POEM: Bumbling Boris

Bumbling Boris make no sense,
The red virus outside your fence,
But you can walk now, mile on mile,
Wear a face mask, don't show your smile.

You can be outside all the day,
Go to work and earn your pay,
Sit inside your local park,
They'll be unlocked til it gets dark.

Play your sports with family,
Run yout life but alert please be,
You'll be fined if you break the rules,
Soon the infants back to schools.

Keep your distance, stay apart
Fill your wheelie shopping cart,
Use your plastic bankers cards,
Spare the beds on hospital wards.

Control the virus when it's red,
Keep the colours in your head,
Ease the lockdown, ease it slow,
Bumbling Boris doesn't know.

POEM: EGO WALL by Alun Buffry, April 2020

So I am the Crown of Creation?
One in a seven billion nation.
Forget recreation.
Forget instant sensation.
Forget procreation.
Forget condemnation.
Focus on creation.

This I can never save the world.
That I cannot in Truth be blamed.
A Creator that can not be named,
Creation that cannot be tamed.
The rich, the powerful and the famed,
Together have our planet lamed.

We build it up, we tear it down.
We re-elect the greedy tyrant clowns,
We blame them whilst they laugh and frown,
As human beings sink and drown.
We beg for someone save us now.
As richest priests won’t bow down.

The Universe , we miss its call.
Those politicians so strong and tall,
They fucked it up and made us small,
Just play your part for one and all.
To put it right is one long haul.
So step outside your Ego Wall

More Poems by Alun Buffry

Books by Alun Buffry

One only signed by all 8 authors

One only signed by all 8 authors

AUCTION ON EBAY

First of its Kind Study Shows Cannabis Has Little to No Significant Effect on Driving

First of its Kind Study Shows Cannabis Has Little to No Significant Effect on Driving
http://www.ccguide.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=21223

Anna Hunt
Waking Times

Friday 30 Oct 2015


Researchers at the University of Iowa’s (UI’s) National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) published a new study that examined how inhaling cannabis affects driving. The results may help shape the rules of how law enforcement handles drivers under the influence of cannabis.

“Alcohol is the most common drug present in the system in roadside stops by police; cannabis is the next most common, and cannabis is often paired with alcohol below the legal limits.

We know alcohol is an issue, but is cannabis an issue or is cannabis an issue when paired with alcohol? We tried to find out.” ~ Tim Brown, associate research scientist at NADS and co-author of the study.

The new study, conducted by Gary Gaffney, Tim Brown and Gary Milavetz, put 18 participants through a 35 to 45 minute simulated driving test, with one group having consumed alcohol, another having vaporized cannabis, and a third group under the influence of both alcohol and cannabis. The effort was sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Four important findings were reported:

Drivers under the influence of only cannabis showed little driving impairment when compared to drivers under the influence of alcohol or both substances.

Drivers with blood concentrations of 13.1 ug/L THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the active ingredient in cannabis) showed similar impairment to drivers with a .08 breath alcohol concentration, the legal limit in most states. The current legal limit for THC in Washington and Colorado is 5 ug/L.

Drivers who use alcohol and cannabis together weave more on a virtual roadway than ones that used either substance independently, although consuming both does not double the impairment.

Analyzing a driver’s oral fluids can detect recent use of cannabis although it should not be considered a reliable measure of impairment.

For the study, researchers selected 13 men and five women between the ages of 21 and 37 who reported drinking alcohol and using marijuana no more than three times a week. After spending the night at the UI’s facilities to ensure sobriety, participants were taken to NADS for “dosing” followed by a simulated drive in a 1996 Malibu sedan mounted in a 24-feet diameter dome.

Before the simulation test, each participant had 10 minutes to drink an alcoholic beverage, or a juice with flavoring that mimicked alcohol, and then another 10 minutes to inhale a placebo or vaporized cannabis. The goal was to have some participants’ blood alcohol level at about 0.065 percent, and some participants’ blood concentrations at about 13.1 ug/L THC, and some under the influence of both.

Once in the simulator, drivers were assessed on: weaving within the lane; how often the car left the lane; and the speed of weaving. The researchers reported that drivers with only alcohol in their systems showed impairment in all three areas. They reported that participants only under the influence of cannabis showed impairment only with weaving within the lane.

Andrew Spurgin, a postdoctoral research fellow with the UI College of Pharmacy, shared another important fact as part of the study:

“Everyone wants a Breathalyzer which works for alcohol because alcohol is metabolized in the lungs. But for cannabis this isn’t as simple due to THC’s metabolic and chemical properties.”

The study’s finding are not likely to have any immediate effect on the current legal limits for THC, but hopefully it will slow the attempts to deploy devices for instant roadside THC testing before further research can be conducted.

About the Author

Anna Hunt is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in research and editorial writing. She and her husband run a preparedness e-store outlet at www.offgridoutpost.com, offering GMO-free storable food and emergency kits. Anna is also a certified Hatha yoga instructor. She enjoys raising her children and being a voice for optimal human health and wellness. Read more of her excellent articles here. Visit her essential oils store here.

Source:
http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/06/ui-studies-impact-marijuana-driving

This article (First of its Kind Study Shows that Cannabis Has Little to No Significant Effect on Driving) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Anna Hunt and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/10/30/first-of-its-kind-study-shows-cannabis-has-little-to-no-significant-effect-on-driving/

HMP Blantyre House (Taken From Time For Cannabis: The Prison Years 1991 to 1995 by Alun Buffry)

BLANTYRE HOUSE

From Time For Cannabis: The Prison Years 1991 to 1995

Available on Amazon as paperback and Kindle

After writing the previous chapters, I had wanted to write about Blantyre House, a totally different and altogether more positive experience with a fresh start, rid of the influence of the Whitemoor memories, so I had decided to take a break.

Unintentionally, that break lasted 17 years!

Now I feel I can comfortably write this chapter, not that the long gap in time was due entirely to the Whitemoor experience, after all, I left that place a couple of years before starting this book. But there have been other things on my mind, which included co-founding and running a small political party based on the single issue of cannabis, travelling as I could afford and a lot of other writing

So, having been approved for HMP Blantyre House, Gary (the inmate travelling with me) and myself were all packed up and ready to leave Whitemoor as soon as we could.

