Poland lined up to legalise cannabis for medical use
by Elle 08/07/2017 Cannabis as Medicine Cannabis Legalisation EU Cannabis Medical cannabis Medical Marijuana Medicinal Cannabis PolandYesterday, marijuana.com reported that Poland is continuing to push forward with its Medical Cannabis Bill. The bill, which was recently voted upon in the Lower House of Parliament in Poland voted overwhelmingly in favour of legalising the herb, with 440 voting in favour and just 2 voting against. Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-Marzec, a member of parliament and author of the Medical Cannabis Bill has stated that whilst there is no set date, legalisation is expected to happen soon.
“Parliament adopted the amendment [today], now we are waiting for the President,” said Marzec. “I’m hoping that is next week. I’m trying to arrange a meeting with the President on Monday or Tuesday to talk about it.”
The bill does not specifically state which ailments or conditions patients can be prescribed medicinal cannabis for, only that those who have seen no positive response to traditional medications or treatments will be illegible to have it prescribed for them.
Poland are not currently set to permit the cultivation of cannabis, allowing for imports only from countries with legal access. However, parliament member Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-Marzec is said to be appealing that decision and is drafting another bill to allow for the national cultivation of cannabis.
This is yet more great news for our EU brothers and sisters, but unfortunately for recreational and medical patients in the UK we can only continue to look on in awe as yet another forward-thinking EU government legalises cannabis, while ours dig around their vintage 1970's sofas trying to find their original copy of Reefer Madness to school the masses.
Greece becomes the sixth EU country to legalise medical cannabis
by Elle 05/07/2017 Cannabis Legalisation EU Cannabis Greece Legal Cannabis Medical cannabis Medical Marijuana Medicinal Cannabis
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has stated that cannabis will be made available to medical patients for a number of medical conditions. This makes Greece the sixth European country to legalise cannabis for medical use, putting them in line with Germany, and countries like Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain which already have legal medicinal cannabis.
The Prime Minister also announced that cannabis in the country will see its classification go from Table A - the equivalent of our Schedule 1 - to Table B, which is a class reserved for drugs with proven medicinal value like opium or methadone. This change means that cannabis will be officially recognised to have medicinal value. If someone could have him call May for a chat, that'd be great!.
Greece has a long history with medicinal cannabis, dating back nearly 2,500 years according to historical texts and had been cultivating the plant for its fibres for even longer than that. Despite this rich history Greece took a harsh view on cannabis and its punishments were harsh in comparison to other EU countries. They even went so far as to once arrest a woman for importing hemp powder.
If other countries that have legalised medicinal cannabis are anything to go by the Greece economy is about to get a very big boost. It is yet uncertain as to if Greece will eventually seek full legalisation for cannabis, only time will tell but at least they've popped a shoe in the dispensary door, so to speak.
“From now on, the country is turning its page, as Greece is now included in countries where the delivery of medical cannabis to patients in need is legal.” Mr Tsipras said at a press conference, as reported by the Greek Government Gazette.
If a once strict country like Greece can legalise cannabis for medicinal use, it really does make you wonder what has to happen in the UK for the current government to wake up!
After the success of last years exceptionally rushed 420 on the beach we tried hard to come back a bit stronger this year with a bit more time to play with and a growing team of enthusiastic and skilled volunteers. Each year protests and festivals are held all over the world on the 20th of April in the name of legalising cannabis for all reasons and to celebrate the good this incredible herb can and does bring every day. We aimed to do this by bringing you some music, cannabis information, community, and the chance to win some amazing raffle prizes that were generously donated to us by these amazing companies.
The Nike Hemp line continues to grow this 420!
by Elle 05/04/2016 420 Lifestyle Cannabis Hemp Hemp Shoes Hemp Trainers NikeNike are no strangers to hemp, having set stoner and sneaker hearts ablaze in 2004 with the announcement of their 'Hemp' pack. So in order to toke it up a notch this year the US sneaker giant will be releasing this latest commemorative edition of the Nike SB Dunk Low sneaker, simply called 'Hemp' on 420 itself!
Nike's original Hemp pack was released in 2004, consisting of 3 colourways - Red, Green, Blue
This premium pair of sneakers boasts a real hemp upper construction, that features a striking leather Nike Swoosh stitched onto the surface with contrasting shades of orange and green branding on the tongue and heel. The flash white midsole brightens things up down below, while dark laces and outsole provide added depth. The SB Dunk Low sneaker is designed to keep you comfortable, supported and cool, making it the perfect summer season sneaker.
The official price tag appears yet to be released, however going by the product listing on Zupport.de it will be around £70-£80. European 420 enthusiasts will be lucky enough to be able to buy these from April 15, while a stateside release is expected on 420 itself (April 20th).
