So it would seem FRANK is and always has been something of a law unto himself. A loose cannon giving the opinions of one or two government ministers and passing them off as scientific, evidence based advice.
Instead of giving advice which is backed by reams of medical and scientific evidence from mainland Europe, from Canada and from the United States, it appears the 'truth' FRANK wants to tell its young callers is actually a different truth, to the truth which the 240-odd million regular cannabis users around the world know from personal experience.
And this perhaps more than anything else, is what makes FRANK stand out for what it is.
Labour = The Fourth Reich?
A propaganda machine which the Third Reich's head spin-doctor Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of. And speaking of Goebbels one of his most famous quotations sums up perfectly, the government's line on cannabis as well as how the FRANK website continues to ply its trade;
Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie.. and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
And so it would appear with the government line on cannabis. In fact the only reason they won't take cannabis to a national referendum is because they know the weight of public and scientific opinion is such that it would be decriminalised within 12 months if they did. So they continue to perpetuate the mental health lie, even though today, Sunday 19th April 2009, between the US, Canada and mainland Europe, over 55 million people have legal access to herbal cannabis, AKA the dreaded skunk.
So is there an epidemic of mental health issues as a result of this figure? No of course not, because the mental health argument is a government perpetuated lie. Plain and simple.
The Telegraph - Red Rag
Its not often we get to hear any anti-government rhetoric from The Telegraph, which is ordinarily the primary news vehicle which overtly supports the Labour party. But not even The Telegraph could put a positive spin on the news reports announcing the FRANK website was advising children as young as thirteen years of age that "alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis", or that "nicotine is physically addicting, yet you can stop smoking cannabis anytime you want to".
Facts which many of the cannabis smoking government ministers know to be true, as they've experienced it at first hand. But its the 'wrong' truth to be telling our children apparently.
Neil McKeganey is a professor of drug misuse research at University of Glasgow and according to Prof McKeganey, "The fact that the Frank counsellor states that cannabis should be a Class C drug rather than a Class B drug shows all too clearly how these telephone help lines can become a vehicle for the counsellor's personal view".
The personal views which have disturbed prof Mckeganey so much, were given during a telephone conversation not with a thirteen year old child, but with a journalist. In fact it was a team of three journalists who it would appear, set out to deliberately mislead the FRANK advisors by inventing stories in the hope of trapping the advisors into saying exactly what the journalists wanted them to say.
As turned out to be the case in this instance.
Mary Brett represents the anti-cannabis organisation 'Talking About Cannabis', which claims to be a charity but isn't really.
According to Ms Brett, "“It is scandalous. These people are talking to kids, for goodness sake."
No they're not Mary. Please do keep up. They're talking to journalists, remember?
She continued, "Taking drugs can trigger all kinds of psychosis in people that have a genetic predisposition to it. Why are they not told that? Medical experts have said time and again that skunk, the newer type of cannabis that many young people are taking, is dangerous."
Not according to the figures the British Cannabis Lobby has Ms Brett. Indeed with regard to the amounts of people who use cannabis on a daily basis versus the amounts of people who are actually harmed by it, cannabis is a hugely safe substance, with a remarkeably benign side-effect profile, which has been proven time and again over thousands of years use. But again thats a different truth to the truth you wish to inform people of.
“These children are being told they can choose. But the risky bit of their brains develops before the inhibitory bit of their brain and they take risks. They have to be told 'this is not for you’. When they hear fair, reasoned arguments against, they respond. It is obvious they are not hearing them from Frank.”
And going back to the Joseph Goebbels analogy mentioned earlier, its easy to see how this mental health myth has been nurtured and disseminated, as Mary Brett illustrates all too clearly above.
But here is some real truth regarding cannabis. Truth you will never read about in 'respected' titles like the Daily Mail, as it goes against the blue-chip industries which have UK government firmly in their pocket.
14 States of Affairs
In the United States, one of the worlds most litigious societies, there are currently 14 states operating medical cannabis programs with another 3 due to follow anytime soon.
Within the bounds of these programs medical patients, with a recommendation from their doctor, are entitled to possess, to consume, and to cultivate, varying amounts of herbal cannabis, depending which state you live in.
This herbal cannabis is the same herbal cannabis the British press like to call 'Skunk', and yet we see no signs of any mental health epidemics in states which operate medical marijuana programs. Indeed the levels of mental health in the US are on a par with the UK, running at levels which equate to around 1% of the population. So there's absolutely no evidence to suggest the mental health myth holds any water.
In Spain, its written into the Spanish constitution that a citizen may possess, grow and consume a small amount of cannabis in the privacy of his or her home. Although its not a fact you will see advertised in any holiday brochures.
Indeed, Spain is the first European country to allow its citizens to form cannabis social clubs. Legally sanctioned co-operatives of local citizens who act, grow and consume together, as an organisation, to protect their constitutional right to use cannabis.
Again there is no evidence to suggest the consumption of this herbal cannabis actually does anyone any long-term harm apart from the side-effects to those who consume by smoking.
Lets face it smoking anything isn't particularly good for you.
We could go on and on and getting back to the different truth's mentioned earlier its easy to see that, regardless of what the UK government tell us, there are millions of people who use cannabis with no ill-effect as a result.
How would FRANK explain this?
They use it, then they don't use it. Its pick up and put down-able, and whilst there are a small minority who will become at least psycholigically addicted to cannabis, these are the same people who will become addicted to alcohol, or to cigarettes or indeed to chocolate or peanut butter.
Its also the truth that peanuts harm more people per year than cannabis does, so shall we ban them while we're at it?
Trying to build a story by pretending to be someone you're not, is never going to work. It can't be allowed to be used to build a credible case against a government agency, else where will it all end?
So what have we learnt?
What we have learnt from this whole situation is what many of us knew all along.
Cannabis is nothing more dangerous than a political ping-pong ball which the tories and labour bat back & fore in a bid to win votes, and FRANKLY, using journalists to concoct an anti-Labour story is a shocking indictment of what our political leaders do every day to earn their corn.
The news of late has been a mess of tittle tattle and smears, as one party tries to out do the other, and in the meantime we have a generation growing up which has absolutely no idea regarding cannabis, because of the confusing messages which an inept government which is too busy digging its noses into the trough has broadcast for the last few years.
Transparency is the key
That same government will not bring cannabis out into the daylight for an open and scientific debate, as they would lose it, and for the same reason the newspapers which support the political parties will not carry any of the positive cannabis news from around the world as this merely serves to disprove what our Home Secretary tells us.
Until a politician with a pair of balls stands up and takes this thorny branch and runs with it, we'll stay right where we are, and by the time todays Telegraph is keeping someone's fish & chips warm in the east end of London, the 'Common Purpose' brigade will doubtless swan into the FRANK HQ, spend another couple of million in public funds over-hauling it, just in time for the entire shebang to be dismantled by the incoming Conservative government who will doubtless wish to install their own version, and so the entire distasteful "drug education pantomime" will start all over again.
But in the meantime it sold some newspapers, and that, being FRANK, is all that seems to matter. CannaZine Cannabis News
http://cannazine.co.uk |