We had heard favourable reports of the relaxed regime there and were looking forward to seeing our bridge-playing, ecstasy-smuggler friends Will and Tom along with a few others from Whitemoor.

This is what the Department of Justice says about Blantyre House in 2015:

"Blantyre House is an adult male category 'C/D' resettlement prison. The buildings themselves are located in a country house which was taken over by the Prison Commission in 1954, having previously operated as a Fegan Home. It was a Detention Centre for young offenders before converting to a resettlement prison for long term prisoners.

"Regime: The regime at Blantyre is designed to prepare men for their eventual release. Within the first six months it is compulsory for the men to continue to build upon their education, which will include obtaining Basic Skills qualifications and taking part in courses such as healthy lifestyles, social and life skills, independent living and preparation for work. There are also a number of vocational courses on offer including IT, Dry-lining and Plastering. Once risk-assessed prisoners are allowed the opportunity to develop their education by attending external colleges to obtain further employment skills. As well as education, prisoners are able to work as cleaners, kitchen workers, orderlies etc."

http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder/blantyre-house

At Whitemoor on the day of our transfer, after the traditional slops for breakfast, we were escorted through numerous gates along with our possessions. We were taken to a holding cell to await the arrival of the screws and the transportation.

We were told to change into our own clothing by the screw from Blantyre House, which we gladly did. I felt like tearing up the prison clothing. But within minutes he came back and told us we would have to change again because the Whitemoor administration would not allow us in our own clothing whilst still inside the prison. So we changed, again. We did not want to get into trouble before we even left and anyway we were used to petty rules being thrown at us seemingly willy-nilly.

Once we were inside the prison van and outside the prison grounds, we were told we could change back into our own clothing again. The screw actually apologised. He said that at Blantyre House everyone knew the rules and he repeated them.

No alcohol or drugs, no violence or verbal abuse, obey the laws of the land and commit to a minimum of half a day at education every week.

They also told us to be careful with the food, especially the chips, as it was served hot and may be the first hot food we had eaten in prison. That was wrong of course but they did not know that I had been cooking much of my own food along with Ken and others, in the small kitchen on the wing, but they were correct about the Blantyre food as I was to find out.

The journey from Peterborough to Kent took a few hours and we were given sandwiches. The time went quick even though we could not see the scenery.

HMP Blantyre House was in Kent near the village of Goudhurst, close to Cranbrook, beautiful countryside famous for growing hops used to manufacture the drug alcohol.

As we arrived at Blantyre House, pulled in through the gates; we climbed out of the van and there stood my friend Will.

Will took us to our "rooms" inside the large wooden building. He said we would be sharing for a while but later would move to other rooms; this was the reception cell.

The cell contained two bunk beds but Gary and I were the only two that would be using them that night. Apparently we would be here a few days and then moved to another "room". We had our own keys. The room was next to the Principal Officer's (The PO) office; I assumed it was so they could better keep an eye on us.

Will also told us that he would take us to the dining hall as dinner was about to be served, then after that we would go to see the PO's office to "check in".

Afterwards, Will said, he would show us the prison grounds where we were free to wander at almost any time between 8 am and 8 pm. After 8 pm we had to be inside the main building and the outside doors would be locked, but we could associate in rooms until 10 pm.

I do not remember what I had for dinner except that it was vegetarian and hot and quite tasty. Will had arranged for us to share a table with himself and Tom from Whitemoor and a few others; one was Terry P. who was doing time for his part is an horrific robbery.

There were about 100 inmates at Blantyre and the dining room was crowded. Will told us that we would probably be put on washing up duty the next day, and do that, as was traditional for new arrivals, until more new inmates arrived. Then, he said, we would probably be put on cleaning and after that we would either do outside work or college, or do full time education. Being on my Open University course in computing and busy building my database on Ancient Egypt, education would suit me.

After dinner, as promised, Will took us to the Principle Officer's office. Gary Catton, the screw that had interviewed me in Whitemoor, was the PO on duty. Officers, though, weren't called "screws" or even "kangas" here. It took just a few minutes of confirming our names and numbers and being told that after breakfast the next day we had to report to the kitchen and do washing up duty.

After that, Will took Gary and I for a walk-about; he showed us the education block, canteen, church building and gym. There was quite a large green area where rugby and other sport was played.

On the Saturday, just two days after arriving, we joined about twenty others along with several officers, for a five mile country ramble. It was amazing, instead of being forced to march together as I had anticipated, we were all allowed to walk at our own paces. I found myself walking down a beautiful and quiet grove where the trees were brown and freshly fallen leaves were scattered about, passing large gates to houses and small cottages. I felt there may have been a babbling brook somewhere beyond but out of our sight.

After where I had been the last few years and even my home life before that, this was a new world. I felt free and trusted.

Beyond that area there was a fence with an open gate and the other side of that we saw several inmates' allotments, a chicken run, and a large field part of which inmates had worked on for use as a small golf course.

We walked right around the inside of the fence. We walked to places where we could not be seen from the main buildings. There was no razor wire and no visible cameras. It was hard to believe that we were not being watched. A result of Whitemoor paranoia?

I looked up at the trees but still saw no cameras. The only razor wire, Will said, was near the canteen, to stop local kids from climbing over and stealing stuff!

What an incredible change from Whitemoor. Here they talked about the "ethos" and the Governor, Jim Semple said that he did not like to be called "Sir". It was difficult at first to know who was a screw and who was a con.

I slept well that night, although Gary complained that I had snored loudly.

My comment on the article below

It's been quite some time since I read the sort of nonsense written here by H Woods. For starters he suggests that cannabis, a plant, should be classed alongside dangerous drugs such as heroin (and presumably he feels the same way as that highly dangerous and often addictive drug, alcohol, let alone the killer, tobacco).

It sounds a little like mixing sweets with tablets - many people may be tempted after taking a sweet to try a tablet if they are all in the same bag. Likewise, if cannabis was classed in law as of equal danger to heroin and cocaine, surely when person tries cannabis, which is easily found on almost any main street in the UK, discovering that it actually eases stress and pain, has the feel-good-factor, and for the very vast number of people has no bad effects, why not try another drug if they are all equally dangerous.