It is easy to click and sign a petition. MPs now know that well over 210,000 people have done exactly that, unfortunately without further information they are free to picture why (and then ignore it). They might imagine 210,000 skunk addled lunatics wildly clicking around on the internet, heavily entrenched in comment section warfare. They might imagine medical patients, they might imagine normal people who may or may not use cannabis raising accurate concerns about prohibition, they might imagine any number of other things but only direct communication tells them exactly why you have signed that petition, that you are a real person, you live in their constituency and therefore why they should care.
They also don’t necessarily know that the 210K who did click and sign are just the tip of the iceberg.
Writing a letter to your MP is not a pain. It is worthwhile, and it humanises your action, for each letter the MP receives they know a real human has bothered to reach out to them.
I am going to quickly talk about fear, namely fear about using your real details. I have written a letter to my MP using my own details several times, the first time I did I was worried about what I was doing, that I was going to get in trouble for writing a letter, that it would be used as grounds to raid me even though I was not admitting to anything. I have since also emailed my MP, in each case I have used my real name and (before when writing a physical letter) my address in order to receive a written response. Sometimes I have been quite explicit about my medical use, sometimes I have been speaking more generally about prohibition and why I think it is wrong. My door has not come off. I have seen a few people online talk about using false details when signing the petition or contacting their MP. If the content of your letter is honest, own it. We are not the bad guys and we are on the right side of history. It is of course optional, it is more important to write the letter in the first place.
It is much easier though to email your MP than write to them physically so here are the emails for Swansea East and West and some MPs from the surrounding area:
Geraint Davies, Swansea West, geraint.davies.mp@parliament.uk
Byron Davies, Gower, byron.davies.mp@parliament.uk
Carolyn Harris, Swansea East, carolyn.harris.mp@parliament.uk
Stephen Kinnock, Aberavon, stephen.kinnock.mp@parliament.uk
Christina Rees, Neath, christina.rees.mp@parliament.uk
Nia Griffith, Llanelli, nia.griffith.mp@parliament.uk
Jonathan Edwards, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, jonathan.edwards.mp@parliament.uk
Simon Hart, Carmarthen West and Dinefwr, simon.hart.mp@parliament.uk
http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/contacting-your-mp/ is a useful link for finding other ways to contact your MP such as Twitter. Remember you do not have to identify yourself as a cannabis user or medicinal patient unless you want to. There is plenty of room to be angry about these laws from all sorts of directions not least common sense.
So let us begin, there are a few consistent rules about letter writing but ultimately the main thing about any letter you write to your MP is that it must be personal and clearly from you, it must contain your reasons to feed into the upcoming debate matter far more than it must observe letter writing conventions. Be clear, be concise, be passionate and honest.
Be polite, the MPs are not the enemy here any more than anyone else is, sometimes they will already be happy to support you, sometimes they need to be convinced of the evidence like everyone else –and ultimately they represent you, get them on side! Also, be original, copy pasted letters are apparently ignored, use the one below as a starting model if you want or as inspiration for your own! There are suggestions for topics to expand upon half way down.
Sample letter:
Dear ____________
In the wake of the 200000+ petition on the government's own e-petition website I strongly urge you to consider supporting and attending the debate regarding the legal status of cannabis (both recreational and medicinal) to be held in parliament on October 12th.
The world is changing and from Israel to the US to Uruguay countries are dramatically altering their stances on drug policy. Closer to our own borders, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe are exercising restraint in enforcement and approaching the issue with tact, tolerance and an overarching concern for health.
My medical story ……………..
The medical benefits I have seen in others…………
My fears about inaccurate drug education for children ……………….
The benefits to the economy …………..
The wasted money spent on prohibition …………
The bad information in the media ………………
Personal freedom……………..
Please attend the debate on 12th October, this really matters to me and to many, many thousands of people across the country. If you have any questions for me prior to that, I would be happy to speak to you further.
Best wishes,
Your name here
Read it through, double check it, spell check it, send it. Then when you hear a friend talking about the petition or the issue in a wider sense, ask them if they have written to their MP, ask them why they have not.
Finally, don’t stop writing. Write to your MP after the debate as well and thank them for going (if they go), scold them if they don’t go. When a by-election comes up in your area, write to all the candidates if you can. If you are able to go and meet your candidates and speak with them then that is amazing, not everyone can, but everyone definitely can write a letter and make their message heard.
One letter does make a difference, MPs raise the concerns of individual constituents all the time. If there are many of us writing to them, the message becomes harder and harder to ignore as it stops being a government problem because of a petition and instead becomes first a local matter and then a national matter as MPs across party lines are beset by letters from their constituents.
Set yourself a date, get it done.
Happy writing.
Sign and Share To Get A Discussion in Parliament for Legalising the Sale and Production of Cannabis
by SpecialK 24/07/2015
This morning the petition above hit 70k and just two days ago when I added my signature it was only at a reasonable 10k. The petition will receive a government response at just 10,000 signatures and at 100,000 will be put forward for the chance to be discussed in parliament.
