Posts Tagged ‘crime’
Future UK Drugs Policy must embrace NHS-funded medicinal cannabis, adult-use legalisation and legal regulation of all drugs
Adult-use legalisation of cannabis is the only solution to the huge problem of the violent, gangster-controlled drugs trade which now dominates our streets. Revenue from the £6 billion per year cannabis market is what funds activity in the smaller but much more profitable heroin and crack market (with meth starting to make inroads in the UK).
Current government policy supports the gangsters’ business model and is directly responsible for violence such as the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, the record number of drug deaths, the proliferation of dangerous products, contaminated drugs, synthetic cannabinoids, street dealing, knife crime, county lines and ease of access by minors. Until the government faces up to the disastrous policy it has pursued for over 50 years, all these problems will continue to get worse.
Prescribed cannabis will never reach everyone who can benefit from it, even when it is available on the NHS. I am confident that the research now being conducted by the Cannabis Industry Council (CIC) will prove that cannabis can be funded by the NHS with a net gain as it will reduce use of other more expensive and harmful medicines.
I envisage a cannabis market which includes:
1. Prescription-only (POM) sophisticated cannabinoid medicines which have been through clinical trials and have a marketing authorisation
2. POM cannabis as flower, oils and extracts, unlicensed medicines
3. Over-the counter (OTC) low-THC cannabis extracts as food supplements
4. Adult use cannabis in all forms available through licensed retailers
5. Grow-your-own (GYO for personal use only
There will be regulations to ensure standards, quality and safety at every level. There will still be criminal offences for supplying to minors and for commercial activity which is unlicensed.
All drugs should be legally available within regulations which are proportionate to their potential for harm. The most difficult part of this is that alcohol will need to be much more tightly restricted. This is why it is the alcohol industry and its massive wealth which drives opposition to drug law reform. Its spending power on advertising in the media and its lobbying of politicians is a corrupt influence which causes massive harm in our society.
The number of stores selling alcohol should be substantially reduced. Limits should be set on the quantity that can be purchased, much the same as current restrictions on OTC medicines.
Heroin should be available on prescription subject to engagement in treatment. ‘Abstinence’ is an unrealistic and damaging objective. The aim of treatment should be to improve health and support a sustainable lifestyle.
Cocaine is the most difficult problem. On its own it is no more harmful than alcohol but taken with alcohol as it usually is, its potential for harm increases exponentially. Crack is a very dangerous drug, not so much addictive as compulsive. Until we find a way of dealing with it, it will contine to drive acquisitive crime with users having no concern about the consequences of their actions. The huge dilemma is that anyone who has powder cocaine can learn very quickly how to ‘wash’ it into crack. However, if we continue to prohibit cocaine we will continue to make the problem worse. We must find a way to regulate access that will minimise harm and for now, I do not know what the solution is.
MDMA should be available in a similar way to adult-use cannabis, manufactured to quality standards, properly labelled and with limits on the quantity that can be purchased.
Taken together these measures will greatly improve public health, reduce pressure on the NHS, massively reduce all crime and free up police to concentrate on real crime which has victims.
It’s Time To Stand Up To The Gangsters From The Fleet Street Mafia.
Brooks Newmark, Victim.
There is no excuse for the Sunday Mirror’s entrapment of Brooks Newmark. It clearly amounts to a criminal offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. For causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent the penalty is up to 10 years in jail and both the freelance journalist concerned and the Mirror’s weekend editor Alison Phillips should be charged forthwith.
The subterfuge involved is also in clear breach of the Editors’ Code and the newly created, sham press regulator, IPSO, should act. Mind you that’s like asking the mafia to lock up its gangsters. It’s not going to happen. IPSO and the sickening parasites who set up this fraud as a successor to the corrupt PCC are the problem and no part of the solution.
Alison Phillips, Sexual Offender
The only defence to the use of subterfuge under the Editors’ Code is if it is in the public interest. After their disgraceful record over many years, anyone who thinks that Fleet Street can judge what is in the public interest, must be a Daily Mail reporter. This sting has achieved absolutely nothing except to show that a man is vulnerable to the provocative enticement of an extremely attractive woman. Frankly, Brooks Newmark would be either gay or impotent if he wasn’t sorely tempted by the delicious 22-year-old Swedish model Malin Sahlén, whose photograph was stolen by the Mirror and used to entrap the MP.