Woods says he has met cannabis users. Well, I am now 65 and have used cannabis off-and-on most of my adult life, and I have had no problems. I have met literally thousands of cannabis smokers in about 30 countries that I have travelled in and apart from the fact that some may be eccentric, they were all decent people. Of course dealers have led some from one illegal "drug" to another but that is no reason per se to punish either those that have taken other drugs or those that have not, unless of course they have harmed others. It would be like punishing all people that like a drink because of those that became alcoholics or became violent or abusive (something one does not see amongst cannabis users).

Woods goes on to label the millions of people in the UK that do take illegal drugs as in a stupor, and those that supply as "evil". Woods fails to recognise the damage caused by many over-the-counter medications such as aspirin that kills hundreds annually, or the medications dished out by doctors, many pills with serious side-effects (read the warnings on the packets - side-effects ranging from impotence to loss of appetite, inability to coordinate, sleeplessness, depression and even suicide). It is undeniable that many pills need to be taken with other pills to try to counteract those terrible and terrifying side-effects.

So what to do with those (whether in white coats or not) that supply those harmful and killer drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, as well as pills?

Woods also denies the testimonies not just of people in the UK that claim to find relief to terrible illnesses and find that relief through consumption of the cannabis plant, albeit illegal, being forced to risk prison by growing their own or buying from illegal suppliers: people with MS, epilepsy, arthritis, damage from accidents or just plain stress; more recently those dying from cancers.

Woods fails to take into account that here in the UK, Sativex (which is simply cannabis dissolved in alcohol in an expensive oral spray form) is prescribed by doctors and supplied by pharmacies (it is exactly the same as can be made at home for own use by people that grow their own yet can be sent to prison). Fails to recognise that herbal cannabis is prescribed in countries such as Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy ... and more .. as a pharmaceutical plant-product called Bedrocan.

Woods ignores the dozens of reports from around the world that state cannabis has medicinal value and is comparatively safe ("remarkably safe" in the words of Harvard University Professor Grinspoon; safer than most common foods in the words of DEA Judge Francis Young).

Woods fails to recognise that the UK's own Government-appointed study group, the ACMD, has stated over the years that cannabis should NOT be classed alongside heroin or even class B drugs as it now is.

But most of all Woods has blundered by attempting to promote prohibition policy which has quite clearly not just failed but caused more damage to people's lives than the drugs themselves - even the United Nations Drugs team says that.

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Legal-cannabis-Class/story-28030378-detail/story.html
Plymouth Herald, 22October 2015

Legal? No, cannabis should be a Class A

I READ in the Herald on October 10, cannabis campaigner in plea to MPs.
Daryl Sullivan has written to MPs for their help in legalising cannabis.
Cannabis like all drugs are bad, it should be a Class A drug as with all other drugs.
There has been proof that cannabis causes mental health problems, psychosis, schizophrenia and linked to suicides. It is not harmless at all and addictive. I have seen people on cannabis they were in a state of stupor.
Ninety nine percent of crime is drug related. Drugs and drug dealers are evil, we need to keep this vile damaging garbage off the streets. MPs say not to legalising cannabis.
H WOODS
Plymouth

UK Government needs Alchemists to make more profitable cannabis extract medicines.

The UK Government will not consider legalising cannabis but plan to invest more money into research for the production and supply of highly profitable pharmaceutical cannbinoids.

In plain language: we plan to make as much money as possible from sick people needing cannabinoids and the rest of you can go rot in prison or pay fines if we can get the police to deal with you. Cannabis has no medical value unless it is dissolved in alcohol (like Sativex) and sprayed up your bum.!

they want to make medicine from aplant with no medicinal value (according to UK drug schedules) by adding alcohol.  That sure is alchemy.

Correspondence with Chloe Smith MP, Norwich North, Conservative, Sept 2015 re UK cannabis debate

Dear Ms Smith,

Whatever your feelings on punishing people for growing or possessing plants in their private lives and homes, I do hope you will consider at least attending and listening at the debate on cannabis laws happening on 12th October.

As you may know well over 200,000 people have signed a petition to legalise possession, cultivation and supply of cannabis - it is a matter that affects many people in Norwich as well as the many around the country that are ciminlaised and prosecuted despite doing no harm to others.

There are several facebook pages and web sites that list the medicinal benefits ranging from relief of stress to possible cancer treatments and I cannot believe that those people are all telling porkies and defintely do not believe that they should be punished.

The proof that cannabis can provide medical relief is also available from GW Pharmaceuticals who produce a whole-plant extract in alcohol into a cannister of spray called Sativex: sadly GW charge many times the price of the contents and processing costs and hence many NHS regions are refusing to supply it, driving those in need to grow their own cannabis or risk buying possibly contaminated materials from street dealers.

Alun Buffry


REPLY:

Dear Mr Buffry,

Thank you for your email.

I will certainly listen carefully to the arguments put by the petition. I am aware that official advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs continues to confirm that cannabis presents a significant risk to public health, so I remain unconvinced that decriminalisation is the right answer.

The medicinal product derived from cannabis, Sativex, has been approved by the body responsible for ensuring the medicines available in the United Kingdom are of the correct standard and are acceptably safe. The regulator believes Sativex is a safe and effective medicine for patients with multiple sclerosis. I can't comment on its pricing.

With best wishes,

Chloe Smith
Member of Parliament for Norwich North

 Dear Ms Smith,

Thank you for your reply.   Please understand that cannabis law is an issue about whether or not people should be punished by law for growing or possessing cannabis for own use and do no harm or cause no risk to others.

That question is irrespective of any harm the user may do to themselves and therefore the risk of using cannabis, which is very obviously lower than from consuming alcohol or tobacco, is only an issue when it comes to how such substances are controlled by law.

Leaving the commericial production and supply beyond control and in the hands of criminal profiteers can only increase any risk to the consumers through adulteraion or contamination - as was seen under the prohibition of alcohol in the US.  Check out what is happening in Colorado and other US states that have legalised supply.

