cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Advisers Don’t Want Rethink





Cannabis Advisers Don’t Want Rethink
Posted by CN Staff on May 14, 2005 at 20:59:18 PT
By David Leppard
Source: Sunday Times UK
United Kingdom -- Government advisers are likely to reject a tougher line on cannabis despite mounting concerns about the drug’s potential dangers and reservations by Tony Blair and the home secretary. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will meet this week to decide whether to review new evidence suggesting cannabis can cause mental illness. Before the election Charles Clarke asked the committee to reassess the government’s decision 16 months ago to downgrade crimes involving cannabis.
Both Clarke and Tony Blair are understood to regret the decision, which coincided with an influx of stronger strains of the drug to Britain. However, a leading member of the committee said last week he would be “very surprised” if it decided to urge a reversal.The Rev Martin Blakeborough, who runs the Kaleidoscope drug abuse charity in Kingston, west London, said the committee had already made its decision when it recommended in 2001 that penalties for using the drug be reclassified from category B to category C. Blakeborough said there would need to be “an awful lot” of new evidence to convince the committee. “I would be extremely surprised if anything were to happen in terms of change,” he said. Blakeborough added that senior police were in favour of the relaxed laws. Officers were issued with guidelines saying that possession in small quantities for personal use should no longer lead to an arrest. Arrests for cannabis possession halved in the first year of the relaxed regime, freeing up officers’ time to deal with other crimes. Lord Adebowale, another committee member and chief executive of Turning Point, a drugs charity, is also said to be sceptical about tougher penalties. He has said any decision to review the drug’s status should be based on “clear, hard facts and not conjecture”. However, Blair has told colleagues that he is “dead set” against the decision to downgrade the drug. Before the election he told parents there was increasing medical evidence that cannabis was “not quite as harmless as people make out”. Concerns have also risen among mental health professionals. A study by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London suggests that one in four people carries genes that increase vulnerability to psychotic illnesses if he or she smokes cannabis as a teenager. Majorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, has warned that cannabis places millions of users at risk of lasting mental illness. Some who supported downgrading cannabis are now reconsidering. Rosie Boycott, the former newspaper editor, wrote yesterday she had begun to have second thoughts after hearing of young people suffering mental illness after taking cannabis, particularly skunk, an extra-strong form of the drug. In one case, told to her at a dinner party, “what was beyond doubt for these three boys was that skunk had caused a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in their personalities”. Newshawk: HopeSource: Sunday Times (UK)Author: David LeppardPublished: May 15, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.Contact: comment thetimes.co.ukWebsite: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/Related Articles:How Blair Stayed Cool at Spliff Time http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18768.shtmlBiggest Shake-Up of Britains Laws in 30 Yearshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18261.shtmlCannabis Not Risk Free, Says Adviser http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18251.shtml
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Comment #18 posted by rchandar on June 01, 2005 at 11:31:37 PT:
afterburner
yeah--your argument makes sense, and even so the politicians never understand it. If you send cannabis smokers to jail, they will become criminals, and hence a much greater burden to society. Picture this: a fifteen-year old boy who loves sports and sometimes girls, studies and gets good marks is busted for grass. they put him in jail; he gets raped and beaten up. he comes out a hardened criminal, and though he tries to "rejoin" society, his life is really a litany of broken relationships, arrests for armed robbery, drugs, and rape. it happens. too often. and we're not doing our job as an enlightened society by sending people to jail. period. it happens so often, makes me sad.--rchandar
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Comment #17 posted by Max Flowers on May 16, 2005 at 08:06:52 PT
mayan
