cannabisnews.com: U.K. Defends Move to Cut Penalties for Marijuana U.K. Defends Move to Cut Penalties for Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on January 22, 2004 at 10:47:44 PT By Bloomberg Source: Bloomberg.com The U.K. government today defended its move to reduce the criminal penalties for possessing marijuana, amid criticism from doctors and opposition parties that the change will encourage drug use. Marijuana, like drugs such as amphetamines, is defined as a Class B drug under the U.K.'s 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, which says anyone in possession of the substance is liable to prosecution and imprisonment. From next week, marijuana will be in Class C, the same level as bodybuilding steroids, and possession won't bring automatic arrest. Home Secretary David Blunkett told British Broadcasting Corp. radio the move would leave police with more resources for ``chasing the dealers and chasing the people who kill young people with crack and heroin.'' The government today began a 1 million-pound ($1.8 million) television and newspaper advertising campaign to tell young people that marijuana in all its forms is still illegal. The campaign is meant to deflect criticism that the new policy has left many people confused and believing that the drug has been made legal. The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said in a statement that it ``is extremely concerned that the public might think that reclassification equals `safe.' It does not.'' `Mixed Message' ``The government is spending a million pounds of taxpayers' money to clear up the confusion they have created,'' Michael Howard, leader of the opposition Conservatives, told BBC radio. ``It's a great shame they're giving this confused signal.'' It's not just opposition politicians who have doubts about the move. Diana Organ, a lawmaker from the ruling Labour Party, yesterday told Prime Minister Tony Blair in parliament that the policy would send ``a mixed message to young people.'' British political debates on drug-use have often sparked questions about politicians' own experiences of narcotics. Caroline Flint, the U.K. government minister put in charge of drug policy last June, said the following month that she used marijuana in her youth. Howard refused to say if he'd ever used the drug. ``That's not a question I'm going to answer,'' he told the BBC. Commercial Use? British policy on marijuana is edging toward that of the Netherlands, where marijuana use is permitted in licensed bars and cafes. Police in the Brixton area of south London in 2001 became the first in the U.K. to announce they would no longer arrest people found using it, instead confiscating the drug and issuing users warnings. Separately, the U.K. government is considering licensing the clinical use of marijuana for multiple sclerosis and cancer patients. At least one company, GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, is expecting to profit from that, and is developing marijuana-based medicines in anticipation of their use being made legal. The company expects U.K. regulators to decide on approval of its first product, Sativex, a pain-killing spray, in the second quarter of this year, it said yesterday. The company has asked the U.K. to approve the drug for use against pain in multiple sclerosis patients, and also to treat neuropathic pain, caused by a diseased or damaged nervous system. The company yesterday announced its fiscal 2003 loss narrowed after it received a 5 million-pound payment from partner Bayer AG. Source: Bloomberg.comPublished: January 22, 2004Copyright: 2004 Bloomberg L.P. Website: http://www.bloomberg.com/Contact: http://quote.bloomberg.com/cgi-bin/feedback.cgiRelated Articles & Web Site:GW Pharmaceuticalshttp://www.gwpharm.com/Little Light Confusion Over Cannabis Drug Date http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18194.shtmlWe Will Reverse Absurd Reform of Cannabis Lawhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18193.shtmlEnd The Confusion Over Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18159.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #20 posted by Virgil on January 23, 2004 at 16:37:15 PT Critto Ending the War on Drugs is competing with nonsense and 18 minutes of commercial per hour on television. It is hard to explain how important television is in the American lifestyle. What is kind of funny is that it is the commercials and the family fragmentation to one of 4 televisions in the house that will do them in. It is a common expression for people that have several hundred channels to say that nothing is on. That and the fact that the television will be a monitor.Art will attack the drug war. People will download it and watch it between commercials. People will do like me and have the monitor on one side and the television in front of them. When the content gets bundled into places like pot-tv and NORML and people get their wireless notebooks out and watch television at the same time, Groundhog Day will morph. CP is in trouble alright, because many have signed on to end it until the end. The conversion only goes one way like breaking an egg. We are breaking eggs all the time and there is no way to put it (Do you know who Humpty Dumpty is?)back together