as ‘medical cannabis’. The more accurate language is ‘medicinal cannabis’ but the preferred term has to be ‘prescription cannabis’. It’s exactly the same product as is sold on ‘the streets’, grown in people’s lofts, in illicit ‘factories’ or in hugely expensive licensed facilities. Often, still, the ‘legal’ variety is of inferior quality.
There’s also no truth in the argument that prescription cannabis is safer or lower in THC. The vast majority of what is prescribed in the UK is what the media would call ‘skunk’. Unless you’re underage or smoking it with tobacco, it is safe, much safer than many other things in your kitchen cupboards.
These divisions in the cannabis sector, stoked by newcomers from the protectionist pharmaceutical industry will achieve nothing for anyone. We need a unified message on the benefits of cannabis. Whether it’s prescribed for chronic pain, anxiety, multiple sclerosis or whether it’s smoked in a spliff with the lights down and some psychedelic music on, it’s all about making you feel better.
This is the universal truth about cannabis.
Germany Legalises Cannabis. The Most Important News in Drugs Policy in Our Lifetimes – So Far!
I’ve been waiting for this moment for 53 years. Since I first experienced the joy, insight and delight of cannabis as a 13-year old back in 1971, there has been no more important development. A nation state of 83 million people has at last made the move that will roll back prohibition, undermine organised crime, reduce harm and restore some degree of precious liberty to its people.
Since 1983, when I first gave evidence to the UK Parliament on cannabis, I have fought, campaigned and struggled to enlighten British politicians about the enormous harm cannabis prohibition causes and the immense opportunities that it prevents. Ironically, Germany’s very welcome move comes as politics in Britain reaches its very nadir. Only this week, the House of Commons embarrassed the whole nation by its disgusting, self-serving bickering on a debate about the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Of the many politicians I have met over the past 40 years, only a handful have earned my respect. The majority are concerned only with their own and their party’s short-term interest. My work on drugs policy has brought this home to me and the shameful approach of our politicians to the rabid slaughter of innocents confirms this.
My interest in cannabis reform was entirely selfish to begin with. I was outraged at an interference with my personal liberty that had no basis in science, nor in common sense policy. Quickly though I was consumed with the pressing need of so many who could benefit from cannabis as medicine. It was this that lit a fire within me and has driven my work.
There have been important milestones. California legalised medical access in 1996. The US states of Colorado and Washington legalised adult-use in 2012 and the following year Uruguay become the first nation state to see the light. Canada, with a population of 35 million, became the largest nation to legalise in 2018 and out-of-the-blue, in November of that year, the UK legalised medical access. Not through any rational or evidence-based policymaking but solely because the government suffered severe media embarrassment over the plight of two very young, epileptic children, Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley. Although very welcome, since then the UK has only gone backward on drugs policy. Currently we have a nasty, vindictive approach to people who use illicit drugs, yet the police operate de facto decriminalisation of personal possession. Meanwhile, powerful drugs gangs have taken over our streets and our negligent approach to drugs policy drives most crime, violence, exploitation of the vulnerable and societal breakdown.
In Germany, from April, it will legal for adults to possess up to 50 grams at home, up to 25 grams in public and each household may cultivate three plants. Cannabis social clubs of up to 500 members will be able to grow cannabis collectively and distribute it amongst their members. There’s a great deal of room for improvement in these arrangements. The clubs are a misguided response to fear of establishing a commercial market but in fact they are an ideal opportunity for cover of criminal gangs. I have no doubt that eventually a sensible, legally regulated, commercial market will be introduced but today is not the day to complain. Today is a cause for great celebration!
It is certain that Germany’s move will influence the rest of the world, particularly Europe, the EU and my adopted homeland, Ireland. I am hopeful for at least decriminalisation in the near future. But in Britain, I am not optimistic. The crass stupidity of both Conservative and Labour politicians knows no bounds. With very few exceptions, their desire to posture as ‘tough on drugs’ trumps any evidence, science or common sense. Reform will come eventually in the UK, probably, just like medical access, it will arrive suddenly and not through any rational process but because of grubby politicking. Such is the reality of living under the small minds and self-interests of British MPs.