That link is correct, the war in Iraq and the lies that facilitated it ARE the crime of the century. I just sent this to each of the four bigwigs at the NY Times and Washington Post:Dear Editor:I demand that you stop obfuscating the story of the century, do your real job and report on the July 2002 Bush-Blair memo. The facts of that story are screaming to be told to the general public in this nation, and as your publication is one of the primary outlets for news in the US, it is beyond outrageous that you are refusing to report it. The memo story proves that the war in Iraq is based on lies and deception---as so many of us already suspected---and your continuing refusal to face your responsibility as journalists and bring these facts to the American public is an affront to our entire societal system. What are you afraid of? That if you report it, Washington Republicans will stop giving you press access to what is already a ridiculous dog-and-pony show? If that is the case, then you and your people are no longer journalists, but rather have been transformed into some kind of PR whores.Do the right thing now, before it is too late. You have already lost immense amounts of credibility, along with the rest of the bought-and-paid-for corporate media. This is a defining moment for you, the major press in general, for we the American people, and indeed the world. Please don't shrink from your duty like some kind of scared lapdog. The American people, and the world, deserve finally to be told the truth.++++++++++++++++++++,++++++, CA 
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Comment #16 posted by mayan on May 15, 2005 at 23:45:26 PT
Murderers
Tony Blair has no problem with sending boys off to kill and be killed but the plant that can heal and has never killed is demonized. All of the blood is on the hands of these warmongers. Every single drop.Bush and Blair must go. The world can't handle them anymore.Stop the Crime of the Century: 
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0513-20.htmIraq is a bloody no man's land. America has failed to win the war. But has it lost it?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=638525
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Comment #15 posted by ekim on May 15, 2005 at 12:30:10 PT
Does the war against drugs make us safer or less 
May 13, 2005 9:46 am ET
http://www.kucinich.us/
A Better Way Than WarIn moments like Wednesday, we are one in support for each other's safety and well-being. Thankfully, it was an error by the pilot of a small plane.The White House's response was telling: "We have to remember we are a Nation at war."We are. But at war against Iraq. Iraq did not attack us. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We may well be proving that the best way to avoid a war is not to wage one.Einstein said the significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. Does the war against Iraq make us safer or less safe?After spending $420 billion annually for the military and an additional $270 billion for the war in Iraq, why are we still running for the exits? Has the so-called war on terror made us less safe?We all want safety and security for ourselves, our loved ones, our Nation, and the world. But there has to be a better way than war. One of our greatest Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, knew this and he knew war. He concluded: "If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all peoples of all lands to live together and to work together in the same world at peace."
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #14 posted by Pete Guither on May 15, 2005 at 09:46:53 PT:
Lucky Cow
Thanks for the link to the Lucky Cow cartoon. Great fun -- and so stupidly true.If you want to take that a step further, I've got a similar piece of future speculation:
Increase in Burger Abuse Seen (inspired by John Walters)
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/07/28/increaseInBurgerAbuseSeen.html
Drug WarRant
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Comment #13 posted by Treeanna on May 15, 2005 at 07:20:37 PT
Hypocrites
These people are only in it for the money that they make off prohibition. Notice how they are exporting their ideas to Canada: Private prisons, mandatory minimums, asset seizure.Meanwhile...:http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/05-13-2005/c3e600299de57705.html
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Comment #12 posted by afterburner on May 15, 2005 at 06:34:09 PT
The Barbarism Continues
Write on, brothers and sisters.
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Comment #11 posted by Toker00 on May 15, 2005 at 06:32:26 PT
Lucky Cow
Did anyone else catch today's Lucky Cow cartoon?Excellent. Simplistic Brilliance.Change is inevitable, Goneposthole. The boat it is a-rockin.
Nice comment.Although the state police say press row is not a publicly accessible area, State House-based reporters say that members of the public routinely visit the area to pitch stories. Unless their stories are Truth about Cannabis.Peace. Legalize, then Revolutionize!(medicine)(energy)(nutrition)
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Comment #10 posted by PainWithNoInsurance on May 15, 2005 at 06:32:15 PT
Sensible Politics
http://www.lp.org/issues/relegalize.shtml  
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on May 15, 2005 at 06:29:23 PT
 JR Bob Dobbs
Lucky Cow.I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on May 15, 2005 at 06:25:33 PT
Shanmugam Murugesu
It grieves me, too, GCW.