This is all part of the sickening hypocrisy, prurience and dishonesty which pervades Fleet Street. Just like the banks, our pathetic and weak leaders, even in the face of the Leveson Inquiry, allow so-called journalists to act with impunity. These aren’t journalists, they are malevolent, predatory criminal abusers and they should face the full force of the law. The crime is aggravated because it is committed for financial gain and is deeply corrupting of our media and our society.
Malin Sahlén. Who Wouldn’t?
Another side to Fleet Street’s abuse of its power and hypocrisy is the revolting Camilla Long of the Sunday Times, who has been instrumental in the harassment and malicious prosecution of Dave Lee Travis – another life sacrificed on the altar of Fleet Street malice. This vile bitch, for there can be no other description has misused her power in the media to launch the most repellent attacks on a man who is clearly innocent of any criminal intent. I don’t know what is behind her abuse. Perhaps she is sexually frigid and socially inept, incapable of handling herself in a situation of mild flirtation. More likely she is doing it for the money and if you take a moment to look at the smug, patronising drivel she writes in the Sunday Times, she is obviously in desperate need of material.
As if we didn’t know already that Cameron’s cowardly retreat from Leveson would result in more abuse from Fleet Street. Newmark must feel an idiot and highly embarrassed but it seems to me he has done nothing wrong except as far as his wife is concerned. That he was a government minister should have made him more cautious but should afford him stronger protection under the law, just as he might have a bodyguard or personal security against physical attack. The offences against him should therefore result in very severe sentences and the Sunday Mirror should go the same way as the News of the World.
FGM Is Terrible But What Are The Rabbis And Imams Doing To Our Boys?
Why is it acceptable to butcher a boy’s penis in the name of some delusional belief in a fairy tale divinity?
If female genital mutilation is unacceptable – which it is by any civilised standards – then so is male genital mutilation or circumcision as it is more usually called.
There are no ifs or buts here, apart from the self-serving politicians and media outlets that have jumped on the FGM bandwagon. All they do is if, but, exploit and misinform for their personal gain. It’s a cause that gains them kudos or a story that attracts attention.
Taking a knife to a child for any reason other than medical need is a crime. It is time that we saw the assaults by Jewish Rabbis and Muslim Imams punished with jail.
Let’s Get The Dealers Off The Streets!
Cannabis Is Not A Controlled Drug
Present policy abandons control to organised crime and street dealers.
If cannabis were properly controlled, it would be taken out of the hands of criminals. Growing, importing, distributing and retailing would become legitimate businesses, subject to proper control and regulation.
What Proper Control Would Mean
- Regulated sales: licensed retailers, labelling of THC/CBD ratio, other ingredients, weight
- Quality control: elimination of pesticide and fertiliser residues, bulking agents, impurities
- Regulated commercial production, reasonable limits on domestic cultivation
- Protecting the vulnerable: age limit, ID check, harm reduction information
We Need CLEAR Common Sense About Cannabis.
A Safer Britain
- Less crime of all types
- Police can focus on violent and harmful crime
- Lower alcohol consumption
- Fewer road accidents and injuries/fatalities
- Fewer children using cannabis
- Quality controlled cannabis with no harmful adulterants
- Fewer fires from hidden cannabis farms
A Healthier Britain
- Lower alcohol consumption
- Less use of dangerous/harmful drugs
- Medicinal use: Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cancer, chronic. pain, dementia, diabetes, epilepsy, glaucoma, MS,. Parkinson’s, stroke therapy.
- Preventative therapy against auto immune and neurodegenerative diseases
- More funding for healthcare
Taxing The UK Cannabis Market
CLEAR’s policies are based on independent, expert research carried out by the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit in 2011.