It comes at a time when a handful of local police forces have publicly stated that they will no longer be prioritising cannabis crimes and instead will be using discretion amongst complaints and those found to be growing cannabis to differentiate between small medicinal grows and cash crops run by gangs. The one thing that kicked off this small wave of compassion from some local police forces was the very public announcement from Durham's Police Chief that they would no longer be wasting time on targeting small medicinal grows and those they come across will be dealt with using discretion.
All the evidence, both scientific and anecdotal, points to the regulation and legalisation of drugs to better tackle the harms caused when misused. The government's own specialist advisory teams have repeatedly advised that reform is the best option as it would save millions (if not billions), open up brand new industries previously controlled by drug cartels, and heal the damage that has been caused to our societies and countries by prohibition.
If you're for rational drugs policy and think it's high-time the UK took the grown-up and sensible approach to drugs policy, please sign and share this petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104349
The phrase “pipe dream” is today used without any reference to its opium based origins but is by no means the only historic reminder of our county’s narcotic past in language and culture. Hemel Hempstead, or Hemel’s Hemp Farm as it should more accurately be known is the parliamentary seat of prohibition’s finest, Mark Penning MP.
Yet all across the media are subtle tells as to how even the right wing sees different types of drug use, how distinctions and allowances are sub consciously made even when supposedly condemning all drug use.
Take the terms “pusher” and “dealer”, if you hear about an arrest for cannabis there may be a mention of a dealer, but almost never a pusher. Pushers are referred to entirely within the context of hard drugs like heroin. This is not so much a commentary on the individuals arrested for dealing or the incidents themselves but a judgement on the product specifically.
If you have ever worked in retail you will be familiar with the notion of your manager instructing you to push sales, sell bundle deals, and to generally encourage, bully and berate your customers into taking a product they don’t want or do not want at that price and/or quantity.
“Dealer” is definitely a metonym for “bad guy” within the “prohibitionist press” (itself a metonym for “Daily Mail”) but the narrative linked to that of “Cannabis Dealer” is one of paranoid (the irony!) middle class parents needing to stop their children from going to buy drugs with their pocket money; not that of an aggressive outlaw salesman forcibly conducting a transaction outside a school gate.
This nuance is, I believe, an indication that on some level even the Daily Mail understands that cannabis is a good product that people want to indulge in for recreational and/or medicinal reasons. Ultimately it must be conceded that beyond each year’s Snoop Dogg album there is no overt advertising for cannabis. If a product can be rife despite a legal control order, an aggressive media campaign against it with no effective advertising or furious promotion in its favour but still results in, if anything, a growing market share, then the truth must be that this really is a good product.
The fairy tale of Skunk, at its core, is one of trading standards and changelings, of innocents being mislead. Rather than purchasing something benign, users are supposedly purchasing something dangerous, thus duped into taking a sweet poison that transforms them into unrecognisable doped up zombies. This myth is rooted in fears of the outside and foreign, as "dealer" is used interchangeably with "criminal" and "villain", "cannabis" too becomes inextricably linked by the media and government to “Vietnamese”, “gang-related”, “electricity-bypass” and “schizophrenia”. This imagery is absolutely at odds with the traditional cannabis imagery of friendly hippies passing joints around a lava lamp or that of Ricketty Bob and Milk Eye Jim quietly smoking for their arthritis and glaucoma. It is designed to distance a reader from their previous accurate understanding of cannabis as quickly as possible. Essentially: “It’s not the nice cannabis you remember. It is bad cannabis from foreign parts with absolutely no redeeming features or explanation as to why anyone would ever smoke it.”
I recall, as gay rights began to become more credible and accepted (possibly after the announcement about gay marriage), and LGBT people began to become more accepted both in the media and in day to day life; I read an article from one gay club owner, now an old man, torn between joy at the increased acceptance of his community and sadness at the fading he imagined soon to take place of gay culture. Specifically that gay clubs would be less busy, less popular, less the only refuge available to gay young people and less and less the home of gay culture and social tradition due to mainstream acceptance and compatibility. All signs point to this fading not having taken place, rather now there is more and more chance for gay culture to be celebrated just more openly than ever before.
It is hard to see how cannabis users could be further from mainstream society in terms of their representation within it despite their numerical prevalence and ubiquity. Whether it is a wizened and bearded old man in a tie dye shirt or a willowy woman with hair to her waist walking bare foot proclaiming her name to be “Starbreeze”, even the kinder depictions of cannabis users are unusual; while the more obviously negative depictions of tracksuit wearing teens smoking their lives and minds away also sit in opposition to images of “acceptable” mainstream society.
“I know! Drugs are bad, because if you do drugs, you're a hippie! And hippies suck!”– Eric Cartman.