The law, as it stands, does far more harm than good, not least from creating criminal records for people that have no victims

regards

Alun Buffry

Legalising "medical" cannabis = high prices, restricted supply, profit for the pharmaceutical giants

Legalising medical cannabis MEANS making a pharmaceutical grade product such as Bedrocan or SATIVEX AVAILABLE ON DOCTOR'S PRESCRIPTION - WHICH IN THE CASE OF SATIVEX IN THE UK, IT ALREADY IS - if you can get a doctor to prescribe it and an NHS region to supply it (as in Wales) or else you pay a massively high price.

In The Netherlands, same, you have to find a doctor willing to supply BEDROCAN and then buy from chemist shop costing more than in Coffeeshops - and many doctors there refuse to prescribe it.

Legalising medical cannabis would mean that one would have to have a "qualifying" medical condition that the doctor may think cannabis may help.

 

Legalsing medical cannabis would not mean that anyone could legaly grow their own, possess or buy cannabis - much like opiates at this time.

“My name is Hellmut – you want smoke some joint” - Taken from: "All About My Hat - The Hippy Trail 1972" by Alun Buffry

Taken from: "All About My Hat - The Hippy Trail 1972" by Alun Buffry
(Available at Amazon as Paperback and for Kindle)

“My name is Hellmut – you want smoke some joint” .

He had lit and was offering them a joint – on the bus!

Well, I could tell Al liked the smell so he quickly accepted it with a “Danke” (thank you in German, Al thought). He took three rapid puffs and passed it to Keith who took three puffs and passed what was left back to Hellmut.

Al was feeling quite self-conscious about smoking on a bus heading to Pakistan. He thought everyone was looking.

He turned round to look back down the bus.

Almost every seat had a man leaning out and looking back up the bus at him!

And, Al noticed, they were all grinning and smiling and nodding - as if to say “You are stoned now, as we are stoned too."

Al thought those men probably did not smoke cannabis but it must have been in their blood, handed down over the centuries.
He relaxed, chatted with Helmut a while – Helmut said he travelled that route every year for ten years. Then as the calming effect of the lovely hash took over, he sat and started to enjoy what was to be an incredible journey through the Khyber Pass.

The over-laden coach trundled on, struggling up hills and rounding bends with sheer drops, then down and up again. At the end of most down bits there was a small waterfall. At the end of each up bits there was a beautiful view, often including the same road below them, winding around the boulders in between the fields.

Khyber Pass

At some places there were what looked like caves in the sides of the hills.

We passed small groups of men that seemed to be just sitting and looking; we saw young boys driving herds of sheep or goats or camels and several times we had to stop to let them pass us.

Occasionally we saw groups of women carrying baskets, bundles or clay pots on their heads, trailed by urchin-looking children – her children always waving at the coach.

The women here were dressed very differently and, Al thought, more practically than those in Burkas. These showed their faces beneath head-scarves decorated with beads and chains and quite colourful too. These must be tribal mountain women, Al thought.

The coach was moving quite slowly and Al had a chance to take a couple of photographs through the window, of the valley below. He wished he had more film, but thought he would not be able to afford it .

Hellmut was quite jolly company and did lot of talking – they smoked another couple of joints.

He explained that he travelled this same route for years and the border post guards knew him – he always gave them a little money and they left him alone. He also said that every year he visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, India and Nepal, and arranged for shipments of hash to be sent back to London where his partner lived. He travelled for six months, then went back to London and his partner did the same. They were paying off customs everywhere, including the UK, and they were making a lot of money. But, he said, he preferred to stay in cheap hotels, not the big ones, and then he met people.  So Hellmut too, was heading for the Hotel Rainbow.

“Very very cheap”, he said, “But it is OK for a few days, but do not eat their food – it is better to go out to eat in a secret local restaurant that I know, it is good and clean.”

Hellmut said that after Peshawar, he was heading to Lahore and then would fly to Amritsar where the “Golden Temple” was and where travellers could sleep and eat for free, courtesy of the Sikhs. The same plan as Al and Keith's – they used to call it the “Hippy Trail.”

It was quite a journey until they reached Peshawar, but once there, with Helmut leading the way, they soon found and booked into the Rainbow Hotel. Reception gladly changed Afghani money into Pakistani Rupees.

The room for Al and Keith was small with two beds, but the view out of the window into the street below was good.

It was May 5 1972.

The street looked like a chaotic mishmash of tumble-down buildings with broken or torn flags hanging everywhere. The road was pot-holed. It was crowded with people. There was a restaurant across the road. Al took a photograph – not many left.

There was no toilet in the room. In fact, there did not seem to be one visible at al. So still with me on his head, he went to the reception to ask.
“On roof,” said the small man sitting behind a desk reading a newspaper. He did not seen interested.

Al climbed two flights of stairs to find a door that opened onto the roof.

In the middle of the roof was a wooden structure with three doors, a couple of steps up and inside there was a hole in the concrete floor and a jug of water. The water was to wash instead of the Western toilet papers we had seen in some cities.

Below the hole was another level of concrete – piled with human shit. It was smelling real bad even though the day was cooling fast as the light was beginning to fade. The whole place was, of course, swarming with flies.

Later Al learned that the place was emptied once a day, the shit shovelled into wicker baskets lines with rushes and leaves, to be carried down through the hotel and into the street. Al could not imagine what they did with it after that. Those poor women deserved a reward. But he had nothing spare to even offer.

A while after returning to the room, there was a knock on the door. Keith jumped up and opened it and there stood Hellmut, grinning and with a smoking joint in his hand.

“Hello my friends, you want to smoke some hash with me and I buy you dinner?”

So they puffed on the joint, their spirits again lifting. Al had been wondering where he was – absolutely everything was so different to his home city; in fact it was so different to anything else he had seen even in the places we had passed through.

Al was thinking, what is different: well for starters the smells and the air, the people and their costumes, the language and the script, the food and the drink, the streets and the buildings, the transport, the health care, the hygiene and safety rules and protection, life expectancy and family life, politics and religion, even the ways in which business was conducted - people argued over prices.

And, thought Al, what is the same – well I guess I am, he thought – I guess everyone, well most people, have two arms, two legs and two eyes; we're all breathing; we probably all want the same thing, We all want to achieve something and to find fulfilment, peace, love, freedom.. We probably all wonder at some time what life is all about – or maybe their religions satisfy all that.