Download Here (PDF)
How To Regulate Cannabis In Britain
CLEAR’s detailed proposals for cannabis regulation so as to minimise all health and social harms of cannabis, protect the vulnerable and allow access to medicinal cannabis
Download Here (PDF)
References:
– The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Crime, March 2014
Read here
– How Smoking Marijuana Might Be The Best Way To Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease, January 2014
Read Here
– Few Problems With Cannabis for California, October 2013
Read Here
– The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance, July 2013
Read Here
– Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption, May 2013
Read Here
– Why Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Traffic Deaths, December 2011
Read Here
– What can we learn from the Dutch cannabis coffeeshop system? September 2011
Read Here
– Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot, November 2011
Read Here
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– ‘Taxing the UK Cannabis Market’, 2011
Read Here
– A summary of the health harms of drugs. NHS, 2011.
Read Here
– Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids. A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature 2000 – 2011, NORML, 2011.
Read Here
– Bringing cannabis back into the medicine cabinet, Prof. Les Iversen, 2010.
Video here
– Dutch among lowest cannabis users in Europe, November 2009
Read More
– Adulterants & Cutting Agents Found in Cannabis Resin, 2009
Read Here
– Key Marijuana Compound Beats Current Alzheimer’s Drugs, August 2006
Read Here
– US Patent 6630507, Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants, 2001
Read Here
Banks Get Taxpayers’ Money To Lend To Businesses And Homebuyers But Keep It for Themselves.
Bankers Are Thieves.
It’s a crime. There should be hundreds of them in jail.
The Man Who Broke Britain – Nowhere To be Seen
James “Broken Britain” Brokenshire has had various titles and job descriptions at the Home Office; crime reduction, crime prevention, anti-social behaviour, etc, etc.
I think we can all agree, by any standards, an abject failure. Never in modern times has Britain seen such an upswing in crime and anti-social behaviour.
Will Brokenshire’s appalling job performance have any consequences for him? Is he accountable in any way?
Of course not. This is no surprise though. Before he conned the voters of Bexley and Sidcup into voting for him he was a banker, so what do you expect?
Gang Culture And Drugs At The Root Of It?
“They earn money from crime, particularly from drugs…”
So do something about it! Pull the rug from underneath the gangs and organised crime. Take away their lifeblood.
Tax and regulate cannabis. Take a safer, more responsible approach. Build a properly controlled supply chain. Create jobs. Protect children. Stop wasting police time and resources. Reap the multi-billion pound and immeasurable social benefits of a sensible policy on cannabis.
The Future Of Cannabis In Britain Is CLEAR
Last Thursday, 24th March 2011, the latest ballot of the membership of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance closed. By a two-thirds to one-third majority the members voted to adopt a new constitution and to change the party’s name. From that moment on we are known as Cannabis Law Reform or CLEAR.
We have moved away from the use of the word “legalise” because it is interpreted as meaning a free for all. It scares people, particularly politicians and the media and we, as a party, now understand that these are the people we need to influence if we are to advance our cause.
We have also refined and sharpened our aims and objectives. They are now simple, direct and clear:
- To end the prohibition of cannabis.
- To promote as a matter of urgency and compassion the prescription of medicinal cannabis by doctors.
- To introduce a system of regulation for the production and supply of cannabis based on facts and evidence.
- To encourage the production and use of industrial hemp.
- To educate and inform about the uses and benefits of cannabis.
Medicinal cannabis is our spearhead. We seek an end to prohibition for everyone but we demand immediate provision for those who need cannabis as medicine. It is an obscene and evil shame on our nation that so many who suffer are in fear of arrest and prison for using a medicine that transforms their lives.
We will build a new and effective brand and campaign. We are reasonable, responsible, respectable members of society from all walks of life and professions. We are discriminated against by an irrational and absurd policy. Cannabis is a wonderful thing. It is relatively harmless but it is a psychoactive substance and needs to be respected. It’s medicinal value is unparalleled but it also offers wonderful recreational, spiritual and creative nourishment. The relatively young science of cannabinoids now explains why cannabis has been treasured and used by mankind since the dawn of time. Prohibition is a ridiculous policy. The truth about cannabis is clear.
We intend to build a substantial membership. Annual subscriptions have been cut to £5.00 and for concessions £1.00. We ask everyone to make a payment of £10 towards campaign funding but money will not be an obstacle to anyone joining. Please show your support for our campaign and join CLEAR. Within the next few days we will launch a membership drive with the simplest way to sign up being payment by text message.