“Stoner culture” is something we celebrate all the time, sometimes literally with 4:20pm and other little remembrances. Like clockwork an article will appear in every newspaper on the 19th of April explaining how many young people will no doubt be inhaling funny smelling smoke tomorrow and not to worry too much about this cult tradition. Each and every part of our stoner culture keeps us in opposition and marked out as different from normal society. I think being different is good but, in terms of how stoner culture is represented in even the left wing and liberal parts of the media, you would never believe that it is actually huge swathes of normal society that smoke/vape/whatever for both fun and health reasons and it is not a tiny minority of imaginary students faking crippling arthritis. Addressing this and assimilating stoner culture and lifestlye into mainstream culture will be the key stop on the road to change. For example if you see a stoner on current TV or in a mainstream film it will be as a villain or as a clown figure to laugh at. They will never ever be depicted casually as a successful or even everyday person. There won’t be a leading female character who has a smoke occasionally to relax in the evening even if Jennifer Aniston does off screen:
“Jennifer Aniston has told how she enjoys smoking marijuana and sees 'nothing wrong' in it. The Friends star, who is married to Brad Pitt, made the potentially damaging confession when she was asked during an interview about rumours of drug taking. 'I enjoy it once in a while,' she told Rolling Stone magazine. 'There is nothing wrong with that. Everything in moderation. I wouldn't call myself a pot-head.'”
Hard bitten detective characters still have to unwind by pounding shots of whiskey late at night after chasing thugs through bad neighbourhoods, even if Morgan Freeman is actually packing bongs back in his trailer. It all seems pretty unrealistic when so much of the population either smokes occasionally or more regularly either as a patient or recreationally.
Likewise, if you openly admit that you smoke, you have to negotiate the term pot-head or more likely here in the UK “stoner”. There is nothing wrong with the term "stoner" in of itself and how it is used amongst stoners as a self-identifying label and indicator of a shared interest. Outside of the sub-culture though “stoner” translates as something closer to alcoholic or chronic user. There is not presently a short hand way of saying “I am a medical patient who finds relief through cannabis” or “I prefer to relax by watching DVDs with a couple of spliffs once or twice a week.” Instead, you are a “user” or possibly a “consumer”, labelled again by terms suggesting that you are entirely defined by your relationship with cannabis or that you blankly and blindly consume cannabis without thinking. Any culture with a similar level of history, detail and community would see its proponents referred to as “enthusiasts”. We need as a movement to change the language around cannabis and become cannabis enthusiasts, sharing community space, legitimacy and agency with real ale enthusiasts, vintage car enthusiasts, craft enthusiasts and every other legitimate hobby or interest.
It is this problem over language which makes reform so difficult. The language around cannabis use forces campaigners to try to apologise for the perceived images and stereotypes of "stoners" first before making any other point such as highlighting the unfairness of present legislation. It is this which partly feeds into my next point about campaigning in the UK.
At the moment within UK cannabis activism there is an incredible amount of dissent and bitterness. There is the CLEAR vs. NORML argument, the UKCSC vs. Feed The Birds argument, the normalisation vs. decriminalisation/legalisation argument. Before that there were a great number of dead groups that have mingled, influenced, reformed and ressurected into one or more of the current UK groups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE
Some of this hostility and antagonism comes from a difference of opinion over whether direct action such as smoke outs are a good idea vs. careful lobbying and letter writing. Other fights come from claims of cliques, takeovers and other much more dubious behaviour. Whatever the truth or legitimacy of each disagreement, grudge and rivalry in the UK cannabis activism scene it is painfully obvious that the general state of infighting and the forming of separate camps rather than the sharpening of allied prongs helps no one.
It is often said that the Right looks for converts and the Left for traitors, certainly the activist scene looks for traitors. While some might see suit wearing cannabis activists as a contradiction in terms and therefore a blatant deception or that the recreational campaign taints the medicinal one, it seems to me that a stronger campaign is one that is united and perceives those engaged in the same struggle as its allies and as a force multiplier. The most effective campaigns in history have campaigned through both legal lobbying and direct action. It allows a pressurised incumbent government to make “reasonable” concessions without appearing to capitulate to the most extreme parts of movement. The idea that one small campaign is going to achieve anything without the support of many others running alongside it is ridiculous. All it actually does is excite petty egos and entrench establishment attitudes due to the lack of an effective challenge –and that’s before the embarrassment and damage that infighting causes.
If the government and/or media successfully controls the language around the debate meaning that anyone talking about cannabis has to wade through a metaphorical swamp of "skunk dependency" and marching columns of deranged teenager statistics; then the language has to be challenged and redefined from the ground up.
