Cannabis users by their very nature tend to be a lot more paranoid over their use of a drug which "smells" as a result of its use. Its not called skunk by accident, and as such people using what for some, is a beneficial substance, need to be aware of who is around as the smell of skunk cannabis is instantly recogniseable.
There-fore a lot of cannabis users tend to stay at home to smoke their weed, and police know this.
Class A substances such as cocaine, amphetamine and ecstasy however come in a much cleaner form.
"You could almost call it 'clinically clean'", said Bill Stone. "These substances come with no smell to give away their use, making it more likely that people will hit the city nightspots carrying."
"We have already heard a great many news reports in 2008, which tell of the tragedy when a young person dies as a result of drug abuse", continued Stone, "and its with this in mind we would strongly question the governments motivations behind increasing the penalties for people who choose to use a relatively benign substance, which cannabis is after alls said and done".
Michigan Passes Cannabis Law
In the United States, the excitment of election day which saw self-confessed cannabis and cocaine user Barack Obama win a landslide nomination to become president of the United States was overshadowed somewhat in the state of Michigan, as a new act was passed into law, which would allow the use of medical cannabis by those who have a doctors recommendation.
A two-thirds majority in Michigan voted for the proposition, which would allow people with serious or terminal illnesses to use marijuana if certified by a doctor. The law allows patients to possess 2½ ounces of dried, prepared marijuana for which they would receive a state ID card to show to law-enforcers.
Michigan becomes officially the "13th State" to allow medical marijuana users a degree of protection from over-zealous law enforcers looking for an easy bust to make and according to Bill Stone we would do well to implement a similar act in the United Kingdom.
"There are literally thousands of cannabis users in the United Kingdom who use cannabis with their doctors say so. But due to how the law stands, any doctor seen to be in colusion by allowing a patient to use cannabis, could face criminal charges" continued Stone.
"Which gives doctors a difficult personal decision to make" he continued.
"On the one hand, a doctor only becomes a doctor through the wish to help people suffering with illness. But on the flip side, that same doctor is not always allowed to prescribe the best treatment for a condition for fear of losing their licence to practice medicine, and thats not right".
"In the meantime our youngsters are being overtly courted by the alcohol industry. An industry which is directly responsible for upwards of 80,000 British deaths a year. But it would appear as these are "tax paid" deaths no one seems to mind."
"In the last four months the British Cannabis Lobby has welcomed over 300 new members. Members who by their very membership, have shown they wish to turn their backs on the illicit trade in cannabis. But like the doctor who is unable to prescribe cannabis, we are unable to help people source clean, unadulterated supplies of cannabis for fear of being labelled "drug dealers", which is a fantastically crazy state of affairs", he added.
Cannabis Social Clubs
"In the meantime our European neighbours in Spain, Holland and Belgium are setting up "Cannabis Social Clubs". Organisations built from the ground up, to offer a regulated supply of cannabis within a closed group, which offers age restrictions, controls over unregulated supply as well as a clean end product which is actually minimising the harms for people who are going to use cannabis come what may".
"Members pay a set price for their cannabis, which equates to something around a half or 2 thirds less than the street price of cannabis. The cannabis social group pays taxes into the government, as well as on all of the materials used to grow the plants, meaning that unlike the situation here in Britain, the Spanish cannabis community pays into the nations financial system, and we would like to do the same."
"Its a very workeable solution to a problem no one else seems to have any new ideas on, and the British Cannabis Lobby would urge the British government to assist us in implementing a similar plan at their earliest convenience."
"The fact is, people want this initiative to come to fruition, and as "people power" has a happy knack of getting what it wants if enough voters decide to stand together, this initiative will eventually come to law, and be recognised as an effective way of controlling cannabis use".
"Just like the use of cannabis itself, policing and punishing the responsible supply of cannabis harder is just likely to drive it further underground. But we have the legal precedents already set with the Spanish courts sanctioning the Cannabis Social Clubs initiatives, even though cannabis is still a controlled drug in Spain. So there's no reason we couldn't implement a similar program of harm reduction here in the United Kingdom, and any steps taken by the government to stop this happening, will be fought in the European Courts of Human Rights."
"No matter what the law states, a person maintains soveriegn power over his or her own body, and what they decide to do with it in the privacy of their own home, has absolutely nothing to do with the Home Office", concluded Bill Stone.
"If the government wish to pit their scientific evidence against ours in the European courts, thats an invitation we would relish. Ever since 1996 when the US medical marijuana program was made available widescale, the evidence has mounted that this is a workeable solution to a problematic social issue. We have the answers to this issue and if necessary we will give those answers in the European Courts". The British judiciary advises cannabis users they cannot simply use cannabis in breach of British law, and if they do wish to use cannabis they need to present their case to Parliament. The problem is, Parliament won't allow us to. They simply bury any such case under a mountain of red tape as the government knows if this issue gets to Parliament, and the British public are allowed to have their say, they [the government] simply cannot win." The British Cannabis Lobby
http://forum.cannabislobby.org |
