Posts Tagged ‘homophobia’
Reefer Madness In A Final Frenzy
“In years to come, the attitudes that now prevail towards people that choose cannabis will be as politically incorrect as racism, homophobia or denying women the vote.
Cannabis is one of God’s greatest gifts with which mankind has had a symbiotic relationship since the dawn of time.
The prohibition experiment of the last 80 years has been a disaster. A rational approach will bring enormous benefits to our country, save billions in wasted expenditure, create thousands of new jobs, cut crime and disorder, provide tremendously safe and effective relief to millions in pain and disability.
The time has come to embrace cannabis as the miraculous plant that it is.”
False Accusations Of Racism Should Be A Criminal Offence

John Terry
It’s a crime to use racist or homophobic abuse. The concomitant of that should be that it is a crime falsely or maliciously to accuse someone of racism or homophobia.
I don’t know John Terry, and I have just about zero interest in football but I know what it’s like to be falsely accused of racism. The scum of the earth that indulge in such abuse are exactly the same as those who falsely cry rape. They should go to jail for just as long as the sentence for the crime they falsely allege.
I’ve had long term relationships with both black and asian women and I have lots of friends of all different races but it doesn’t matter what the facts are, if some oik chooses to endlessly repeat a false allegation of racism there is nothing you can do about it. This is unjust and unfair. If it’s a hate crime to be racist then it’s a hate crime falsely to accuse someone of racism.
Bigotry, Prejudice, Hatred And Prohibitionists Come In Many Disguises
Ask yourself, why would anyone go to such lengths to discredit me?
Why, at a time when the cannabis campaign is enjoying more success than ever with thousands of people joining together as never before, why do a few individuals go to such extraordinary lengths to smear my reputation.?
Out of 477 articles on my personal website, written over a period of three and a half years, two articles have been held up and misrepresented in the most despicable and dishonest way to accuse me of being a racist and a homophobe. Laughably I’ve also been accused of being a member of the EDL, attending an EDL demonstration in Weymouth and of selling Nazi memorabilia on a Swansea market stall! These are lies and nonsense.
Of course, in a civilised, adult world what people do in response to articles they disagree with is post comments and discuss – and some of those discussions become pretty heated. I’ve been accused of being anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish and for and against just about every issue you care to mention. My writing was intended to be provocative and controversial. Cannabis was only one of the subjects that I covered on my website and when I was elected leader of CLEAR I wrote:
The accusations of racisim and homophobia are entirely false. I could present a host of evidence to prove my “innocence” but the trolls and liars twist everything. My oldest and best friend IS a Jamaican. If Terry got his hands on some of the individuals that have been making foul slurs against me, they would not enjoy Jamaican justice. Two examples though – I used to live on a road called The Chase, just off Clapham Common. When the Gay Pride event was held there in, I think it was 95 or 96, I was a steward. When more recently I lived in Notting Hill and all my friends and neighbours were black, they used to call me a “wigga”, a “propa black white man”.
So, I say again, ask yourself why would anyone go to such lengths to discredit me at a time when under my leadership, CLEAR is achieving so much success? Why would they set up websites, multiple Facebook pages and groups and engage in hours and hours of trolling, abuse and misrepresentation?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because the individuals behind this are big time growers and dealers who rely on prohibition to maintain the ludicrously high price of cannabis and fill their own greedy pockets.
They pretend to be pro-cannabis because they seek to subvert, disrupt and undermine the cannabis campaign. They’ve been doing it for years.
Many believe that the main protagonist has an even more sinister role because he appears to be teflon coated when it comes to the criminal justice system. For all the times he has been arrested and charged, he has always walked away while others round him have been sent to prison.
He claims not to live in Britain anymore but the man is a liar and a fraud. He lives off his past reputation when he claims to have been growing and providing cannabis to medicinal users free of charge (a good cover story!). This is false. I have several emails from people who he used to supply who tell me that he used to charge them £5.00 per gram plus, believe it or not, next day delivery and packaging charges. At the time that price was top whack if not more.
It is extraordinary that over many years, every single time there has been disruption and conflict in the cannabis community he has been there, goading, provoking and fermenting divisiveness. Back in 2010 , when I managed to get MPs, members of the House of Lords and even the government’s chief drugs advisor to sign up to the BMCR medicinal cannabis initiative, he waded straight in and did all he could to destroy it by snide insinuation, bickering and negativity.