The very first thing we can do as casual or more hardcore activists –but definitely as cannabis enthusiasts (not users or consumers) is to take ourselves and the cause seriously. We do that by welcoming everyone who shares our goal and working out how we can support one another. When we are out and about and find ourselves challenging people criticising “stoners” lets ask them what they mean by that word, lets ask them if they were a stoner when they tried smoking weed at college or when they sneakily have a sly puff at a party now, and if the word always means the same thing. Lets get coherently offended online and in person when we are referred to as “lazy” or “druggies”, or any time any inaccurate stereotype is applied to us.
Much more importantly, lets make our discontent clear first of all and then drop support for activists and groups that are more interested in fighting other activists than they are in challenging prohibition. Lets not get involved in facebook shit storms and name calling and instead focus our comments and energy on the people who are making a difference.
If prohibition is a brand, marketed, with millions of pounds, spin doctors and advertising tricks to back it up world wide; then there needs to be a rebrand of both weed and its activists. All the prohibitionists are all shooting in the same direction and they are shooting at the MS patient, the dreaded hippy, the rasta, the suit wearing professional, the online activist, the student, and the social smoker alike.
Something a little different for this article -and not really about cannabis at all. I was absolutely gutted when the smoke cleared from the election, I stayed up late to watch it, turned in to bed at 4 and was then very disappointed by the result facing me when I woke up. I am left leaning to say the least and had very firmly voted Green for about one hundred reasons, not least their enlightened attitude towards cannabis.
I lay on the sofa and was pretty miserable for a few hours, I thought about how food bank use is going to multiply and how vindictive benefit sanctions will be more than just common but likely a constant reality for all sorts of different people, but especially the disabled and even more so for people who don't have a great support network. I have also always been very much struck by the sentiment that politics isn't just once every few years, but something you do everyday and is personal.
I have been really inspired recently by Feed the Birds, Bud Buddies of course, and the work of another cannabis social club (I want to say Leicester but I could be wrong as to who it is) who have spent time handing out care packages to the homeless in their area. I really want to do something to help people fighting against austerity and those suffering under it. It would be easy to drop some cash to a food bank (which I do from time to time) but I want to do something that adds a little extra, not just throw money at a problem that should not exist anyway.
I read recently about a community garden in the US where people can go and pick fruit and vegetables for themselves and their family, the community all working together to keep the project going. I had a look and there is no way I can afford to rent or buy land for a giant polytunnel or greenhouses anywhere round here and indeed it would probably be a full time job to grow and distribute fruit and veg for free on my own, I have asked the council before and it is a total nightmare getting allotment space near me.
Then I remembered something I had been reading about a little while ago. It appealed to the green fingered individual that I am (something I am sure many of the rest of us here are also).
https://containergardening.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/bottle-tower-gardening-how-to-start-willem-van-cotthem/
(This is not my work, just to be clear I am referencing this guy's ideas not claiming them as my own)
In short, a way to turn the numerous empty pop bottles in my house, and a garden wall into a tomato, celery, and lettuce factory. I already grow potatoes in bags so the plan is to give excess potatoes (most of them) and any kind of decent vegetable crop to my local food bank. I am currently waiting to hear back whether or not they will accept fresh home grown produce but have no reason to believe not.
Like the social club handing things out to the homeless somewhere in England, I don't intend to do this in my name but rather that of Swansea Cannabis Club or possibly under the (rather half baked) name PUFF! or Pop Up Freedom Foods! (this part of the idea may not make it to reality -I will probably just give it in the name of the club). Once I have the bottles built and going I will take some pictures as the crops develop and get them up here. If this post inspires you to do anything similar, join our forums and post pictures of your crop up there.
If we were all doing this it would not change the problems facing society, but it would impact on some of them in our own area. It is also basically impossible to mess up growing potatoes and absolutely no effort to run the bottle garden once it is set up.
So, sorry this was not about the drug war or the causes of prohibition as per usual, but I think there is a bigger battle going on in this country that prohibition is a part of, and much like the drug war we can pull together and fight austerity or we can leave it go and hope politicians will wise up on their own.
Further proof that growing your own is the way forward. ;p
Once Upon A Time, Long, Long Ago – So Why Are We Still Fighting The War On Drugs?
by treeman82 10/04/2015Story telling is an important skill if you are a government or media drug warrior, if you are unable to trade in facts (because you don’t have any helpful ones), frightening narratives have to be created in order to justify your incoherent policies. Villains must be invented and nightmare landscapes have to be designed. New generations are born who need to hear the story, old generations who have forgotten have to hear it once again.
Do you remember the good hash from the sixties? You are probably a bit young, I am definitely too young. Our parents remember it though, and their parents do too. Back in the sixties cannabis was just as illegal as it is today. Headlines warned against the dangers of cannabis and arrests were made, prison sentences were served. Many disagreed with this law and so cannabis consumption influenced culture and a not insignificant number of people’s way of life.
