More than 2,000 drugs arrests in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire

There is still a massive amount of uncontrolled drugs on our streets despite the ongoing efforts to reduce it through arresting dealers ("More than 2,000 drugs arrests in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire", Evening News, April 26).

One could imagine the problems we would have if the sale of alcohol was to be made an offence - would it stop people drinking? No.

Would it stop people selling? - no.

It would simply introduce crime and prevent control.

It's the same with drugs.

Throughout history people have taken substances (plants and plant products) to ease their suffering, escape or simply "get high" - and no doubt they will continue to do so.

But instead of granting them the same protection in law as the users of alcohol get, the users of some drugs become criminalised and forced to either go to dealers or else risk growing their own, in the case of cannabis.

Those users, whether they benefit or are harmed, whether they harm others or not, risk arrest - all at taxpayers expense - a massive amount running into billions annually. Only the dealers profit and don't even have to assure quality or pay tax.

We can go on and on arresting users - but there will be more; we can continue arresting dealers but there is a seemingly endless queue or would be profiteers willing to replace them.

Forty years down the line and all we have achieved is the criminalisation of people many of whom did not harm at all. It is time that the politicians admitted that the present "war on drugs" has failed and an alternative approach is required.

Otherwise I confidentially predict we will read articles similar to this one over and over again

Judging the Judges on Cannabis Justice - or lack of it?

Considering that all Judges would claim to represent the Law of their land and Justice, it is puzzling how they differ in their attitudes to the same plant that brings relief and relaxation to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.

Just look at these headline sand quotes  from this week's press:

Five cannabis plants not punishable | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

“The quantity and the weight of the cannabis crop obtained from a cultivation limited to five plants are irrelevant.”

Plea for longer sentences for cannabis growers - Local - Evening Telegraph
 

“The seriousness of this offence is not reflected in sentences that we are able to pass and I appeal for revised sentencing guidelines from the guideline council.”

In a recent case at Northampton Crown Court, Truong Luu, 30, was found guilty of setting up and running a cannabis factory capable of netting thousands of pounds.

He was jailed for four years for producing the Class B drug on a commercial scale in Kettering. He will be deported when his sentence is complete.

  TRIO FACE DEATH IN CANNABIS CASE - Brunei

 Bandar Seri Begawan - The High Court has received three defendants facing the death penalty for drug charges after a preliminary inquiry into the case had been carried out.

Mohammad Ameer bin Salleh, 24, Noor Sa'adah binti Emran, 21, and Abdul Razak bin Matali, 27, face a charge of importing 1266.786 grammes of cannabis from Bangkok, Thailand on August 7, 2010.

So for an amount that can legally be grown and possessed in The Nethrlands, less than allowed for Dutch Coffeeshops, if grown in the UK will attract a prison sentence that the Judge feels is too little, and in other countries can lead to a death sentence.

Where is the Justice in laws and guidelines that differ so much between countries?   When will some body such as the United Nations that is ultimately responsible through their Treaties for so much unjustifiable and excessive punishment step in and sort this out?

Pot-laced food sickens local middle schoolers

“All of the children are fine,” Brandais said.

Whilst being thankful that no harm was done by the cannabis cookies - which were intended for "medical" purposes - it comes as no surprise, for according to Judge Francis Young, cannabis is one of the safest therapeutic substances, and Prof Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School described it as " remarkably safe".

Seven Serra Mesa middle-school students were taken to a hospital Friday morning after reports they were hallucinating or feeling sick after ingesting a cannabis substance.  Officers were called to William H. Taft Middle School on Gramercy Drive about 9:35 a.m., San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque said.
The students told authorities they had eaten a brownie bar laced with marijuana.

The students reportedly ate the brownies on a bus on the way to school in the morning, said Jack Brandais, spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District. All of them had recovered by Friday evening, he said.

“They seemed to be excited about the prospect of going to the hospital,” Luque said.

Cannabis is indeed an almost unique plant that ought to be fully utilised, for it seems to be beneficial for so many medical conditions and yet is far safer than expensive pharmaceutical productions including the cannabis-extract medicine called "Sativex"

Of course we don't want schoolkids taking cannabis, but praise be that it was cannabis that they took and not some pills that may have killed them

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/22/serra-mesa-middle-school-students-sickened-pot-bro/

Is This Why They Bust Cannabis Growers

Every day we read in our papers that another cannabis growing operation has been closed down - not just the large professional and profiteering growers but also those run by people in dire medical need of the relief from much of their pain and suffering.