We will be fielding candidates in council and parliamentary elections all over the UK. We do not expect to win many seats but we intend our campaign to be given the respect and attention it deserves. We will seek electoral pacts with other parties who are prepared to sign up to our aims. If you would like to stand as a candidate, please get in touch. We also need voluntary workers all over the country.
We have exciting campaigns on the way that communicate the scientific truth about cannabis and demolish the scare stories and prejudice that is so widespread. We will never let another ridiculous tabloid story pass without challenging it. We will not allow our political leaders to get away with untruths and propaganda without calling them to account.
We will campaign for an end to the ludicrous waste of law enforcement resources on cannabis and for a regulated system of production that will exclude organised crime and the evils of violence and human trafficking that prohibition causes. We will educate users about cannabinoid content, different strains, varieties and methods of use. We will promote regulation to ensure quality, safety and restriction of sales to adults only.
We already have solid data that proves a tax and regulate regime in Britain would produce a net gain to the economy of at least £6 billion per annum, freeing up police to concentrate on real crime and massively reducing the harms caused by prohibition.
Despite the fact that most people in Britain have used cannabis to no ill effect and that between two and ten million people have it as a regular part of their lives, the cannabis campaign has failed to make any real progress. Now is when that changes. The future of cannabis in Britain is CLEAR.
We will release more details about our campaign in the near future.
The truth about cannabis is CLEAR.
PM MP
Originally Published In Homegrown Outlaw's Blog
By Jason Reed
To all that support change in current policy, I invite you to take part in: PM MP.
What is PM MP? Well, I am hosting a letter that I am encouraging as many people as possible to post one copy to the Prime Minister, and one copy to your MP. It is through weight and numbers that points are grasped and policy changed.
It is also worth sending to the Home Secretary – Theresa May, and James Brokenshire – Minister for Crime Prevention at the Home Office.
If you would like to add your name and address so as to receive a reply, all the better. If you wish to remain anonymous, then that’s also fine, but please do take the time to send just two letters to the Prime Minister and your MP at this address:
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street,
London, SW1A 2AA
Your MP can be found here:
And your MP’s address will be:
MP’s NAME, or James Brokenshire, or The Home Secretary Theresa May
House of Commons,
London SW1A OAA
Below you can find the template letter that has been created to address the current law & policy that surrounds cannabis in Britain. It is with a great deal of thanks to the Drug Equality Alliance for directing the wording to address this issue correctly.
Please do support this; please send the letters. Fellow bloggers, please also host the letter and send forth.
Either copy & paste the below text into a letter, or I have provided downloadable links at the end of this blog post. Thank you all. Jason.
Dear
I am writing to state my view that continuing prohibition of all private interests in cannabis is not in the best interest of society or the individual. Current policy is in many regards counter-productive and a drain on the country’s resources. The administration of Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is mandated to be under constant review & evidence based; it’s concern is solely to reduce social harm caused by drug misuse. I submit that there can be no justification in law for the blanket ban on accessing a substance that many persons use responsibly, and many use to experience the amelioration of symptoms caused by various medical disorders.
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 seeks to regulate human action re any harmful drug, it does not provide a mandate for prohibition, indeed when one examines the obligations of the ACMD one can see that the law seeks to make arrangements for the supply of controlled drugs. The legislative aim is to control responsible human action and property interests through the regulation of the production, distribution and possession of any harmful drug; this being proportionate and targeted to address the mischief of social harm occasioned by misuse. I note that the law does not prohibit the use of cannabis at all, and this often ignored fact was Parliament’s way of opening the door to facilitate a suitable and rational regulatory structure. I place it on record that I wish the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to be used properly, and neutrally; specifically; (under Section 1) – “(2) (a) for restricting the availability of such drugs or supervising the arrangements for their supply.”
The prohibition of all private interests in cannabis & the denial of the possibility of responsible use has failed:
- The estimated expenditure of £19 billion on the judicial ‘controls’ over UK drug policy is a large sum that cannot be justified in the current fiscal climate. I do not believe it can be proven to be a valid policy even if the nation could easily afford it; it has a high price on liberty, and a paradoxical effect upon the health of all drug users – it has proved futile in almost every way, save for the government’s blind adherence to the international treaties it chooses to fetter it’s discretion to.
