Posts Tagged ‘government’
Medicinal Cannabis AdVan Campaign in London.
Artist’s Impression
Join The Campaign For Medicinal Cannabis On A Doctor’s Prescription.
Despite overwhelming evidence, the UK government insists that cannabis has “no medicinal value”. Present policy is deeply cruel and means that at least one million people in Britain are forced to become criminals in order to deal with their pain, suffering or disability.
We must change this dreadful and unjust policy. It’s time to help rather than persecute people who genuinely need cannabis to improve their health. DONATE HERE.
The AdVan Campaign.
CLEAR is the UK’s leading drugs policy reform group with more than 270,000 followers. We will run an AdVan for one week in central London during the busy pre-Christmas period. This will deliver the simple, direct message that you see above and it will be backed by a supporting PR campaign, lobbying of government ministers and MPs as well as further information on the CLEAR website.
Please donate whatever you can. Every pound makes a difference. We need to raise £3500 to run the AdVan for one week. If we raise more we will run it for longer. DONATE HERE.
Please Donate Now!
Our Simple And Reasonable Request To UK Government.
In 1998, GW Pharmaceuticals was granted a licence to grow cannabis and its cannabis oil medicine, Sativex, is now approved but doctors are prevented from prescribing it because it is so fantastically expensive.
The Dutch government approves a cannabis medicine called Bedrocan which provides exactly the same as Sativex at a tiny fraction of the price. Sativex costs between £375 – £560 per month. Bedrocan costs £35 – £95 per month.
All we ask is that if a doctor prescribes Bedrocan, the Home Office should issue an import licence. This is a narrow, tightly defined reform that will not encourage illicit use but will provide enormous help to some very poorly people. DONATE HERE.
Further Background.
Every year, thousands of medicinal cannabis users are prosecuted for possessing or growing cannabis. Often it is the only medicine that helps them with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, MS, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, depression or many of the conditions related to aging. It is also used to mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy and HIV/Aids treatments.
In November 2014, the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker resigned as a government minister because of the Conservatives’ refusal even to consider drugs policy reform. In July 2014 he met with members of CLEAR and publicly called for cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use. Other ministers are more concerned with stopping people getting high (which they are going to do anyway) than in helping those with severe medical conditions. DONATE HERE.
Other Ways You Can Help
Join CLEAR at http://clearmembers-uk.org
Visit and ‘like’ our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ClearUK
Follow us on Twitter @CLEARUK
The Disaster That Is UK Drugs Policy.
The more harmful, dangerous and addictive a drug is the more important that its availability should be legally regulated, otherwise, inevitably, a criminal market is created with massive consequential health and social harms.
In the UK, before the Misuse of Drugs Act was introduced in 1971, we had around 3,000 problematic drug users. We now have 350,000. Yet successive governments carry on in the same direction.
The vested interests of Big Booze have been supported and encouraged by weak politicians, leading to lighter and lighter regulation of the most dangerous drug of all. Meanwhile, relatively harmless and beneficial substances like cannabis have been abandoned to street dealers and organised crime, blighting communities and involving children in both dealing and use – just as happened with alcohol prohibition in the US.
All the evidence is before us and the most effective policies for reducing harm from drugs are very clear. What we need to do is sweep aside outdated, out of touch organisations like the Home Office and dinosaurs like the present Home Secretary, Theresa May. Yet since 1971, there have been a few intelligent and progressive ministers in the Home Office. Surely it is the irresponsible and obstinate influence of senior civil servants that has prevented governments from moving forward with reform?
Drugs policy must be based on evidence, not pressure from tabloid newspapers, the alcohol industry, scared and ignorant politicians and self-serving civil servants and quangos.
Parliament is now obligated to debate Caroline Lucas’ e-petition formally to evaluate the effectiveness of current policy. We must move rapidly and radically thereafter towards a solution that will work and put aside the idiocy of the last 43 years.
My MP, Richard Drax, Responds On Israel And I Challenge Him Again.
Richard Drax MP
—– Original Message —–
From: DRAX, Richard
To: Peter Reynolds
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2014 5:33 PM
Subject: Israel
Dear Mr Reynolds,
I write following your most recent further emails regarding Israel’s recent actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs).
It is indeed tragic that so many innocent civilians, including women and children, have been killed and injured. Ministers have made clear to all parties at every opportunity that the current situation is in no one’s interest, and is harmful to prospects for the Middle East Peace Process. We now have a 72 hour ceasefire. The Government’s objective is to make that permanent so the killing stops.
It is vital that all security operations are conducted with due care and proportionate use of force. There are hundreds of thousands of extremely vulnerable civilians in Gaza who bear no responsibility for the rocket fire and are suffering acutely from this crisis; and the Israeli defence forces estimate that 5 million Israeli civilians live within range of rockets fired from Gaza. Israel has a right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks, but it is vital that Gaza’s civilian population is protected. International humanitarian law requires both sides to distinguish between military and civilian targets and enable unhindered humanitarian access.