The exact same story is of course being played out today with the so called “dangers of skunk”. The same people who perhaps realised that cannabis was not really that dangerous and actually quite a lot of fun during their own youth are being told (and are telling others) that in fact cannabis is extremely dangerous. The favoured trope of how it was all better back in the good old days is writ large. At the same time the older generation's past transgressions of hash smoking are legitimised and codified (those harmless hippies were so lucky) –part of another simpler and safer time which has now sadly faded away.
If you watch Channel 4 Drugs Live experiments or read Daily Mail horror stories, you could be forgiven for thinking that modern cannabis aka “skunk” (which strangely enough is the same plant as the cannabis from fifty years ago) has absolutely no pleasurable side effects, that it induces paranoia immediately and places a dose of schizophrenia in the post addressed directly to your brain.
Ignoring the misleading language and fallacy of the term “skunk” for a moment, skunk is also apparently the predominant type of cannabis available on our streets. (Elsewhere on this site you can find exhaustive explanations as to why this is not true.)
If fillets of roast beef and pieces of smoked salmon overnight started tasting of ashes and made everyone vomit no one would buy them anymore. The excellent Neil Woods writes that there are at least two cannabis grows for every police officer in the UK http://ukleap.org/you-cannot-beat-the-demand/ elsewhere I have read that there is effectively one person growing cannabis on each street in the UK. Without a doubt though, there is a lot of cannabis being grown in the UK for the domestic market.
The story of complete proliferation through the UK clashes with that of “skunk” being a truly horrible experience. So one of the stories cannot be true –either cannabis is regularly consumed by many, many people or it is a dangerous substance without any joy to it which no one has any incentive to consume ever.
The unspoken truth about cannabis and other drugs is that people like the effect that comes from consuming them. Whether its medicinal or recreational a substance is sought out and taken because people understand they will enjoy the effect. Society drinks alcohol because the majority of young men and women through to great grandparents enjoy the effects of drinking either in moderation or to some degree of excess.
Normally, it might be wise to address the incorrect argument that the reason people repeatedly smoke any kind of cannabis is because its some kind of addictive gateway substance. There is not a reason to do this any more as the prohibitionist argument has changed from "Well maybe its safe-ish but you will end up on heroin" to "It is flat out the most dangerous drug in our society". It is this sort of storytelling, changing the danger to suit the times which delays the end to prohibition. People come to realise the truth about one argument such as the gateway theory and discount it. Now the skunk argument is being very, very gradually discredited, accordingly we will see it dropped in favour of a new invented harm. So it will continue and continue.
There are different harms around each substance that vary according to the substance and its manner of intake, but the core reason that narcotic substances including alcohol and tobacco are indulged in is because people like them and enjoy their effects. Different amounts of users depending on the substance are problematic for society. Alcohol users as a group are far more of a problem for society than cannabis consumers for instance –just check the violent crime statistics.
So, if as a government you have decided that you don’t want people to do something that they enjoy (whatever it is and for whatever reason) and you have already banned it and threatened the people involved with ruined lives one way or another; the next best thing to do is to start designing a mythology around it. This can include elements of racism and flat untruth, moral warnings and more, but the most powerful imagery is that of a struggle or a war.
Officially, The War On Drugs began in the middle of 1971, though many narcotics had already been banned around the world for several decades previous to this. The War on Drugs is interesting and important as it was the first deployment of military forces against one or more nouns.
A war is a potent device to use in your narrative, it generates ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, heroes and villains, traitors, duty, and of course victory and defeat. It is very compelling and dramatic. Looking through our television and computer screens though it only takes a child to tell you that it is civilians who suffer the most in a conflict, and as Bill Hicks said “A war is when two armies are fighting”.
Once a war is declared it has to be ended at some point either in victory or defeat. The costs of our war spiral ever upward with no end in sight because the enemy the war is fought against is the taxpayer funding the same war against itself; in the UK to the tune of £400 a year each:
Personally, I am very unhappy with how my £400 is spent each year! Being born after the 70s I have not lived during a time when my allotted country has not been at war with drugs. During this time I have seen more and more drugs become available and for less money.
It is quite simple when we look at the War on Drugs and prohibition to see past the huge amounts of money spent on keeping various herbs and chemicals illegal and out of any and all regulation, and also past the huge amounts of money made by different organisations (both legal and illegal) and private individuals. We have separately become adept at suspecting our politicians and public bodies of regular corruption and lying and so eye their policies with a certain cynicism. So there needs to be a further obvious justification to keep The War on Drugs going despite our suspicions, and so we see huge chunks of anti-drug propaganda in play every day targeting our sympathies and our fears –our children and our young people.