The man is a charlatan. Why would anyone go to such extraordinary efforts and lengths to disrupt the CLEAR campaign? Now you know. Grass is an old term for weed but perhaps one that is most appropriate in this case.
Tribalism Is the Enemy Of Reform
Some of the more gullible members of the cannabis community have been taken in by these attacks against me but I am greatly encouraged that by far the majority have not. The messages, emails and comments supporting me have far outweighed those against. Thank you to all. I WILL stay strong. I will stay focused. The idea is to distract and divert me from the campaign. That is not going to happen.
Being at at the centre of a trollstorm during the season of goodwill has not been pleasant. My mother and my sons have been very upset to see the abuse, lies and hate filled propaganda about me and my leadership of CLEAR posted on the internet.
These people aren’t engaged in campaigning for cannabis. They’re pursuing their own selfish, jealous and truly pitiful agendas by attacking the success that CLEAR has achieved under my leadership.
The cannabis campaign has failed to make any progress over the last 10 years. A lot of this is due to sheer incompetence and laziness. When I was elected leader I discovered that literally nothing was being done by the LCA and any initiative that was proposed was shut down by the “co-ordinator” he that “does not want to lead and does not want to be led”. The darker, subversive forces set out to fragment and cause conflict within the campaign and that suits their wallets very well indeed, thank you very much.
Most of all though it’s about tribalism. This is what has held us back for so long. The idea that if you’re in favour of cannabis being legally available then you must be on the left of politics, you must be anti-Thatcher and you must have at least three piercings – oh and you must not, under any circumstances, wear a tie – plus many other ridiculous prejudices. These people think they’re cool and hip and smart but they’re not, they’re dumb, bigoted and prejudiced, just like a Daily Mail journalist only they’ve got a joint hanging off their lip. Not so much Andy Capp, more Hopeless Hypocritical Hippy.
This is why so many were confused when back in Cardiff at the Million Marijuana march in May CLEAR launched the idea of “Hippies in suits”. These politically incompetent and naive people don’t really want you to be able to smoke a joint if you wear a suit. They are in fact as prejudiced and discriminatory as the attitudes they pretend to fight against. CLEAR welcomes members and supporters from all points on the political compass. We aim to be mainstream, not “alternative”.
All my life I have stood for liberty, truth and justice and against prejudice, discrimination and bigotry. Unlike the trolls I am a strong believer in freedom of speech and expression. However, the foul language that was posted on my and CLEAR’s Facebook page was horrifying. These are people who can’t express themselves without using disgusting swear words. They are as much victims of the mendacious individuals behind this hate campaign as anyone.
To those who feel offended by my opinions. I don’t mean to cause offence so I am sorry if I have. That doesn’t mean that I retract them though! I am entitled to my opinion as is everyone else.
There are of course many more honourable and decent people who have been involved in the campaign in the past rather than those who work against it but it is this tired, destructive tribalism that has ruined their efforts.
So tomorrow Britain returns to work and so do I. I shall not make any further comment on the dreadful events of the last few days and I advise all of you not to feed the trolls. That is the only thing that gives them any power. Ignore them. I will fight tirelessly to end the prohibition of cannabis, most particularly for those who need it as medicine.
The Politics Of Cannabis
Cannabis is a political issue. Make no mistake about it. The scientific, moral, medical and health arguments have all been won. What we need to do now is find a way to make change happen.
It’s in the prohibitionists’ interests to keep debating all the ins and outs and going through the evidence because it diverts from the imperative for change. We have to keep repeating the truth. We have to cut through their deception and scaremongering but above all, we have to demand action.
In the US, they’ve gone way, way past the silly and irrelevant arguments about cannabis being dangerous or harmful. We like to think that we’re smarter, a more mature democracy but so many Brits are still suckers for a Daily Mail scare story. The propaganda and bigotry still prevails here. In America they simply accept that if you abuse or misuse something it may cause you harm. They rarely even mention the psychosis theory. Even after Congresswoman Giffords’ shooting and the stories of Jared Loughner’s marijuana use, his friends were quick to step forward and say he’d stopped some time ago and actually seemed worse and more unstable without self-medicating on cannabis. More importantly than that, the US media reported what his friends said rather than hushing it up because it wasn’t sensational enough.