again.Computers are a lot cheaper than they were even three years ago and Linux will allow people to do things for free that now cost a lot of money. Technology is evolving and getting more user friendly and people are not veterans on the Internet. The treasonous prohibitionists are really going to get whooped up on come reruns this summer.My belief is that as a country we have reached the tipping point on those that now call for regulation of prohibition. There is no pro and con debate on television. If television ever had a CP v Logical Conclusion, it would be all over. I think it could well be over in January of 2009 anyway. I wish someone would tell us about Berlin. I know American tourism is down sharply with the badmouthing the American Nazis gave them for not invading Iraq like good Germans should and the weak dollar. They cannot stand to see money go out to Spain, Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium. Tell us what you can about Poland and any hint of what is happening in Berlin. It is hard to find out anything for real as media here always looks inward. It is part of our programming from their programming to be self-centered. [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Critto on January 23, 2004 at 14:29:54 PT STOP CHEATING US !!! Hey, why I always applaud when the tyrannical penalties for something that should be legal and private affair are diminished, I'm still angry that prohibition seems to go on.The politicos are simply CHEATING US!! First, they say they will legalise cannabis; then, they downplay to some decrim only, but it appears as a good way out, because the penalties look rather funny (some petty fine and no criminal record); then, they turn out as not-so-funny, carrying the possible prison time (for the victimless "crime"), and the number of 'drug offences that one can go away with' turns out to be limited to 'three strikes' or something equally stupid; I fear the same thing happens in Canada when the 'decrim' bill will come in force (and it could look so nice ... legalisation of possession and use cannabis for anybody who is 16yr+ old; or at least, the petty fines one could treat as a 'price of a joint that may be raised to $100 if the worst scenario happens'); and while at first it looked that the cannabis users in Canada will be encouraged to play cats and mice with the police (refer to the ex-prime minister Jean Chretien, who joked about holding a joint in one hand and $100 for a fine in another), now it looks that this whole 'decrim' thing is a big scam and hoax, which, if passed, will contain the whole 'decrim' thing as a smokescreen for the government 'becoming serious on the growers', and non-punishment will mean "giving another chance to the first-time 'offender'", while treating his 'deed' seriously. Shouldn't we FLOOD the e-mail accounts (one e-mail per person, please) of the officials, with messages starting from "STOP CHEATING US, and legalize this cannabis thing at last" ??? Or, maybe some (legal) massive demonstration? Or a petition? Or a referendum? Anyway, I think we should press on the renouncement of the international drug conventions. What do you think?? Cheerz, Critto Libertaryzm=libertarianism [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 21:47:18 PT Sam Isn't the Internet something! It made me laugh too. A friend dropped by and he doesn't have a computer and I played it for him and it sure made him laugh too! [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 19:44:42 PT Six Articles from Guardian Unlimited for Jan. 23rd Cannabis: a burning issue: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129545,00.htmlJust say no to echinacea: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129402,00.htmlPolice force lottery over drug law: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129549,00.htmlDiscrepancies in treatment of offenders: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129536,00.htmlBlunkett attempt to embarrass Howard over smoking backfires: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129519,00.htmlOne simple message: law is being relaxed but drug is still harmful and remains illegal: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1129584,00.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 19:34:14 PT P.S. The thread at Hempcity was about a meeting on the 21st on the steps of Parliament to organize for next weeks protest. They are 4 hours ahead of us and last night when they did not tell of the meeting I asked them what was up on the meeting and begged an answer with "What is the punchline"Skynews is a monopoly granted to Rupert Murdoch in the whole of the UK I believe for satellite television. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 19:27:27 PT update on protest for 28&29 This is the comment on the meeting yesterday trying to organize protest for next week. From http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339&highlightPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject: 10 downing street protest yes!!! ---------------------------- we lacked numbers but their were a representaion from coffdeeshops , lca , ukcia an d others and all the national and sky tv , all big news for next week and wee are doing it all again next week bigger and better i hope needs people though any daring a challenge then get to big ben in london 28th /29th thats next week , p.s i got searched and officailly had puff confiscateded on national tv whilst being interviewed , media is on the cannabis bandwagon and we need tokers out their to back up the core work being done to get it sorted here in the u.k , any takers , just turn up , will follow up this after some rest just got back, lateres punch line = war on terror isnt war on weed cos we is winnin the war on weed , unless you all wanna stop and have its seeds destroyed! laters activators [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by The GCW on January 22, 2004 at 18:28:48 PT Jose Melendez in the Boulder Weekly US CO: LTE: Criminalize prohibition Referred: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n052/a02.html?1680Author: Jose MelendezViewed at: http://www.boulderweekly.com/letters.html Criminalize prohibitionThe column "Unreasonable Risks" (Liberty Beat, Jan. 8) clearly exposes substance prohibition as fraud. Indeed, the war on (some) drugs is instead waged on citizens, corrupting its enforcers who turn a blind eye to far more harmful, legally taxed consumables.I offer this quote to the professional and habitual neo-conservatives and drug-war chicken hawks of my country: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."The attacks in 9/11 cost the terrorrists, by most expert estimates, a few hundred thousand dollars. If the $43 million Washington approved as "aid" to the Afghans to prohibit poppies in May 2001 was not comforting to the Taliban in charge of enforcing those rules, what exactly would have been? Some chicken soup?Cannabis seed is illegal, yet we feed animals to animals instead. Sounds like an antitrust law and human-rights violation to me. Criminalize prohibition. It’s not just the hypocrisy. It’s the fraud and corruption, stupid.Jose Melendez420Also: Puff free or die Viewed at: http://www.boulderweekly.com/incaseyoumissedit.htmlWe all want George Bush out of office, right? But we want to put in the best Democrat to replace him, and to do that we need to know all there is to know about the character of the candidates. Well, that would be nice, but Comcast——a cable company who makes a profit by controlling a channel of information——doesn’t want to have to deliver the news. As the New Hampshire primary inches near, the state’s Adelphia cable system is running an ad that rival Comcast has outright refused to run, an ad that exposes which Democratic candidates would support arresting cancer and AIDS patients who are using state-sanctioned medical marijuana. Luckily, you’ve got Boulder Weekly to provide you with the real scoop. Three Democrats have refused to end Bush’s policy of busting these very sick people: U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Sen. John Edwards and former Gov. Howard Dean. Yes, Dean. Make the phone calls, let them know what you think, and don’t give this election away like we all did last time. Democracy is a verb.Coming to MAP, soon. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by mayan on January 22, 2004 at 18:17:58 PT "Mixed Message" It's not just opposition politicians who have doubts about the move. Diana Organ, a lawmaker from the ruling Labour Party, yesterday told Prime Minister Tony Blair in parliament that the policy would send ``a mixed message to young people.''Isn't alcohol legal in Britain? Alcohol kills. Why isn't Organ busy crusading against the "mixed message" regarding alcohol? And what kind of a message does it send when a person who harms nobody else's person or property is locked up for using a plant? It all comes down to education and awareness. Diana Organ underestimates the young people.Take a step in the right direction, Britain!The way out is the way in...9/11 widow in N.H. talks about her lawsuit against the government: http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2004/01/22/911_widow_in_nh_talks_about_her_lawsuit_against_the_government/ What’s Bush Hiding From 9/11 Commission? http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.aspTV Execs Meet To Discuss Coverage Of Next Attack On US: http://rense.com/general48/next.htm9/11 For The Truth - Mariani vs. Bush: http://www.911forthetruth.com/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on January 22, 2004 at 17:45:46 PT Dean! Fom, thanks for posting that link - hilarious! I like the funk one the best - the scream almost works in James Brown mode!Actually, seeing the speech I didn't think it was that big of a deal, so he got fired up, so what, I can't imagine what 2 years of campaigning would do to my mental state. (of course, I still don't like the guy) [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by global_warming on January 22, 2004 at 16:00:18 PT withch doctors It seems that the village witch doctor,Has become an important person,With credentials that boast,Sitting with his laurels,The doctor controls,The the flow of life...I love funerals,..Especially when the great doctors fall,It used to be said,Pride cometh before the fall,But super intellectuillism,Come even more first.Let me expire before the experts,For I am of little worth,Eternity and immortallism,Is only for the Gods,Not for the ants.gw [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by The GCW on January 22, 2004 at 15:43:48 PT Stop the cagings in the UK & the US. & all eart Im glad: U.K. Defends Move to Cut Penalties for Marijuana DENNIS GREETED BY HUGE CROWDS IN MAINEExcerpts from a report by Lu Bauer, Maine Co-Coordinator: Yesterday's tour in Maine was fabulous. We were all on an incredible high with the huge turnouts Dennis brought out every step of the way! At the University of Maine in Orono, Dennis brought 350 students to their feet repeatedly...The Unitarian Church in Belfast was bursting its seams, and people just kept on coming. Standing room only pushed back into overflow rooms in the church. The excitement was contagious. Local organizers had been speaking with the crowd of an estimated 250 curious and supporters about how they can have a voice in deciding the nominee...A traveling rap team showed up unexpectedly from California to entertain and literally sing the praises of the candidate.. engaging the audience in rap songs like "We Want Dennis Kucinich", as they awaited the arrival of the delegation. The Mayor of Belfast welcomed Congressman Kucinich to the city... and the church organ played John Lennon's "Imagine" as Kucinich and the riders from the bus came jubilantly down the aisle. This scene was repeated thrice more that day! In Rockland...In Bath...again, the crowd was huge, topping 450 with standing room only...In South Portland...People are newly excited about caucusing for Dennis on February 8. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 15:22:07 PT States challenge feds over drug importation From http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-12-31-canada-drugs_x.htmStates continue push for Canadian drugs By William M. Welch, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — States leading the drive for legal purchases of lower-cost medicines from Canada are not backing down despite threats by federal regulators. One state health official accuses the Bush administration of raising "bogus" safety concerns to protect drugmakers' profits.More than a dozen states are moving ahead with various programs. Some would direct their residents to approved drug sources in Canada. Some states intend to buy the drugs for state workers and retirees or help pharmacies purchase them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 14:45:36 PT Howard Dean's Primal Scream http://politicalhumor.about.com/b/a/059035.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by ekim on January 22, 2004 at 14:38:07 PT DK has the most AOL.COM has just started a national poll that shows how each candidate is doing in each state. Clink on this web site, and forward this email to all you know on AOL. http://electionguide04.com/virtual_primaries.adp [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 14:23:16 PT Presidential debate at 8PM Democrats will have a presidential debate tonight on BNC at 8PM.AlterNet has an article concerning Oxycontin titled "U.S. GAO reports on OxyContin abuse"- http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22503607.htmThere is a website that will let you use the format of one website and combine it with the content of another website. You can try using the CNN format with the content of Cnews for example- http://www.topfx.com/cgi-bin/mixmaster.cgiThe only number that surfaced on the popularity of Kucinich at DU said that if it were a general election he would have gotten about 8%. His deal with Edwards helped Edwards and is not going to get mentioned now that the NH primary is Tuesday.Edwards is a poor 4th and Lieberman is going to be folding either after NH or next Tuesday after SC. Kucinich registered only 2% before yesterday's polls put him at 1%. The Granite Staters that want MLG in NH were passing out material where Edwards was speaking and got run off. Kucinich has just begun as Clinton finished 4th in Iowa and got 25% in NH in 1992. Kucinich is highly respected by the people at DU and his supporters probably brag and glow more than anyother because of what he says and his credibility. It is all quite interesting because now politics is becoming a spectator thing like football. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Dankhank on January 22, 2004 at 14:05:47 PT DK on Fox Now, in commercial DK coming on [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 14:03:22 PT OverwhelmSam I agree with you. First things first and in time more changes will happen. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by OverwhelmSam on January 22, 2004 at 13:41:59 PT: Gotta Crawl Before You Walk Britian taking baby steps to legalization. This first move will shake out all the crybabies and clear the way for society to accept legalization of marijuana. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 12:39:46 PT afterburner Here it is. It is easy to miss them when the news is busy like it was yesterday.http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread18181.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by afterburner on January 22, 2004 at 12:18:06 PT: Doctors' fears at cannabis change http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3414285.stmFor what it's worth plus video. 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