Adding to the mythology and imagery of war against a clear enemy separate to us, is the ever popular fear of the transformed other and the fear of the outsider coming into our safe society. In the middle ages as a society and culture we feared witches cursing our crops, in the 19th century we feared handsome exotic or vampiric foreigners corrupting our innocent women, now it is skunk genetically modified in a lab driving our middle class teenage children irrevocably insane.
A society always needs a scape goat and an explanation for its bad luck and failings. Drug users of all kinds are presented as being out of kilter with mainstream society, as recklessly engaging in dangerous behaviour –an enemy to themselves and their neighbours. We are incited by the media to hurt these people more and more and to want to punish them harder, to fear them, when in reality they are us, unsurprisingly "they" have far more in common with each of us than a legislating politician or an organised crime gang member does. This is because drug users of various kinds are everywhere, I include alcohol users amongst this as they have a noticeable mixture of problematic and non problematic users. Drug users are our siblings, parents, children, neighbours and friends, effectively everyone in our country has some sort of positive experience and some sort of problematic experience with drugs both legal and illegal. We are encouraged to look for division and to shun those we see suffering from problematic drug use as well as being suspicious and hostile to those enjoying positive drug use, without making a distinction between substance or behaviour.
Several years ago, during a hazier and more free period of my life I was a student. I went to quite a lot of house parties. Some of my friends were very, very into the then legal substance mephedrone, the main party house we all visited might as well have been a ski slope for all the powder kicking around. Time passed and mephedrone was banned. My friend Kelly, who was perhaps Swansea’s greatest connoisseur of mephedrone began to complain of the stuff burning her nostrils, ageing her skin and suddenly not being very good any more. Mephedrone was filthy stuff to begin with but within weeks of the ban, pieces of glass had begun to appear within it and the quality had diminished to a point where it was instantly detectable as being poor by a regular consumer.
Mephedrone is an interesting example because it seemingly appeared from nowhere was phenomenally popular, cheap, reduced the amount of other powder drugs being consumed and then was banned. The quality, price and obvious side effects all immediately changed for the worse after the ban, but the ban did not prevent its consumption.
Perhaps in some ways the worst thing about the War on Drugs is its imagery, for a politician to step away from it and to propose reform or even just a different approach they must effectively admit that the war has been lost and that it has ended in defeat. They open themselves up to accusations of cowardice or softness http://politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/03/31/labour-attacks-lib-dems-for-being-soft-on-drugs The middle ages were full of several decade long wars and it is true that our attitude to drug use in the West comes more than close to the medieval. A quick search on Google will suggest all sorts of early causes of drug prohibition –mainly racism, funding for groups about to be made irrelevant by the end of american alcohol prohibition, and suggestions of some sort of skulduggery by the paper industry. But whatever these causes once were, times have changed long, long ago even if our methods for tackling the issue of drugs has not.
Before the War on Drugs, countries had more individual freedom to determine their positions on drug use and drug users. Their decisions could be made without interference from any alliance or coalition. But while the causes for the war have changed, we are still fighting it. In truth we have forgotten why, other than culturally we remember we have always been fighting it, and for those of us who know why we are still fighting it, only an ever shrinking minority really believes in it any more. The stories of yesterday are repackaged and re-marketed but are less convincing each and every time.
If politicians are trapped within the story and unable or unwilling to represent the majority of society that believes the War on Drugs to be lost then we have to aggressively lobby and vote these politicians out with one hand and disregard their laws with another. What is in truth a war on people has to be ended by those same people that have been made a target of it. What also has been forgotten is that it is the duty of a member of parliament to represent their constituents. Instead bad laws that hurt the most vulnerable people in society for forgotten reasons are prioritised over health, safety and the public will. The challenge now is transforming this lack of support for prohibition into widespread active contempt for it.
If every single person in the UK who does not believe in prohibition wrote to their MP and the other candidates in their constituency before this coming election and indeed after it detailing their dissatisfaction with national and global drug laws and their intention to vote accordingly to related policy it may or may not make the news, but it would raise the profile of prohibition as a voter priority. Individual thoughtful letters mean so much more than internet petitions -especially when they are connected with actual verifiable votes. The possibility of effectively doing this on a local scale as well as a wider one and highlighting which of an area's prospective candidates are in favour of prohibition and its dark consequences and which ones just don't care and would rather tow their party line is also potent. Likewise asking difficult questions around prohibition to candidates on your own door step will force them to engage with the issue, it is time to challenge the make believe every step of the way.
Not everyone is able to talk about prohibition or drug use with their colleagues and family in person, but campaigns like Feed The Birds can be supported and United Patients Alliance stickers can appear mysteriously overnight in all manner of places. "Google Run From the Cure" might appear all over the place -write it in the sand on the beach! Everyone can do at least one thing and challenge the culture and mythology around the drug war by making ignorant prohibition-friendly attitudes as distasteful socially as racism or homophobia and as difficult to support intellectually as flat earth theories. We can make drug use of all kinds, normal, understandable and human, we can demonstrate that cannabis consumers and medicinal patients are not only everywhere but are a vocal group and impossible to control.