Cannabis the plant is now well known and widely accepted as having medicinal and pain-easing properties, used effectively and safely by many tens of thousands of sufferers of a wide-range of ailments from Multiple Sclerosis to Epilepsy, pain to loss of appetite or sleeplessness, depression and even cancers.

In fact it has been used for hundreds of years and was listed by Culpeper in his"Complete Herbal and English Physician" in 1826 where he wrote 

"It is so common a plant, and so well known by almost every inhabitant of this kingdom, that a description of it would be altogether superfluous."

That was until 1971, when the UK, as lacky to the UN Single Drugs Convention of 1961, banned the sale of the medicine (then available as a tincture", claiming that cannabis had no medicinal value and was being misuses as a "recreational drug".

Since then the Government has fought tooth and nail to stop people from gaining medical benefits and pain relief from the plant they can easily and cheaply grow at home - despite literally thousands of testimonials and acceptance in countries such as the USA,  Canada, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany,and Israel.

Then, a few years ago, along comes a Pharmaceutical giant to produce extracts and test them - now they produce "Sativex", an alcohol and peppermint spray containing exactly the same beneficial chemicals (THC and CBD) found in the plant itself - and of course charging extortionate fees and making huge profits for their shareholders - at public expense.

It seems to me that the UK taxpayer loses out all round for they must pay both the NHS bill for the prescription medicine and the cost of seeking out and prosecuting the growers.

So one is forced to ask - is the potential profits for the same people that sell us highly priced and dangerous fuels to heat our homes and run our cars, the toxic chemicals dumped as side-products of the environmentally-damaging plastics and other synthetics the reason for the prohibition of the possession or cultivation of the plant  - described by one of the world's foremost experts on cannabis, Professor Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University, as "remarkably safe".

It may not be coincidental that the cannabis plant, also know as hemp, can also enable production of safe and cheap alternative fuels, plastics and even foodstuff.

see How cannabis was criminalised.

Ontario court strikes down Canada’s pot laws

I was pleased to read today that at  a  Canadian Judges recognise the value of the cannabis plant as a medicine that Governments have wrongly barracaded away and tried to put into the arms of Pharmaceutical Companies.

Whilst we read that in the UK that GW Pharmaceuticals has  signed exclusive licence pact with Novartis to commercialise Sativex in Australia, Asia, Middle-East & Africa, governments continue to prosecute individuals (and indeed threaten imprisonment) individuals that grow their own.


Sativex is licensed to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd in the United States, to Almirall SA in Europe (excluding the United Kingdom), to Bayer HealthCare AG in the UK and Canada, and to Neopharm Group in Israel/Palestine. Sativex is approved in the UK, Spain, Canada and New Zealand in the treatment of spasticity due to MS. In addition, a further six European countries (Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic) have recently recommended Sativex for approval and are expected to grant national licences in mid-2011.

Yet these Pharmaceutical companies that produce the Sativex sprays merely use extracts of chemicals from the cannabis plant itself, dissolved in alcohol with a hint of peppermint flavouring charge so much money that it has become inaccessible to many of the thousands of UK citizens that could benefit: one dose of Sativex costs many times more than one dose of cannabis.

Now, in Canada, a judge has seen through the Government charade and the obstacles they have created, and ruled against Canada's laws against possessing and growing cannabis as part of a ruling that found the country's medicinal marijuana program is failing to provide access to the drug for those who need it.

Globe and Mail, 13 April 2011

The ruling means the government must either improve its system for licensing medicinal marijuana patients within 90 days, or it will become legal to use or grow the drug for any purpose. The government can, however, buy itself more time by appealing the ruling. 

 The court decision hinged on the difficulty medicinal users have in finding a doctor willing to sign the necessary paperwork. The problem, Judge Taliano ruled, is that the government requires patients to obtain the approval of a doctor to take marijuana legally but does not give physicians adequate training or fund sufficient clinical trials of the drug. As a result, much of the medical community refuses to approve its use.

"Rather than promote health – the regulations have the opposite effect. Rather than promote effective drug control – the regulations drive the critically ill to the black market," he wrote. "Surely, the right to choose belongs to the patient, not to government that has failed to create the environment for better research into the drug’s effectiveness and harmful qualities."