Al began wondering why he was travelling – what was he looking for. Religion and science had failed him, now he was feeling like he was wandering far from home, maybe risking his health and safety, taking risks in a dangerous part of the world and with very little money. “Am I nuts?” he thought.

But so far this adventure had gone well, and in any case there was only one direction to go and that was India. Al thought that it was said people could find answers in India – it was where The Beatles had gone to their Guru called Mahesh Yogi. It was a land of many beliefs, supposedly with enlightened beings willing to impart the truth. Or so he'd read. Probably not like that at all. And, thought Al, I probably don't have enough money to buy enlightenment.

Pesahwar

Outside in the damp street, the women were dressed in black Burkas again, or colourful cloth wraps, except the Westerners of course. Some of them were well covered too and many wore head scarves. Almost all the Western men wore blue jeans, some with hats of varying sorts, and one even looking quite like myself.

The local men were of two distinct types. One lot were quite short in height and slight, dressed in what often looked like dirty pyjamas with white caps or wrapped in sheets of cloth. The other lot were massive, thick set giants over 6 feet in height, wearing turban-like headgear and armed with rifles and long swords.

Bicycles, three wheeler Rickshaws, and beasts of burden, were the main form of transport here.

Al spotted a sign above a doorway. It was a drawing of a set of false teeth.

There were three-wheeled street stalls with massive piles of apples, oranges, lemons and yellow and green melons for sale. Dirty-looking streets stalls offered strange looking food in huge pans cooking over charcoal or wood fires.

“You know, my friends, Peshawar is called the 'City of Thieves' – you can buy guns here – be careful with your bags,” said Hellmut.

“Fucking great, man,” said Keith.

The street was filthy.

“Two nights here, then I am going to Lahore on the train, if you want, my friends, I will tell the manager at the hotel and he will buy us tickets,” said Hellmut.

“How much do the tickets cost?” asked Keith.

“No problem my friends I am paying, you are my guests. Now we go to special place to eat and we can smoke hashish. It is called The Secret Restaurant and my friend from Berlin, Karl is running it. And his wife Marianna is from Switzerland. They have good vegetarian food and good music.

The Secret Restaurant was actually inside a large second floor apartment down a poorly lit back street and on to another main road, this time far busier with trucks, carts, colourful coaches, cars and bicycles – and men with donkeys carrying either them or their wares. The roadway and pavements were equally muddy and dirty and it was quite noisy. Street stalls were still selling fruit and vegetables and bottles of fizzy drinks – a lot of signs for Pepsi. Other stalls were issuing clouds of smoke or steam, offering a whole range of quite unpleasant looking foods. Hygiene was an absentee here.

But the apartment building itself, behind a large wall separating it from the road, and guarded at the entrance by a costumed and armed giant from the hills, was remarkably clean.

The guard greeted Hellmut and let us pass through the arched gateway. Hellmut pressed a buzzer near the doorway and soon a pretty young lady came to let us in. Hellmut greeted Marianna, they hugged like good old friends. She led the way for us up the stairs and into the apartment.
The apartment consisted of at least two bedrooms, kitchen, western toilet with shower and a massive living room with a balcony looking out on to what may have been the back garden or a park. There were several round tables with chairs in the room seating for maybe 16 people. That still left plenty of room for the many cushions scattered around by the walls. About half a dozen people sat at tables another half a dozen or so on the cushions. A young dark-haired girl was playing a guitar and singing 'The Circle Game”, a Joni Mitchelle song.

For a second or two Al thought it was Miriam, but no.

Al could see outside through a double glass door was a balcony – he could see people were smoking.

The three of us sat at a table; Al took me off his head and put me next on the table next to the fourth chair which was empty. I felt as if I too was a guest at this meal.

The meal was three courses of vegetarian food – two choices for each course.

Al chose dahl with bread, a Madras vegetable curry with rice, and pancakes with fruit. The dahl was a very hot dish made from lentils and onions and garlic. It was all delicious, to Al's taste. And Keith had finished his plates too. Keith had eaten vegetable samosas – triangle of pastry with spicy potatoes and vegetables inside – pasta with creamy sauce and cheese, and rice pudding for afters.

They each drank a beer. It was the first alcohol Al had drank since the Ouzo in Syria. It was not as strong but still went straight to his head. He felt giggly.

Afterwards they smoked chillums on the balcony, looking down on a garden complete with flowers and a small pool with trickling water.
Al was lost looking down at that pool. Suddenly he began to wonder where he was.

One minute there's a dirty gloomy fearful city at night, with all the hustle and bustle and smoky fumes. Next, a veggie banquet with beer and chillums and Hendrix playing ' Foxy Lady' on a balcony above a heavenly garden. "Maybe in fact", thought Al, "we're actually all dead! Or just sleeping, dreaming. Or being dreamt?"

Al was thinking of the nature of reality - or was it illusion? Science had told him that everything was made of atoms and molecules, forms of energy, but those very atoms were almost all space, with wisp-like clouds of negative charge called electrons around a positively charged nucleus itself made of tiny particles that were sometimes behaving like particles and sometimes like waves – the wave-particle duality. And in between it all, 99% was nothing but space. So we are all mostly space.

Al thought that just as ridiculous to believe as a religion saying we were all made out of and by some supreme creator four thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden.

And where was the Garden of Eden anyway?

Certainly not in Peshawar.

With that he realised he was sitting on a balcony, high as a kite, looking at a pool of water.

They drank another beer and Hellmut led them back to the hotel, this time taking a slightly different, longer but better lit route.

Was that fireworks or gunshots we could hear? Guns?

The next day was spent mostly in the Secret Restaurant smoking talking and eating.

The morning after that, they took the train to Lahore – direction India.

In comparison to the bus rides, the train journey was boring. It was about three hundred and twenty miles but it took many hours.

When they reached Lahore, Hellmut took a taxi to a hotel he knew and they soon booked in. It was another hotel for mostly western travellers.
It was the Hotel Eden!

A small hotel with about a dozen room surrounding a small open garden with small shady trees, potted flowers and a pool in the centre!

Eden! Was this the Garden of Eden that Al had been thinking about at the Secret Restaurant in Peshawar?