- There is an estimated street value of £5 billion profit going directly to gangs and cartels, and this in turn funds organised crime, human trafficking, and all manner of hard-line criminality.
- Children have easy & ready access to cannabis. Children are dealing cannabis and using cannabis with relative ease.
- There is an estimated 165 million responsible and non-problematic cannabis users worldwide. There is anything from 2 – 10 million adult users in the UK. There is no societal benefit to criminalising such a large portion of society, these are generally law-abiding persons who wish to use a substance that is comparatively safer than many drugs that government choose to exclude users of from the operation of the MoDA 1971 (despite the Act being neutral as to what drug misusers are controlled, the most harmful drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are excluded by policy, but this is not reflected in the Act itself).
- Under prohibition, as in 1920’s America, quality control has suffered giving way to hastily harvested cannabis which acts as the modern day equivalent of the infamous Moonshine & Hooch. The UK media terms this bad product simply as “Skunk”. Cannabis is now being cut with harmful drugs, glass, metal fillings, and chemicals to give false potency, and to add weight for profit motivations.
- To criminalise personal actions that do not harm others within the confines of privately owned property is at best draconian, and at worst futile & irresponsible.
I wish to encourage the adoption of a regulatory system that provides:
- An age-check system to prevent the young and vulnerable from obtaining cannabis with the ease they currently have.
- The partial saving from the £19 billion drug enforcement budget, alongside the estimated street worth of £5 billion potentially collected from cannabis. This would be a considerable sum in aiding the country in fiscal crisis.
- Quality control that can be accorded to cannabis production and sale, thus ensuring that there are no dangerous impurities and that the correct balance of cannabinoids are present (according to the needs of the user) to minimise potential harms.
- Potency & harm reduction information can be provided to adults, ensuring education is the forefront of the regulatory model.
- A restriction on marketing and the creation of designated discreet outlets. As seen in many countries, given a place of legitimacy, the cache of cannabis is lessened in favour of responsibility.
- The freedoms and rights for non-problematic users to be respected.
I do hope that you will give this matter the urgent attention it warrants.
Yours
Simon Heffer’s Disgusting Prohibitionist Rant
Fat Cat And His Drug Of Choice
Journalists in the old media and politicans are panicking. They are trying to crack down hard on us and our rights to opinions and self-expression. In the age of WikiLeaks and the internet, their self-serving oligarchy is undermined by real freedom.
Cameron’s and Miliband’s arrogant and dismissive rejection of Bob Ainsworth’s proposals for an end to prohibition, shows they have no proper response to his arguments. Today, another member of the ruling elite penned a truly ignorant and repressive opinion in The Daily Telegraph. See here for the full article.
As well as trying it on with the discredited idea that cannabis causes psychosis, Heffer says, with astounding spitefulness and stupidity:
“We have a serious problem with drugs in this country because we do not punish drugs crime severely enough. Legalisation is not the answer, but getting nasty might just be.”
It is an utterly disgraceful article. Heffer should be ashamed of himself for spreading lies and misinformation, I suspect deliberately.
The facts are that the harms caused by prohibition are well documented and proven.
The facts are that the allegation cannabis causes psychosis is just the latest scare story. In the 1930s the prohibitionists used to say that cannabis makes white women promiscuous with black men. This is just the latest smear of equivalent value.
Public opinion is hugely in favour of an end to prohibition. You only have to look at the polls and the huge volume of comment and opinion on the web.
The oligarchy of politicians and the media is on the point of collapse. Those who value truth and freedom can console themselves that the darkest hour is just before dawn. Journalists like Heffer and Andrew Marr, for example, are desperate to hang on to their corrupt position where they control the news agenda and contrive media coverage in cahoots with their friends in parliament.
A peaceful revolution is coming where fat cat journalists with no more talent than the lowliest blogger will be turfed out of their comfortable sinecures as the irrelevant dinosaurs that they are.
Heffer and his chums on both sides of the House have had their nasty little stitch-up going on for too long. Dawn is approaching and his sort has no future
Peter Reynolds 