Peter Hitchens, the Mail On Sunday columnist wrote a disgusting rant about the shooting, blaming it all on cannabis and having nothing to do with the truth at all. Now the US media are ridiculing him about Britain’s Reefer Madness. He really is an example of the very worst in journalism. The truth means nothing to him. He is a liar and a mendacious frightener of the vulnerable, the elderly, of children and their parents. You will be interested to know that the Legalise Cannabis Alliance has drawn a line in the sand. We will no longer let such nonsense go unchallenged. A formal complaint is being made in the LCA’s name to the Press Complaints Commission. It will be the first of many. We will no longer allow the British media to distribute lies without calling them to account.
Prohibition is fundamentally immoral. It is nothing less than the unjustified oppression of a section of society. It is as pernicious and evil as racism, sexism, homophobia or any other form of prejudice. It says that, irrespective of facts, evidence, science or justice, just because we disagree with you, we will make your activity illegal. We will criminalise you, imprison you, ruin your career, endanger your family, smear you with unjustified innuendo and suspicion. We will cause you far more harm than the activity you choose ever will.
It is pretty well accepted now, worldwide, that Nixon’s war on drugs can never be won. It makes Vietnam or Afghanistan look like a little skirmish in some backwater. It has been responsible for far more death, misery and destruction than any war since Nixon first declared it. There are still those who cling to its ambitions, like our favourite preppy, baby face minister James Brokenshire But he is rather like one of those Japanese soldiers, found on some remote Pacific island, thirty years after his Emperor surrendered – still dangerous, still committed to his cause but hopelessly out of touch, in need of re-education, a very, very sad case.
The war on prohibition is now in full flow and this is a campaign that can and must be won. It is a war that has right and justice and common sense on its side. It is time that we marshall our forces, determine our strategy, plan our tactics and hold fast to our courage as we advance on the enemy. I believe that this year or next marijuana will be legalised in at least one state in America. Once the dam is broken, progress will begin to roll out all over the world.
I believe that the Legalise Cannabis Alliance is the standard around which we should rally. We are responsible, respectable, reasonable citizens and we need to unite to fight the war on prohibition.
What is vital is that the LCA communicates its messages effectively to the right people. It seems to me that one of, if not the most important audience is members of parliament. They, after all, are the only people who can actually change the law. We therefore have to play their game by their rules.
In the documentary “In Pot We Trust”, Aaron of the Marijuana Policy Project says that one man in short hair and a suit, lobbying congressmen can achieve more than hundreds marching in the street. I think he’s right.
The LCA must re-launch its campaign. We must overhaul our image, update the logo and the website. We must become conscious of our communications, control and deliver our messages with ruthless effect, use all the spin doctor tricks and techniques, just as any other political party or pressure group.
I will put on a suit and tie for the LCA because that’s what is needed to make progress with politicians, through the media and, most importantly, with the great God of public opinion.
I think we also have to consider our name. Not throw it out for the sake of something new but recognise that “Legalise” is a word that frightens people. They think it means an uncontrolled free for all, whereas what we argue for is fact and evidence based regulation. We also need to consider the word cannabis. People are frightened to have it on their Facebook profile and concerned that it may come up in a Google search when they’re applying for a new job. We have to consider these things. I would argue that instead of saying “Legalise Cannabis”, we might say “End Prohibition”.
So we do need to become much more professional about our communications and image. Anything put out in our name needs to be “on message” in every sense of the phrase – look, feel, content, style, etc. Each target audience needs to be addressed on its terms. We need an analysis and a plan for each individual MP and constituency. We need a rota of pro-active media communications. We need to enlist the help of celebrities who support our cause. This needs to be done consistently and repeatedly. We need a team of people all over the country working together with a plan to succeed.
I also believe that we should re-register as a political party and field candidates in every byelection. In fact, I would propose that we field the same candidate in every byelection and we build.the campaign and awareness over time. I don’t expect us to win a seat in parliament but I do expect us to start being taken seriously. I want to see us on Newsnight and on Question Time. When Debra Bell is asked for a quote or is interviewed about a cannabis story, I want us to be quoted as well and to be on the other side of the TV sofa facing down her mischief and misinformation.
Cannabis is a political issue. If we get our act together and get serious about the war on prohibition, get serious about achieving results, explain the facts, expose the lies, then we can prevail. We can see the truth revealed. We can win!