Reclassification of cannabis a disaster-in-waiting
Cannabis is set to be reclassified back to a class B drug early in 2009 and ever since the announcement was made by the Home Secretary in May 2008, drug user figures have started a slow yet steady rise.
And this, after the governments own advisory council exposed cannabis user figures had dropped by 25% in the four years since cannabis was initially reclassified a class C drug, which brings with it lower fines and shorter prison sentences.
But perhaps more alarmingly, drug support workers are now finding themselves dealing with cannabis use in younger age groups than ever before. The very age-groups the government was "targeting" with its anti-cannabis message.
Whilst alcohol remains far and away the most abused substance among the 11 to 25-year-olds they speak to, staff at a drug support workshop in the North East of England have become aware of an increase in the number of those using cannabis.
The organisation say's it is aware of children as young as 12 using cannabis, with the substance sometimes mixed with alcohol to enhance the effect of the drug.
Mick Waters, youth development worker with SYI, said: "A lot of the young people we are working with are using cannabis, some more than others, but there's no age in particular."
"I would say over the past couple of months we've found a lot of young people have got easy access to marijuana.
"We can't lecture them over it, but we can chat through it with them. But we don't ask about who's dealing it or how much they are paying.
Canna Zine comment The real problem with cannabis prohibition fails time and again to be recognised and to illustrate the point lets use alcohol as an example.
The United Kingdom is currently in the teeth of an alcohol epidemic. British binge-drinking culture is well-known around the world, and recent news reports regarding the facebook debacle in London, or the football hooliganism in Manchester after the UEFA cup final, merely serve to confirm the obvious to the watching world.
What this proves is the governments inability to control a problem which is a result of a drug they apparently have control of. Namely, alcohol. And this, supposedly 'policed' by responsible shop owners who check the age & ID of people buying alcohol from them.
Something a drug dealer never does. So from this point forth expect a sharp rise in the amounts of young people busted for cannabis use.
The prison system is awash with drugs. National statistics show a person is more likely to acquire a Class A drugs habit if they are handed down a prison sentence than if they stay out of jail. The problem is so bad, the Justice Ministry is considering handing out clean needles to addicts locked up in British institutions, because they have no control over the flow of drugs into prisons.
So if they can't control the supply of drugs in a secure building, electronically protected, with finite perimeters marked out by high concrete walls, what chance do we have of them controlling the supply on our streets?
Current drug policy's are a shambles. "Unworkable" was what one serving Chief Constable called them.
Reclassifying cannabis is going to needlessly criminalise tens of thousands of our young adults, for doing no more than is perfectly acceptable on a holiday in Holland, in Spain, in Portugal or in Belgium.
Reclassification needs to be stopped, and only you the public can stop it.
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