The UK is working with international partners to achieve three important goals. Firstly, Ministers will push for a lasting and durable ceasefire agreed by both sides that ends both the rocket fire and the Israeli operations against Gaza. This will require cooperation from all parties in Israel and the OPTs, as well as assistance from regional partners.
Secondly, the Government has committed to do all it can to help alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Given the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza, the International Development Secretary has decided to make more than £15 million available in emergency support including health care, clean water, blankets and cooking equipment to help the people affected by the violence in Gaza. This includes £6 million in new funding to help the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provide immediate emergency assistance for over 100,000 people who are seeking shelter in their schools. DFID is also bringing forward £3 million in funding to help the International Committee of the Red Cross respond to the worsening situation and is spending £200,000 to repair UNRWA schools that are being used as shelters.
Finally, it is again important to re-iterate that a negotiated two-state solution remains the only way to resolve the conflict once and for all and to achieve a sustainable peace so that Israeli and Palestinian families can live without fear of violence. No other option exists which guarantees peace and security for both peoples. I can assure you the UK will work with all parties to make progress towards this goal.
I do not believe that imposing sanctions on Israel would be a constructive step. The UK has a productive relationship with Israel which enables us to express our views at senior levels very frankly. It is the Government’s assessment that imposing sanctions on Israel would lessen this influence, not increase it, and would not promote the urgent progress towards a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which we want to see. However, I am appalled at reports of further civilian casualties in the vicinity of a UN-run school housing Palestinians displaced by the Gaza conflict in Rafah. The facts are not yet clear, but it is tragic that there are further losses of life in a place which is being used as a shelter. The UN is absolutely right to speak out.
Yours sincerely
Richard Drax MP
—– Original Message —–
From: Peter Reynolds
To: DRAX, Richard
Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2014 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: Israel
Dear Richard,
Thank you for your reply.
You do an excellent job of presenting the government’s position. Forgive me for reminding you but you do not represent the government, you represent the people of South Dorset. I am sure we, like the majority of the UK, are horrified at the government’s inaction and acquiescence to Israeli conduct. If anything, present policy only seems to demonstrate how powerful and effective is the pro-Israel lobby. It seems to have successfully driven our government way off course from any morality and blinded it to the criminal actions of the apartheid, zionist state that is central to all the problems of the Middle East.
In sharp contrast, military and proactive humanitarian action has been launched within days in Iraq. We are told we have to prevent a “slaughter”, we have to break the “siege” in the Sinjar mountains, we must prevent “genocide”. Government ministers are wringing their hands over “brutal persecution” – the same ministers who have said nothing about Israel’s massacre of civilians in Gaza and genocide of the Palestinian people..
The hypocrisy is simply breathtaking and the cowardly, weasel words of those who call themselves our leaders are beneath contempt.
Democracy in the UK is nothing more than a sham. The BBC censors and controls the news clearly on government orders. Palestinian resistance fighters are “terrorists”, Israeli war crimes are excused and their propagandists are provided with great swathes of air time to present their arguments, unchallenged and untested while they continue to murder children with impunity.
Israel has no right to defend itself when it is acting unlawfully. It is in breach of 64 UN resolutions. Its settlements, apartheid policies and occupation of Palestinian land are unlawful. It is the rockets that are weapons of self defence.
Israel has committed repeated and heinous war crimes by targeting civilian areas and reckless attacks where it is clear there will be civilian casualties. What is Britain doing to bring these criminals to justice?
We quite clearly do not have a “productive relationship” with Israel. The kindest word that can be used to describe this claim is disingenuous. We have to draw a line. We must not permit an outlaw, renegade state, run by war criminals, to pursue its racist persecution of the Palestinian people. Israel’s fanatacism is every bit as evil as that of ISIS. indeed, if we had dealt justly with the Palestinian people and protected them against Israel, the West would not now be facing such an enraged, dangerous enemy.
Finally, there is simply no excuse at all for supplying anything to Israel that can help it to sustain its present policy. If we are still supplying arms then those concerned must be arrested immediately and brought to justice.
There is no hiding place for ministers or MPs on this Richard, no immunity against prosecution for being culpable in supporting war crimes. Please take a stand. You do not represent the government, you represent the people of South Dorset. Stand up to the corruption and cowardice in Whitehall. Resign if our government will not pursue a moral path. That would gain you more support than any toeing of the party line or repeating government propaganda.
If there is concern that Israel would use its nuclear weapons if challenged, then please have the decency to say so.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
David Cameron, Phillip Hammond And Nadhim Zahawi Complicit In War Crimes.
The despicable conduct of the UK government in appeasing and even supporting Israeli war crimes in Gaza is beyond belief.