The case was brought forward by Matthew Mernagh, a 37-year-old man from St. Catharines, Ont., who couldn't find a doctor to approve his use of marijuana to relieve the symptoms of several illnesses, including fibromyalgia and scoliosis. He was charged with cultivating his own cannabis, charges that were also staid by Judge Taliano.

Several other medicinal users of the drug testified they faced similar problems, and that Health Canada would take months to process their applications.

Judge Taliano agreed with Mr. Mernagh's argument that criminally charging patients who had to resort to illegally buying cannabis amounted to a violation of their Charter right to liberty. 

http://www.ccguide.org/news

UK: Barrow: NHS Suffolk decision leaves MS sufferer living in pain

UK: Barrow: NHS Suffolk decision leaves MS sufferer living in pain

By Natalie Hoodless
East Anglian Daily Times

Monday 11 Apr 2011


A LEADING doctor is appalled by a health trust's reluctance to prescribe a revolutionary new drug that could drastically improve an MS sufferer's quality of life.

NHS Suffolk says it is not convinced Sativex, a cannabis derivative that reduces pain and spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients, is safe but Dr William Notcutt refutes the trust's claims and argues it is simply not prepared to spend the money.

"This is all about cost," said Dr Notcutt, a consultant in pain management who is based at the James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Gorleston.

"I think it is appalling, I really do. I have been battling to get Sativex used but the primary care trust have not really given the green light for its widespread use."

Sativex was licensed for use in June last year and NHS Suffolk told the EADT that while their GPs would not be prescribing the drug, patients who were prescribed it by a specialist would be able to obtain it through the hospital.

However, MS patient Diana Hunt, of Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, has been told by her neurologist that she still cannot have the drug because the health trust will not fund it.

Mrs Hunt, a former teacher who is now unable to walk as a result of the debilitating illness, said: "Originally we were told by the pharmacist that patients would be able to obtain the drug if specialists prescribed it and my neurologist is prepared to prescribe it but NHS Suffolk won't pay for it.

"It doesn't make sense. They said they would pay for it one minute and then they said they wouldn't.

"I don't know anyone who has been able to get funding for it. My neurologist said the only way for me to get it is to pay for it myself.

"Even then, I would have to find someone who would oversee it and take responsibility."

Mrs Hunt explained the drug costs £11 per day, and she would have to pay for private medical fees on top of that.

She was diagnosed with MS in 1996 and now has the secondary progressive form of the debilitating illness.

"I am in constant pain, I wake up in the night with spasms and it is like having cramp all the time.

"It is not so bad during the day because you can think about other things but at night there is nothing to take your mind off it.

"This derivative of cannabis is sprayed under your tongue and is supposed to reduce the spasticity. It doesn't give you the hallucinations that street cannabis would. It could relieve some of my symptoms."

Mrs Hunt added: "I don't know if it will help me because I haven't tried it. I am not being given the chance to try it."

Defending the cost, Dr Notcutt explained the drug had been trialed for 10 years before being approved because of its cannabis content.

He added: "You can tell within two or three weeks if a patient will get benefits from it. It is almost impossible to tell if some drugs are working so it is easy to trial it for a patient."

Andrew Hassan, NHS Suffolk's medical director, said: "It is important that any new drugs are proven to be safe and effective. At present there is inadequate information to support the prescribing of Sativex as an effective treatment for symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Should new evidence emerge we will look again at prescribing guidelines for this drug."

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/barrow_nhs_suffolk_decision_leaves_ms_sufferer_living_in_pain_1_860831

Driving the backroads of Andalucia

Driving in Ariege, France, July 2010

UK: War on drugs has failed, say former heads of MI5, CPS and BBC - me too!

There are a number of criticisms of the current regime of prohibition of the possession, production and sale of some drugs in the UK

Whilst many drug users themselves may call for freedom of choice and (rightly) claim that what they consume is a matter for them and Government ought not to try to control that, so long as credible and accurate advice is available - along with consumer protected supply from reputable outlets, and provide the users are doing no harm.

Alongside this many argue that to punish drug users when they do no harm, is an unjust consequence of attempts at enforcing prohibition.  The victimless drug users become the victims of the law - and they are the very people that the law is meant to protect.

Prohibition, many say, does more harm than good; it fails to reduce harm from drugs and actually increases it by leaving the supply firmly in the hands of uncontrollable, un-taxable, unknown and often unscrupulous dealers and producers.