We, both locally, nationally and internationally can make these laws unenforceable and so make changes to the law inevitable, only once we do this then can we all live happily ever after.
Hash Vs Skunk
You might as well compare biscuits to chocolate and argue that only one will make you fat.
It is first of all a ridiculous comparison. The main reason the Hash vs Skunk debate exists is the complete lack of understanding of the terms hash and skunk and the related absolute misuse of each.
As mentioned in https://swanseacannabisclub.co.uk/2015/02/19/skunk-like-cannabis-causes-24-of-new-psychosis-cases-or-so-mainstream-media-will-have-you-believe/:
"Skunk is the name of a hybrid strain created from several different sets of landrace cannabis genetics bred together. These genetics have made their way into some but not all of the popular strains now available today. Skunk as a term used by politicians and the media refers to any high potency (in terms of THC) herbal cannabis. There are no qualifying characteristics beyond that. Whereas we would characterise types of alcohol by a particular strength of volume, ingredients and methods of production, if a teenager or young person is in danger of smoking cannabis and it is at least quite strong (a subjective description) it must be skunk, otherwise it is nice safe hash and definitely not something dirty like soap bar. Such brilliant logic has made it harder and harder to talk about cannabis due to the false distinctions around it."
Skunk (the strain) in reality is just a particular hybrid strain. It is not the strongest in THC potency on the market and it doesn't have any kind of virulent characteristic that makes it dominate the other genetics in a plant. The name has been taken so as to refer to any and all high THC herbal cannabis. It does not have any effects on a user that are not in absolute line with similar strains or out of the ordinary for cannabis.
Hash however:
Hash is made up of pressed trichromes from the cannabis plant and the occasional bit of plant matter. Depending on the quality of the hash there may be other bits of garbage in there also, this is why plastic and rubber loaded soap bar used to be everywhere as it was cheap adulterated hash. Good hash should contain little else besides resin from the cannabis flower.
As it is possible to make hash from any cannabis plant you can have hash with wildly varying characteristics. It is obviously therefore quite possible to make hash from one or more skunk plants.
Can you imagine what the media would make of "Skunk Hash"?
You can have strong hash, you can have mild hash, you can have good quality hash and you can have bad quality hash. It is ultimately still the cannabis plant, just processed into a different form.
Charas and soap bar are both hash. Pretending that there is something magical about the hash form is either naivety or ignorance. It is perfectly possible to have high THC hash that is completely out of balance with the CBD in it. It is again completely possible to have hash with a more balanced ratio of THC:CBD. Traditionally, a lot of the strains used to make good quality hash in the past were imported into the UK from areas where there was a greater balance between THC and CBD in the landrace strains present. This is perhaps where come of the confusion stems from.
Mainstream media definition skunk:
Overpoweringly strong herbal cannabis, specifically bred to induce psychosis with no pleasurable effects. Sold to unwitting young people exclusively.
Mainstream media definition hash:
Safe and mild cannabis from the sixties. Morally more acceptable to Channel 4 viewers.
Real definition skunk:
A popular hybrid strain often cross bred with others to form new hybrid strains. By no means present within the ancestry of all cultivated cannabis strains.
Real definition hash:
Pressed resinous gland secretions of the cannabis plant. Can be created in numerous different ways including dry sift, hand rubbing and ice extraction.
So does it matter?
Yes. Without understanding terms of reference, you cannot comment accurately on something. If you attempt to use these inaccurate definitions you will influence others to make poor decisions as both users and policy makers.
If all hash was legalised tomorrow and all "skunk" was somehow even further prohibited, it would not actually change the THC available on the market.
It is true that there is some very strong cannabis available, and it is true that there is some very mild cannabis available, this is not actually a bad thing. It is also true that it is more complicated than just strong and mild, some people will want a THC:CBD balanced strain, others will want a THC heavy laden strain, others a CBD potent strain while others will have different requirements. Sometimes a very strong, THC potent strain will be required by a user, sometimes the same user will want something milder, this choice and preference will be very much dependent on the individual and their circumstances and needs.
It is also the case that this THC:CBD comparison is not the end of the story, increasingly, more and more reference is being made to terpenes as a way of understanding and measuring cannabis. Never mind that THC and CBD are but two of dozens of compounds within the cannabis plant. As a culture, we are still uncovering lots and lots of information as how to label and distinguish between different strains and forms of cannabis beyond user description of strong and mild or sativa and indica.
If the government or the media wants to differentiate between different types of potency and composition they need to make that clear and actually come to understand what they are talking about. Until then it is actually impossible for government advice to be used by current or prospective users and it rules the media out entirely from providing accurate information or commentary on cannabis related issues.