Prohibitionsists seeking medicalisation of plants v No Victim No Crime

Prohibitionists are campaigning to try to keep a residual prohibition law by working towards "medicalisation" - allowing a limited number of patients selected by doctors to obtain cannabis extracts or irradiated and standardised product to obtain cannabis on prescription at grossly inflated prices and profits for the pharmaceutical giants thus removing the possibility of anyone caught growing in ppossession to use medical need in mitigation or defence.

Anyone without a prescription could still be busted if caught growing or in possession - just like many other prescription medications.

Strangely enough there are no health warnings on Sativex or Bedrocan

Prohibitionists stooping low claiming cannabis is as addictive and dangerous as heroin, that it does not increase creativity, causes paranoia, schizophrenia, psychosis, impotence, baldness, loss of memory, loss of motivation, is a gateway to hard drugs and so on

We are argue with them 'til blue cheese in the face.

Point I make is that EVEN IF any of that is true for even one user - all the more reason for consumer protection but no reason to punish that person (those people) that suffer bad effects and certainly NO REASON to punish the rest of us.

In the name of Justice = no victim no crime

Wake up folks!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NO-Victim-NO-CRIME/257914584389417

If they do no harm to others, why arrest cannabis users?

Supt Mick Stamper  just about  sums it up "He said: “Cannabis is a harm to the individual, but a cannabis user will rarely cause harm to other people.“A class A user will cause harm to other people. On a societal level this is a big issue.”"

So if the cannabis users rarely do harm to others, why are they arrested?

It is nothing short of tyranny for a Government to interfer with a person's private life or lifestyle without good reason, and those reasons are made clear in Human Rights law - the authorities must be acting to prevent risk to public health, public order or the Rights of others.

If there are no victims but the taxpayers that pay the cost of enforcing bad law, then these arrests must stop.

No Victim No Crime - find it on Facebook

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/crime/police-chief-cannabis-is-too-easy-to-get-hold-of-in-northampton-1-6078758 

Northampton Chronicle 24 May 2014
A Northamptonshire police chief says targeting ‘hard drug’ use will always be the force’s top priority, despite a charity’s fears that cannabis is now as easy to get hold of as tobacco.

Service manager for the CAN Young People’s Team, Ali Smith, said the class B drug was now too easy to acquire in Northampton and it could have devastating side effects on teenagers.


She said: “Years ago this was so much less of a problem. We saw little bits of cannabis, but not on the regular scale we see now. The stats are that young people are now using more.” 


Mrs Smith said cannabis was the biggest substance the St Giles Street centre – which provides a range of drug, alcohol and homelessness services for young people – deals with.


She said it could be especially harmful because young people were taking it as their bodies were still developing: “There’s a lot going on with young people,when you throw into that a strong hallucinogenic, it has a massive impact.”

Supt Mick Stamper, head of the Northamptonshire Police’s operational command unit, admitted the ‘culture’ of cannabis was a problem in young people, in particularly a misconception that it will cause little harm.


But he said the force will always have to prioritise targeting class A drugs, such as cocaine and heroin over the class B substance.


He said: “Cannabis is a harm to the individual, but a cannabis user will rarely cause harm to other people.


“A class A user will cause harm to other people. On a societal level this is a big issue.”

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NO-Victim-NO-CRIME/257914584389417

Groundless Fears over Cannabis meeting in Dorchester tomorrow

regarding the claim about the number of chemicals in cannabis - all plants contain a large number of "chemicals" but that does not make them bad or dangerous - and tap water contains many more which have been added.

regarding the cannabis meet -p protest picnic - well of course many people don't want to be around cannabis smoke, so why not give users a place to go in safety, away from the public, free of fear of arrest, where they can socialise?

those that choose to drink alcohol have pubs, clubs and restaurants - and we all know just how dangerous that drug can be - fortunately people are not allowed to drink on the streets or in our parks.

and of course any crime committed against people or property should be prosecuted whether the person is sober, drunk or high

Fears over Cannabis meeting in Dorchester tomorrow

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/10777796.Fears_over_Cannabis_Awareness_meeting_in_Dorchester_tomorrow/?ref=nt

COMMUNITY leaders in Dorchester have expressed fears over a controversial ‘Cannabis Awareness Day’ that will take place in Maumbury Rings tomorrow.
This is to be the first ever event organised by the Dorset Cannabis Community - which is a branch of the UK Cannabis Social Clubs and campaign to de-stigmatise, decriminalise and regulate cannabis consumption.
Event organiser Dave Smith states the event is planned to 'educate the general public on the many positive uses of cannabis such as medicinal, spiritual and industrial use.'
It was originally called a 'smokeup' but Mr Smith changed it to reflect the meeting's intentions.
The event comes after months of work by Dorset Police in Dorchester to curb the spread of class B drug cannabis use among teenagers in the county town.
The fact that the event is near the skate park, used by local teenagers, has councillors and police worried that the over 18's only event may draw attention from a younger crowd.
Inspector Steve Marsh said that people need to keep in mind that cannabis is still a Class B drug and is illegal to possess.
He said: "I respect the right for anyone to discuss the current law and peacefully explain an opposing point of view.

"That is a fundamental right in this country.
"However organisers of the event in question should understand that if any offences are suspected under the misuse of drugs act, my officers will take positive action. "
He added: "I am concerned that the area chosen is used regularly by young people and families and ask that any meeting takes this into account and thinks very carefully about the messages they communicate to those that attend."
Organiser Dave Smith, of Gillingham said: “We chose Dorchester because it was central in the county for our first ever awareness day.
“We have a few members in Dorset now so we wanted to organise this regional meet up to spread the message and therefore we will have several key speakers.
"The Dorset Cannabis Community is working to raise awareness of the many uses of cannabis and the dangers of prohibiting this plant.
“We want to remove the black market trade of cannabis in the UK that is currently controlled by organised criminals who are making huge amounts of money from producing and selling cannabis.
“Organised criminals don't pay tax, they use money raised from cannabis sales to fund other forms of crime such as human trafficking, they are happy to sell to young people in the name of profit and they are not put off by the legality, in fact many are aware that if cannabis was legalised and regulated they would be out of a job.
He added: “You do not have to be a cannabis consumer to get involved and we welcome all peaceful members of society to come and check out what we are doing.
“People can come and smoke at their own risk but anyone aged under the age of 18 will be asked to leave.”
Around the country cannabis social clubs are holding their inaugural public protests or awareness days.
Four weeks ago a similar 'smokeup' event was organised called the Berkshire Cannabis Protest Picnic and police officers from Thames Valley Police turned up to confiscate cannabis from those attending the protest.
Dorchester councillor David Taylor, who sits on the Dorchester Crime Prevention Panel, said he has concerns about the event.
He said: “In Dorchester the police and council have worked very hard to stop the encouragement of using drugs such as cannabis and my concern is that this event will make it look 'cool' to the young people and that it is okay to be part of this set.”
The meeting starts at 2pm but talks will take place from 3pm onwards.
Cannabis and the law