Whilst the cost of this prohibition to the British taxpayer runs into almost £20 BILLION annually, the profit from drugs finances crime and attracts an endless line of people willing to step in to replace the few that are caught.

We ask - who gains from this prohibition?  The answer is the drug producers, the drug sellers and those employed to try to catch them and lock them up.

We ask who pays for this prohibition?  The answer is the taxpayer and the drug user that suffers.

So I was pleased to read the headline in The Telegraph (21 March)
"UK: War on drugs has failed, say former heads of MI5, CPS and BBC"

The "war on drugs" has failed and should be abandoned in favour of evidence-based policies that treat addiction as a health problem, according to prominent public figures including former heads of MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Leading peers – including prominent Tories – say that despite governments worldwide drawing up tough laws against dealers and users over the past 50 years, illegal drugs have become more accessible.

Vast amounts of money have been wasted on unsuccessful crackdowns, while criminals have made fortunes importing drugs into this country.

The increasing use of the most harmful drugs such as heroin has also led to “enormous health problems”, according to the group.

The MPs and members of the House of Lords, who have formed a new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, are calling for new policies to be drawn up on the basis of scientific evidence.

It could lead to calls for the British government to decriminalise drugs, or at least for the police and Crown Prosecution Service not to jail people for possession of small amounts of banned substances.


(snip)

The chairman of the new group, Baroness Meacher – who is also chairman of an NHS trust – told The Daily Telegraph: “Criminalising drug users has been an expensive catastrophe for individuals and communities.

“In the UK the time has come for a review of our 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. I call on our Government to heed the advice of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that drug addiction should be recognised as a health problem and not punished.

“We have the example of other countries to follow. The best is Portugal which has decriminalised drug use for 10 years. Portugal still has one of the lowest drug addiction rates in Europe, the trend of Young people's drug addiction is falling in Portugal against an upward trend in the surrounding countries, and the Portuguese prison population has fallen over time.”

Lord Lawson, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, said: “I have no doubt that the present policy is a disaster.

“This is an important issue, which I have thought about for many years. But I still don't know what the right answer is – I have joined the APPG in the hope that it may help us to find the right answer.”

Other high-profile figures in the group include Baroness Manningham-Buller, who served as Director General of MI5, the security service, between 2002 and 2007; Lord Birt, the former Director-General of the BBC who went on to become a “blue-sky thinker” for Tony Blair; Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, until recently the Director of Public Prosecutions; and Lord Walton of Detchant, a former president of the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council.

Current MPs on the group include Peter Bottomley, who served as a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher; Mike Weatherley, the newly elected Tory MP for Hove and Portslade; and Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge.

The group’s formation coincides with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which paved the way for a war on drugs by describing addiction as a “serious evil”, attempting to limit production for medicinal and scientific uses only, and coordinating international action against traffickers.

The peers and MPs say that despite governments “pouring vast resources” into the attempt to control drug markets, availability and use has increased, with up to 250 million people worldwide using narcotics such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin in 2008.

They believe the trade in illegal drugs makes more than £200 billion a year for criminals and terrorists, as well as destabilising entire nations such as Afghanistan and Mexico.

As a result, the all-party group is working with the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust, to review current policies and scientific evidence in order to draw up proposed new ways to deal with the problem.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8393838/War-on-drugs-has-failed-say-former-heads-of-MI5-CPS-and-BBC.html

Locking up people that use cannabis to alleviate pain - is that what people want?

Do any Government really imagine that prison will stop people using drugs, let alone medicinally beneficial and essential ones, like cannabis? 

Even though they have done no harm to anyone or anything?

As soon as they are released, they will re-offend, so in that sense it is delaying what is inevitable because it is also the essential.  Just like all people that find a particular plant or medicine effective, they will use it when they can.  It is a necessity.

So the taxpayers have to pay to unjustly imprison a medicinal cannabis user, which is futile - or the user has to resort to more expensive and more dangerous ineffective pharmaceuticals - which is futile.

If given the choice of financing the imprisonment or the pharmaceutical drugs,  or allowing the person to produce and use their own cannabis, or a carer to do it for them, cannabis that the user claims as highly beneficial to them at no cost to the taxpayer - what would most people chose? 

Everyone I ask says the third choice - let them grow safely!

So it cannot be in the public interest to imprison such a user (or in fact punish them at all) - and if it's not in the public interest, who's interest is it really in?


Can anyone on earth honestly answer that?