cannabisnews.com: Dealers 'Exploiting' Cannabis Change





Dealers 'Exploiting' Cannabis Change
Posted by FoM on January 22, 2002 at 07:45:46 PT
Cannabis is set to be made a class C drug
Source: BBC News
Government plans to relax the laws on cannabis are being exploited by dealers trying to sell harder drugs, warns the Police Federation. The federation is giving evidence on Tuesday to the Commons home affairs select committee, which is conducting an inquiry into drugs policy in the UK. Home Secretary David Blunkett last year announced he was proposing cannabis be reclassified as a class C, rather than class B, drug. 
That would put cannabis on the same legal footing as anabolic steroids but is a step short of legalising the drug. Fred Broughton, chairman of the Police Federation, said the vast majority of specialist drug officers nationwide were opposed both to decriminalising and reclassifying cannabis.  'Wrong Message' Moves towards reclassification had caused confusion in many places, argued Mr Broughton. "Young people were telling everybody that cannabis is now OK, that it is OK to possess in the streets, in schools," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It seems the wrong message went out to those young people. "The street dealers seem to be exploiting the situation in many places by basically carrying small pieces of cannabis and using that as a cover for dealing in more dangerous drugs."  'Mood of Confusion'  Under a pilot project in Brixton, south London, people caught in possession of small amounts of cannabis are being cautioned rather than arrested. Mr Broughton said before the reclassification plans police and courts nationwide had begun to see cannabis possession as less serious than other drug offences in a move towards "policing by consent". But the mood now, with more radical proposals being considered by the Commons committee, had led to confusion, he said. MPs on the committee will also hear evidence from the National Drug Prevention Alliance, which opposes relaxing drug laws, and Baroness Susan Greenfield, professor at the Oxford University's Department of Pharmacology. Note: Young people were telling everybody that cannabis is now OK, which is OK to possess in the streets, in schools. - Fred Broughton, Police Federation Source: BBC News (UK Web)Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2002Copyright: 2002 BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Contact: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/Related Articles:Reform Drug Laws for Our Children's Sakehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11786.shtmlDutch Model for UK Drug Laws http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11624.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on January 22, 2002 at 13:20:12 PT:
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The prohibitionists routinely state that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana for any reason will send the message that cannabis is okay. They shout this at every opportunity, in every imaginable forum. Is it really a surprise, then, when young people buy into their message (not ours) that cannabis is OK just because it is legal (or somewhat decriminalized)? Who is really sending the message that use of cannabis is OK if legalized? It seems to me that these prohibitionists are desperate to make people think that legal drugs are necessarily good drugs (cannabis or not), and that the purpose of making the "people will think cannabis is OK if we legalize it" argument is to insure that people do think it is OK if legal. In other words, they use this argument to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.If they really cared about the health of human beings, they would refrain from making such illogical statements (after all, most prescription drugs can kill you, and in America about 100,000 times a year they do, yet they are more legal than cannabis, which has never killed anyone) and start educating people about the relative harms/side effects associated with all types of drugs. Of course, those of us who have been studying this issue for some time now understand that prohibitionists really have no desire to keep people off of drugs of any sort, and they certainly have no respect for the truth. What they want is nothing less than total control over your personal decisions. They don't want the truth, they want a witch hunt.Prohibition is murder.Dan B
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Comment #2 posted by aocp on January 22, 2002 at 09:46:38 PT
WTF?!?
"Young people were telling everybody that cannabis is now OK, that it is OK to possess in the streets, in schools," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It seems the wrong message went out to those young people.So what? Are the young people in charge or something? Apparently not, when we consider what happened to poor Harry. This is ridiculous. Beyond that, if your message wasn't confusing as to the state of cannabis enforcement all over Hell's half acre of Britain, perhaps we wouldn't have these confused youngsters, yes? Morons.
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Comment #1 posted by TroutMask on January 22, 2002 at 09:16:01 PT
This is why 'decriminalization' won't work.
This is why decrim won't work. We have to have legalization. We have to have legal sources for cannabis or the black market will still thrive. Once we can visit the local cannabis shop to buy cheap cannabis there will be no need for dealers selling it on the streets. Duh!-TM
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