David Cameron, Philip Hammond and Nadhim Zahawi have disgraced our country by choosing the wrong side and supporting oppression, brutality and child killers.
The violence must stop on both sides but it is the rockets from Gaza that are weapons of self defence against the illegal occupation by the zionist Israeli state.
Israel’s response is illegal and recklessly disproportionate. Everything it does in Palestine is unlawful as determined by its defiance of 64 UN resolutions.
Cameron and his crony government against Palestine are no better than Putin’s thugs against Ukraine. NOT IN MY NAME!
Britain Descends Into A Police State, Liberty Is Extinguished, Government Is Corrupt.
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax known as Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset.
An email to my stuffed shirt, honorary Bullingdon Club member, self-serving and utterly useless MP, Richard Drax.
—– Original Message —–
From: Peter Reynolds
To: Richard Drax MP
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 12:20 PM
Subject: Britain descends into a police state, liberty is extinguished, goverment is corrupt and self-serving.
Dear Mr Drax,
Theresa May is a monster. The coalition government conspires with the opposition to deprive us of our few remaining liberties. Files on Westminster paedophiles and illegal rendition via Diegio Garcia are mysteriously “lost”. The UK government and its propaganda mouthpiece, the BBC, flagrantly defies 65 UN resolutions and supports the Israeli genocide of Palestine.
Do you even begin to realise the contempt that you self-serving and corrupt bunch of criminals are held in?
Time to roll out the guillotines in Parliament Square.
Any MP with a shred of honour would resign from this disgraced House of Corruption.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
God Save The Queen!
I think the Queen is a wonderful woman who deserves enormous respect. Disrespect her and you disrespect the whole of Britain. The Royal Family is an excellent institution that is fantastic value for money as well as having proved itself to be the most effective head of state in the world.
I’d like someone to point out a better model for government than ours.
It’s far, far from perfect but I see nothing better anywhere else.
Look at the US, even with a written constitution and elected President who’s obviously a pretty cool guy as an individual, Guantanamo is still open, the DEA and CIA are international gangsters, corruption, mass incarceration and human rights abuse prevail.
No one is a fiercer critic of our government than me but there’s no better alternative anywhere that I see.
British Spirit
The Poodle Is Stupid
“It is simply ridiculous to say that people have been smashing windows, rioting and looting because of government policy“
Deranged, deluded and not fit for office.
Cameron On Cannabis Part 5
You can see the previous instalment here: Cameron On Cannabis Part 4.
I am still waiting for a further reply from Mr Cameron.
In the meantime, the subject of cannabis cropped up again on “Jamie’s Dream School” a Channel 4 programme in which a group of young people are given a second chance at education. Mr Cameron was challenged by the inspirational, 17 year old Henry Gatehouse, who proposed legalisation and a £1 per gram cannabis tax.
Oh Yes?
Mr Cameron responded:
“We concluded it would be wrong to make cannabis legal for two, I think, quite good reasons. One is, there is a link between that and mental health issues so it’s not harmless. And I think the second thing is that if you legalise drugs you will make them even more prevalent than they are. So I don’t think legalising is a good idea.”
Another inaccurate and misleading statement from Mr Cameron. This time though I think we should be even more concerned. Successive governments have stated that their main concern about drugs policy is children and young people and that they must be careful to “send the right messages”.
Nobody's Fool
In fact, the only message that governments have successfully delivered to young people again and again is that they never tell the truth about drugs. While the Home Office throws millions every year at the Talk To Frank campaign, the only thing it achieves is for ministers to pat themselves on the back and for the self-serving drug support industry to soak up more public money. Frank is held in complete contempt by young people. The misinformation and untruths told about, in particular, cannabis, ecstasy and mephedrone are a scandal and a grave disservice to young people.
Of course, for children and young people, the use of any psychoactive substance in a still-developing brain has the potential for harm. Cannabis should only be used by adults. Cameron is distorting the truth though. The links between cannabis and mental health are trivial compared to those with alcohol, cigarettes or even energy drinks. It is dishonest and irresponsible to give such a misleading answer to a young man who has clearly done his research and knows the truth.
Cameron’s second reason though has no basis in fact at all. All the evidence is that where a system of regulation of drugs is introduced, use goes down. This is clearly proven in Holland, Portugal and the USA. Cameron’s assertion is entirely false and, I regret to say, he must know that it is. In Britain, which now has one of the most repressive drug policies in the world, young people’s consumption of drugs is one of the highest anywhere.
Once again, Cameron reveals the dishonesty at the heart of his government’s drugs policy. This time though he is misleading and misinforming our young people. What greater mistake can he make?
Cameron On Cannabis Part 4
You can see the previous instalment here: Cameron On Cannabis Part 3
I received a further reply from Mr Cameron’s office.
Click To Enlarge
As a reminder, there are four crucial issues involved:
Mr Cameron, Do You Care?