• · Cannabis is a Class B drug - it's illegal to have for yourself, give away or sell.
• · Possession is illegal whatever you're using it for, including pain relief. The penalty is up to five years in jail.
• · Supplying someone else can get you fourteen years and an unlimited fine.
• · Supplying friends, even if you give it away, is also considered 'supplying' under the law.

The arguments for and against the legalisation of cannabis
Many influential politicians and celebrities have called for the legalisation of cannabis.
Last month Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton claimed the war on drugs had failed and said decriminalisation was the best way to wrestle power away from criminal gangs.
The UK Cannabis Social Club believe that consumers should not be criminalised or treated differently than any other member of society or culture or those that use another social or medical drug. The group aims to remove the criminal black market and divert funds away from organized crime by replacing it with a community based and or regulated outlets.
UKCSC support the right to domestic cultivation for personal and medicinal use without fear or having their peace breached by the force of the law.
The group say that users should not be forced to buy their cannabis from sources where proceeds go towards real crime or funding gangs that create real victims. This is a completely artificial chain that has been created entirely by the continued enforcement of prohibition.
The United Kingdom Cannabis Social Clubs say they are here to help bring an end to this by replacing the criminal supply chain with a community based system similar to that which is working in other parts of Europe.
AGAINST
The NHS has issued several warnings about health risks linked to cannabis use.
These include dependency problems, mental health problems and lung damage, further cautions are.
* Even hardcore smokers can become anxious, panicky, suspicious or paranoid.
* It affects co-ordination. Drug-driving is illegal.
* The drug has lots of chemicals, which can cause lung disease and possibly cancer with long term or heavy use.
* Cannabis increases the heart rate and can affect blood pressure.
* It can cause paranoia in the short term, and in those with a pre-existing psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia, it can contribute to relapse.
* Strong herbal cannabis (also known as skunk) can cause more powerful dangerous affects.
Panel Cannabis and the law • Cannabis is a Class B drug - it's illegal to have for yourself, give away or sell.
• Possession is illegal whatever you're using it for, including pain relief. The penalty is up to five years in jail.
• Supplying someone else can get you fourteen years and an unlimited fine.
• Supplying friends, even if you give it away, is also considered 'supplying' under the law.

Opinion by Inspector Steve Marsh
I am aware that some members of the community want to see certain drugs decriminalised, in particular Cannabis.
One of the arguments used is the medical benefit cannabis can give to those suffering from certain illnesses.
I see this as being an entirely separate argument from the general legalisation of what is currently a Class B drug.
This means it is illegal to possess and supply etc.
My teams have recently carried out several drugs warrants at premises within the town as a result of increased community concern, in particular in connection to the supply of Cannabis to young people.
We continue to work closely with local schools to ensure that all parents and pupils are well informed regarding the risks associated with cannabis.
I am keen to ensure that those most vulnerable are fully aware of the potential risks associated with smoking cannabis not only from a criminal justice point of view but as importantly their own personal health and well being.
I respect the right for anyone to discuss the current law and peacefully explain an opposing point of view.
That is a fundamental right in this country. However organisers of the event in question should understand that if any offences are suspected under the misuse of drugs act, my officers will take positive action.
I am concerned that the area chosen is used regularly by young people and families and ask that any meeting takes this into account and thinks very carefully about the messages they communicate to those that attend.

Pointless, expensive and failed drug prohibition policy must go!

Well I know it's not up to the police to change the law but for them to think that by evicting people from their homes is going to reduce crime and specifically drug dealing, is an illusion.

ALL efforts by Government and police to reduce dealing, over forty years of it  - have failed.

There is more drugs, more addiction, more crime, more illness and more death, than ever!

Kids as young as eight have been found with drugs in school.  A huge percentage of teenagers have tried drugs and booze - it's not just cannabis.  Whilst drugs get contaminated or cut, whilst they remain available in every town and city, whilst the dealers' profits rise along with addiction, the zero-tolerance policy has failed miserably and has cost many many billions of pounds; over one million people in the UK have a criminal record for cannabis and many of those never actually harmed anyone!

The answer is staring us in the face.

Instead of arresting dealer after dealer, simply creating opportunities for others to step in (as they do), alienating the youth and often abusing people's humans rights in the process - locking up people's who's only "crime" is that they choose to use one drug rather than another, wrongly discriminating between drugs like alcohol and plants like cannabis .. why not ...

.. take the bull by the horns, use common sense, recognise people have and always will take substances to change their moods - take the drugs out of the hands of criminals by legalising the possession, production and supply

This should be an immediate step for cannabis.  As the late Eddie Ellison, retired head of Scotland Yard's Drug Squad, once said: "cannabis ought never have been made illegal."

Legalisation of cannabis cultivation would mean that people would be able to grow plants for their own use in their own homes and stay away from dealers that may offer other drugs.

Legalisation of commercial production and supply to adults would allow quality control, point-of-sale advice, tax on profits, separation from the world of hard drugs and crime - and it would save BILLIONS of pounds of tax-payers money every year.

There are also many hundreds of thousands of people that do or could benefit medicinally from controlled doses of cannabis.  Unlike many prescription drugs, cannabis has no fatal dose, no unpleasant side-effects (for the vast majority) and no need for more pills to counteract those side effects.

It is time for our Government to tell us exactly and honestly why they stay with such an expensive failed policy of prohibition.

Using drugs will cost tenants their homes, warn police
Western Gazette, March 8 2012.

Police in Crewkerne have warned housing association tenants they will be evicted if they use drugs or take part in antisocial behaviour.

