The new Class B cannabis law change which is expected early in 2009, could see as many as 80,000 people per year "charged" with cannabis related offences. A large percentage of those, will be for simple possession.

Which is a needless and expensive waste of public resources for an offence which only 50 miles East of the Houses of Parliament, (in Holland & Belgium), is perfectly acceptable on a "personal" scale.

Do we really differ that much to our European neighbours? And if so what are we doing involved in the EU?

Deportations
Another political "play" is the amount of people who should be considered for deportation after convictions for cannabis offences.

Immigration has proved a painful and constant thorn in Gordon Browns side as the government announced recently they actually have no idea how many "illegals" are in the UK.

Numbers of illegal aliens involved in the cannabis trade have shown a dramatic up-turn over the past 2 years, as organised crime set's up shop all over the country as a result of cannabis prohibition making the UK a lucrative market in which to operate.

Lenient
The attraction of the UK is even further enhanced by the lenient prison terms handed out in the event of a cannabis factory being busted by Police.

Cannabis gardeners are drawn to the industry like wasps to a jam-jar, as being busted for operating a cannabis grow operation is a sure-fire way of obtaining a UK residency, as deportation numbers fall lower and lower.

Ordinarily, a conviction would be a "fast-track" to a first-class ticket back from whence they came. But Home Office sources were so over-worked they found it impossible to keep up, so an announcement was made (albeit a quiet one), which informed the judiciary only people sentenced to two years plus would be considered as candidates for deportation.

The rest could stay!

Under the new scheme to free up prison places announced today, this would remove every single cannabis offender from the deportation lists as they each have their sentence, essentially halved. A fact any good solicitor would be able to turn into a reason not to deport a person.

Vietnamese and Chinese "ganja-Gardeners" receive an average 18 months sentence each, but due to the "risk of flight", the sentence generally starts months before the court case actually begins, as bail is, more often than not refused on initial arrest.

So after months of expensive judicial wrangling, all the while paying for the accomodation of the accused in a secure facility at a cost of £50,000 per year, per inmate, come the day of reckoning and more often than not the prisoner finds him (or her) self with only a month or two to actually serve. Some don't even serve that long and are released into the community on the date of their conviction, automatically qualifying for social benefits including housing, medical and unemployment payments, at huge cost to the national purse.

In the meantime we cannot afford to pay the police service an amount not a single person in this country would doubt they are worth, for undertaking a job 99% of the population simply could not do, and as a result they are threatening to strike.

Knife-crime is out-of-control in the nations Capital City, with a 'blade' offence being recorded every 52 mintues in London. 

The national grid is no longer able to "fuel" the nations growth, with unexpected and random power outages the nett result, and the prison service is releasing prisoners early in a bid to ease the pressure.

The haulage industry is threatening to blockade cities, ports and oil refineries in a bid to obtain an "essential user" rebate on their fuel tax, as they struggle with European competition which brings its own, cheaper fuel into the country every week, contributing nothing to the national economy.

A nation is in trouble
Yet by decriminalising a small amount of cannabis for personal use, the country could save a billion pounds a year in enforcement costs as well as literally hundreds of thousands of police man hours every single month, which could be better utilised elsewhere.

A court case for simple possession, which costs tens of thousands of pounds to stage, sentences the cannabis user to 100 hours community service?

Isn't it about time someone asked "why", or "whats the point"?

Yes we need to come down on the people who grow cannabis on a commercial scale. Yes we need to come down on drug dealers, as drug dealers often sell more than just cannabis, and yes we need to protect the country's young people with educational campaigns which are designed to educate as opposed to incarcerate.

But we also need the law to recognise the difference between a person who grows cannabis for his or her own use, over someone who is simply in it for the money.

As the cannabis community see's it that is two distinctly different "offences" and in a super-power state, we should be able to differentiate between the two. 

But attempting to bring responsible adults to book, over a "crime" which is committed in the privacy of their own homes. A crime which has no victim, is a pointless and expensive excercise which serves absolutely no purpose in the greater drugs debate.

Habitual cannabis users, in much the same vein as habitual drinkers or smokers, are simply not going to stop consuming cannabis because Gordon Brown says so, and as soon as the government "gets over itself" and realises this we can get on with educating a country.

Clearly whats needed is an educational campaign in which the dangers of cannabis use are spelled out, as well as the alternatives to simply smoking it. A practice which is dangerous, no-matter what the "weed" being smoked is called.

Mexican Stand off
Until then we're simply saying to people, "we will find you, and we will punish your disobedience..eventually" and for the most part the cannabis community is simply saying, "do your worst".

If nothing changes, everything will stay just the same!

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