Reasons to be Hopeful on Drugs Policy
You can be forgiven for a sense of despair if you live under the rule of the Conservative and Labour Party in Britain or the Fine Gael/Fianna Fail/Green Party coalition in Ireland. Our politicians are obsessed with pushing a ‘tough on drugs’ narrative. It’s an easy, cheap, go-to headline-grabber rather than addressing the real issues on drugs policy.
There are a few hopeful signs. But not in Britain. The dullard consensus between Conservative and Labour is depressing and another manifestation of the sickness that pervades all our political discourse. In Ireland, politicians are paying lip service to reform but the recent Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use has forced the issue along, despite best efforts to rig the outcome.
The hope comes from the west, that re-scheduling of cannabis in the USA is about to be confirmed and from the east, that Germany seems to have finally resolved its cannabis reform bill and decriminalisation should take effect within a few months.
So Britain and Ireland are getting squeezed. Both countries face elections later this year. Drugs policy will not be an election issue in either country but crime, violence and anti-social behaviour will be. There’s a complete failure, a refusal, to see the link between bad drugs policy and these problems. In fact, it’s one of the principal causes of societal breakdown but not something that politicians will face up to.
Neither rational argument, nor evidence-based campaigning have any immediate effect on drugs policy. Over many years they do have some impact as understanding across society is improved and eventually wiser politicians come into office. While we’re stuck with those brought up with the ‘War on Drugs’; logic, evidence and common sense make no difference. They continue to ‘Just Say No’.
Nothing seems to move politicians except media embarrassment. It was only the tabloid coverage of Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell that shamed Theresa May into legalising prescription cannabis. More recently, the UK Post Office scandal has shown that government and civil service are perfectly capable of acting quickly when it suits them but they prefer a life of indolence and procrastination. There’s an almost endless list of scandals that the Conservatives have preferred to ignore: contaminated blood, sodium valproate birth defects, Grenfell, Windrush, etc, etc. Labour will do exactly the same when they get into power.
In Ireland, despite the recommendations on cannabis by the Oireachtas Justice Committee and the Citizens’ Assembly, unbelievably the government has decided they need another committee but they’re going to put it off for nine months by which time the election will be imminent. It really is farcical. ‘Yes Minister’ and the Office of Circumlocution from ‘Little Dorrit’ aren’t fiction, they are factual narratives.
So while we must keep on with our efforts in campaigning and education for the long-term, politicians aren’t really interested in us or in reasoned argument. We’re wasting our time expecting it. We have to find the lever that will cause them embarrassment, show them an immediate personal gain or rely on broader international pressures before they will do the right thing.
Smoking Weed and Watching the West Wing
It’s my new favourite thing
I’ve watched it before, of course but then it was sporadically, just as I managed to catch it. This time, though, I’m going through religously, episode by episode and there are more than 20 episodes in each season.
It’s hypnotic. The characters are wonderful. It’s production values stand up very well for a show that is 20 years old. It has that great appeal of being about real life, real issues and events that I remember clearly but all woven into a gripping fictional narrative. The TV equivalent of a ‘page turner’.
But the thing that has really hit me, assisted by the insight that cannabis facilitates, is that this is a fantasy. A wild, outrageous fantasy that has very little relationship to real life. It portrays politicians and those who work in politics as noble, with great integrity, high ideals, wonderful ambitions, most of all, principled. And this, of course, is nonsense.
It’s taken me more than 40 years working with politicians, mostly in the UK but the last seven or eight in Ireland as well, to finally accept the truth. With a handful of exceptions from the hundreds that I have met, they are sordid, self-serving and worthless. Our political system in the West is a waste of time and resources. It has created terrible wars, injustice and achieved very little. Any good that mankind has achieved is despite politics, not because of it. I see this more clearly now than I ever have before.
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.
Peter Reynolds 