Officers are taking a hard stance on the issue and say those responsible could be made homeless if they do not heed the warnings.

Pete Paskin, beat manager for Crewkerne, said: “We are working with the housing associations to tackle drug dealing and drug abuse under the banner of crime reduction and antisocial behaviour.

“We’re sending out the message – don’t think you won’t be made homeless if you take part in antisocial behaviour and drugs. There is a high likelihood you will be.

“You will lose your home if you don’t heed the warnings.

“This should serve as a reminder to everyone, expect a bang on the door from the police and housing associations if you are involved in this sort of activity.”

A spokesman for Yarlington Housing Group, one of the associations working with the police, said: “When we receive a complaint about any sort of antisocial behaviour we would take steps to bring about a conclusion which is acceptable to the parties involved and go to lengths to reach an amicable solution.

“This process may involve the issuing of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts. If this does not bring about a successful result and the antisocial behaviour breaches the tenancy agreement, then we have the option to take the matter to court to impose compliance with an agreement, or ultimately to repossess the property.”

This latest warning comes after a Crewkerne ketamine dealer was forced to pay back more than £16,000 of criminal gains.

Inspector Jackie Gold, head of south Somerset neighbourhood policing, said she is personally committed to ridding Crewkerne of drugs.

She said: “Crewkerne is a low-crime area and generally a safe place, but like any other town around the country, it’s got crime and we monitor crime trends very carefully. Part of my job is to keep Crewkerne as low in terms of crime as possible and keep it safe.“Drugs have a major impact on local communities like Crewkerne. It drives up crime such as burglary and car thefts because people need to fund their habits.

“Any drug dealing we deem to be serious business. We take a very dim view of it and personally I pull out all the stops to curtail any drug-dealing activities.”

PC Paskin is working with every local housing association in the area such as Yarlington and Knightstone.

He said: “We have had one person evicted from Rhydderch Way in January and are closely monitoring other areas of the town. “With antisocial behaviour and the drugs that propagate it, it affects other residents and their quality of life. People in the area notice an improvement in the standard of living right away when those responsible are evicted.”

Three jailed after Hull's biggest cannabis haul found in raid - but why?

The only way that this will ever be stopped is when the Government wake up and do the logical and just thing - legalise the production and sale of cannabis and allow people to grow their own for their own use without interference.

Just imagine licensed commercial producers and sales outlets for adults:

For a start it would save BILLIONS of pounds each year on police, court and prison costs - money straight out of the taxpayers' purses that could be put to much better use.

Adults could go to consumer-protected, quality controlled, profit-taxed, sales outlets where there would be no contact with criminal drug dealers, no chance of being offered hard drugs, no link with prostitution and stolen property, no gang violence - all safe and sound and above board - similar to the Dutch system of tolerated coffeeshops but in this case fully licensed.

And people growing their own at home for own use just like they can choose to brew their own beer or make their own wine - without interference or threat from the authorities.

It would solve so many problems for society and so many people.
it would enable police to focus more resources on fighting real crime - that is crime with victims>

It's quite obvious that there is an almost endless line of people willing to set up illegal cannabis farms for retail and massive profits - lots of people ready to replace dealers - yet there is more cannabis on the streets than ever - much of it contaminated or or just plain dirty since many illegal producers focus only on profit and little on hygiene, purity or quality.

Of course there is also the issue of "medicinal cannabis users" - often resorting to the plant to help deal with or cope with dreadful ailments and conditions such as MS, Rheumatoid arthritis, cancer therapy, epilepsy, pain, having tried to many costly pills dished out by the NHS.

It is a medical fact that cannabis eases those problems for many people and all the Government offers nothing but "Sativex", a whole-plant (cannabis) product - simply cannabis dissolve din alcohol added peppermint flavour and in a spray form - so expensive that many NHS regions won't even allow it to be prescribed - it costs many many times more than the cost of the cannabis in it.

Or they can risk prison by growing their own, if indeed they are able - or risk by buying from illegal dealers and growers like these Vietnamese.


Three jailed after Hull's biggest cannabis haul found in raid
Hull Daily Mail, January 16 2012

THREE Vietnamese men caught growing Hull's biggest-ever cannabis haul discovered at a council-owned building have been jailed.
Toan Vo, 34, Vuong Vu, 30, and Dat Truong, 22, were jailed for two-and-a-half years each after been arrested at a Hull City Council-owned industrial unit in the city centre.

​
1. Action: Sergeant Mick Stevenson at the cannabis factory in Northumberland Avenue, west Hull.

The three illegal immigrants were caught cultivating more than 2,700 cannabis plants worth more than £2 million at the factory in Northumberland Avenue.
Sentencing the men at Hull Crown Court, Judge Michael Mettyear said it was the largest haul he had ever had to deal with.
He said: "This was a very large-scale operation, much larger than the smaller operations that we are used to in this area. The premises were converted in an extremely sophisticated way to facilitate the growing of the cannabis.
"When the police raided the premises, they found 2,769 plants, which it was estimated would produce 110kg of cannabis."
The building, situated in an industrial area of the city off Fountain Road, was raided at around 12.30pm on Wednesday, December 14.
Officers took action after workers at nearby businesses reported a "strong smell" of cannabis.
They discovered the haul of cannabis, which dwarfed the 1,691-plant operation found in a four-storey house in Spring Bank earlier in 2011.
A team of several police officers took almost ten hours to clear the factory of the plants together with more than 320 lighting units, 283 transformers, 14 filters, 17 extractor fans and eight propagators.
The haul of plants is believed to be one of the biggest in England and was spread across ten rooms, adapted for the cultivation of the drug.
Each room had a sign on the door with the details of exactly what was inside.
When the officers raided the building, two of the men tried fleeing out the back door, while the other hid in the loft.
An investigation by Hull City Council is still being conducted after the warehouse was turned into one of the country's biggest cannabis factories.
The Mail understands the building had been listed for sale by NPS – a firm that controls the city council's commercial property stock – after the Hull Skills Academy vacated it last autumn.
Hull Crown Court heard how the men had been promised £1,000 a month to look after the factory, but had never received any money.
Judge Mettyear considered handing out longer custodial sentences but heard the three men would be deported back to Vietnam after serving half their sentences.