Mr Cameron said that cannabis is:
1.”incredibly damaging”
2. “very, very toxic”
3. “and leads to, in many cases, huge mental health problems”
And then, with regard to medicinal cannabis, he said:
4. “That is a matter for the science and medical authorities to determine and they are free to make independent determinations about that.”
These are all inaccurate and false statements. Mr Cameron should correct them immediately.
So I have written to him again.
Dear Mr Cameron,
Since I wrote to you about your Al Jazeera YouTube interview and your statements about cannabis, the Legalise Cannabis Alliance has changed its name to Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) and registered as a political party.
We are determined to put cannabis back on the political agenda and to expose the misinformation and propaganda that maintains prohibition. We are a new, energetic team of professionals. We know the media and we know the science. We are not going to put up with the irrational and scaremongering attitude to this issue which has persisted for so long.
The statements you made about cannabis in your interview were inaccurate and misleading. That is incontrovertible fact. You must correct them. You are the prime minister of our nation and you must speak the truth.
In your reply dated 7th March you said that “…the Home Office is best placed to respond…” but you spoke the words and we have determined by Freedom of Information request (Home Office reference CR17931) that you were not advised by the Home Office on this question. These were your words and yours alone. Please Mr Cameron, will you now meet with me so that I can explain to you the scientific facts and the awful injustice, particularly to the sick and unwell, as well as the waste of billions in public money that your government’s policies sustain?
It cannot stand that our prime minister can speak untruths without correcting them. Please deal with this Mr Cameron. This is not going away. Cannabis is used by millions of British citizens every day, in many cases for the very effective relief of illness. We are reasonable, responsible, respectable citizens and we demand that you give this issue proper attention!
Please meet me Mr Cameron. Authoritative research proves that a tax and regulate regime for cannabis would produce a net £6 billion per annum benefit for Britain and massively reduce all health and social harms.
Most importantly though, please correct the inaccurate and misleading statements you made on YouTube.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Reynolds
Many thanks to my commenter, Bob the Wisemaster, who made the FOI request. The full response from the Home Office, disavowing any knowledge of Mr Cameron’s words can be seen here.
What next? More letters to Mr Cameron please. Write to him again. Tell him that he must correct his inaccurate statements. Keep up the pressure!
Evidently My Work Is Succeeding!
I have my very own hate website! Somebody has gone to a great deal of time and trouble to put up a site all about me, seeking to… well I’m not sure what actually but you can judge for yourself: http://peterreynoldsmonitor.wordpress.com/.
I am hugely flattered and inspired by this. Why would anyone go to all this trouble if my work wasn’t having a real and significant impact?
And this hasn’t been put together by some numpty. I’m afraid it’s way, way beyond the ability of the LCA old guard. Whoever the author is, he or she can write, spell and even construct a coherent sentence. The site is well put together.
Of course it is abusive, defamatory and infringes my intellectual property and copyrights from beginning to end. I will be writing to WordPress asking them to take it down for those reasons – but not just yet, please allow me to revel in the flattery and attention just a little longer!
I think we can all recognise that this is a mark of progress. For someone to use their evident intelligence and ability to attack me like this means I am succeeding.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I never have been. All my experience of life teaches me that it’s cock up then cover up that is the reality behind most conspiracy theories. However, I have been persuaded recently that there may well be undercover police or intelligence activity in the cannabis community. It was the revelations about the undercover cop in the climate change movement that convinced me. I mean the cannabis lobby has made so little progress and there’s been so much infighting. How can so many people campaign for so long about something that is so self-evidently wrong and make no progress at all?
So this could well be undercover activity promoted by a government that wants to defend its policies. I’ve been accused of being an undercover cop myself. Derek Williams of UKCIA has enjoyed laying into me and questioning my past but I don’t think this is Derek. It has some of his hallmarks and he has the ability but I give him credit for more integrity than that and he’s been very supportive to me about CLEAR and recent developments.
Anyway, the longer this goes on the more comfort we can take that we are making progress. I certainly won’t be bothering to read the nonsense that’s being published. It’s all innuendo, suggestion and “maybe” and “perhaps” and “possibly”. In fact, it rather reminds me of reading another report on cannabis and psychosis except that the courageous seeker after truth who has written it is grovelling in cowardly anonymity. Let me be clear (!), I’ll happily answer any question about me or my past including the darker and more unhappy times (yes, I am human!) but not to some internet troll. Let the author of this hate site publish his or her name, picture, email address and location online as I do and I’ll happily answer any questions.
Of course, the real disappointment will be that I don’t have any skeletons in my closet. Oh, I have skeletons for sure but they’re all out in the open.
So that’s enough. I won’t dignify this sordid little trickster by any further comment. I am hugely flattered though, encouraged and inspired. The war on prohibition is making progress!
Peter Reynolds 