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Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on May 15, 2005 at 06:05:06 PT
change will do you good
“what was beyond doubt for these three boys was that skunk had caused a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in their personalities”. - as told to Rosie BoycottMust be one of Chuck's descendants.Alcohol will cause a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in their personalities. Especially, if too much is used. After a bottle of Irish whiskey, made from rye, Irishmen have a dramatic, sudden change and very distressing change in their personalities; much to the chagrin of the English ruling class. Ask Charles Boycott how that turned out for him.I venture to say that too many french fries will cause a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in anybody's personality. Eat a hundred pounds of french fried potatoes, and find out how you feel.Fact is, they're grasping at straws. Hoping against hope that something turns up to support their baseless, mis-informed opinions.Everything in moderation. A hundred pounds of skunk will change anybody's personality... for the better.Time to de-demonize the cannabis plant. Time to lay to rest the years and years of anti-cannabis propaganda that has fused itself to the psyche of the prohibitionist. A change will do them good.Time for some critical thinking. Time for some critical analysis. Time for a critical assessment of what has really brought on a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in personalities.Don't blame cannabis. Blame those who have demonized the plant. It is the prohibitionist who precipitates the dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in personalities. After a prohibitionist goes through a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in personality, they may no longer be a prohibitionist. The patronizing attitude will vanish, too. Without a doubt, a change will do them some good. Maybe if they implore their Maker, he will help them undergo a dramatic, sudden and seemingly very distressing chang in their personalities. Looks like Andrea Barthwell has had an epiphany.One more thing that will cause a dramatic, sudden and very distressing change in personality: Jail.Time for a change.
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on May 15, 2005 at 04:40:56 PT
Shanmugam Murugesu
Shanmugam Murugesu
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Comment #5 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on May 15, 2005 at 04:18:06 PT
Off Topic - or IS it?
Did anyone else catch today's Lucky Cow cartoon?
Lucky Cow - Sunday, 5/15/05
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Comment #4 posted by jose Melendez on May 15, 2005 at 03:35:32 PT
should we JAIL ALL POLITICIANS?
I for one would like to know what percentage of the EIGHTY TO NINETY PERCENT of schizophrenics that smoke tobacco ought to be arrested to send kids a message? - - -http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1115885199320930.xml NJ Weedman faces trespassing chargesThursday, May 12, 2005TRENTON - Edward Forchion, the Pemberton Township resident and marijuana proponent better known by the self-ascribed moniker NJ Weedman, was arrested inside the State House building yesterday afternoon on his way to tell news reporters about his intention to run for governor, officials said. Forchion, 40, of Browns Mills, never got past the New Jersey State Police troopers who guard the State House complex. Troopers arrested Forchion after he refused to leave the building after being told press row was not open to the public, state police spokesman Sgt. Gerald Lewis said. He was charged with resisting, defiant trespass and improper behavior. 	 Although the state police say press row is not a publicly accessible area, State House-based reporters say that members of the public routinely visit the area to pitch stories. Forchion's fight to legalize marijuana on Rastafarian religious grounds has taken him to several arenas in the past decade, from running for a number of political offices, including Congress, to firing up marijuana joints in public. In March 2000, Forchion smoked marijuana in the State House's Assembly chambers during a session and was arrested by state troopers. Forchion was being held last night on $40,000 bail at the Trenton Police Department lockup. 
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on May 14, 2005 at 23:38:43 PT
Is that any Reason to Throw People in JAIL?
{However, Blair has told colleagues that he is “dead set” against the decision to downgrade the drug. Before the election he told parents there was increasing medical evidence that cannabis was “not quite as harmless as people make out”.}Even if "cannabis places millions of users at risk of lasting mental illness" were true, mental illness is a medical problem, NOT a law enforcement problem! I am highly skeptical of the so-called link between cannabis and mental illness: causality has NOT been proved, and where are the bodies?"young people suffering mental illness": have the government and parents never heard of an age limit?
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 14, 2005 at 21:10:47 PT
BBC: More News From The UK
Cannabis Gran to Speak at Rally Saturday, May 14, 2005Patricia Tabram baked biscuits and soups with cannabis 
A grandmother who was spared jail after making cannabis-laced casseroles for herself and friends will be one of the speakers at a pro-cannabis rally. Patricia Tabran, 66, will speak at the Cannabis Education March and Rally in Trafalgar Square, central London.Complete Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4540347.stm
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 14, 2005 at 21:06:06 PT
Link I Forgot To Put In The Article
Here it is!Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs: 
http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/reschedule.pdf
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