Cannabis Politics and Government Policies, a veiw from the public gallery

'A slice through the politics and policies with regard to cannabis from accross the Globe, a sideways swipe at grass stupidity and the hidden agendas with a political slant, cannabis politics with a
whiff of hypocrisy, cannabis politics of the Christian right,cannabis politics of the far left, read on......

Man jailed for selling cannabis. A judge sent a stern warning that dealing soft drugs will not be tolerated, when he jailed a cannabis user for six months. Kevin Moate (38) pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply, but said he only sold the drug to a small group of close friends to cover the costs of his own habit, Peterborough Crown Court heard.
He said his habit had grown after he fell depressed following the break-down of a relationship, and he bought the class C drug in bulk to cut costs.
Prosecuting, Ebraham Mooncey told how police raided Moate's house in Avenue Road, Huntingdon, on April 13, and discovered 535g of cannabis with a street value of between £944 and £1,500, along with scales, cutting equipment and cash, Full Judgment....

The Daily Mail and the pulse of Middle England
Timesonline.co.uk
Mary Ann Sieghart
October 20th 2005

This country has embraced tolerance — or become more decadent, depending on your point of view. Either way, Britain has changed hugely over the past ten or 20 years. You can rejoice in the change (I do) or you can lament it.

But what you can’t do is deny it.
Yet denial is what an increasingly small faction of the Conservative Party, goaded by the Daily Mail, is determined to indulge in. According to them, the socially liberal values that now extend to all parts of the country are merely the witterings of a metropolitan elite out of touch with Middle England, When I was at university, just a few years before Cameron, it seemed that only the nerds didn’t smoke joints. They tended to be the ones who thought it was cool to drink 14 pints of beer instead and weave their way down the street bawling rugby songs at 1am. We didn’t like them then; and we wouldn’t like them leading a political party now, Full Tolerance...........

Fourteen GCSE students have been suspended as part of a probe into cannabis smoking by a Northern Ireland school, it was revealed tonight. Antrim Grammar principal Janet Williamson confirmed they were sent home after parents were alerted and police called in. Even though the drugs were taken outside the school where 707 pupils are enrolled, the girls and boys involved were all still in uniform at the time. Ms Williamson said: “It seems there was an opportunity to try something so pupils got a bit carried away and took it. “In our policy anything they do in their uniform, including out of school, we reserve the right to deal with that. Some of the pupils, all in fourth form, returned to class today after a one-day suspension. But others will be kept away for longer based on assessments carried out by senior staff. Full Dealings..............

Police have seized thousands of marijuana plants near Kincardine, Ont., enough to keep $25 million worth of drugs

off the street. "I'm sure it would rank right up there with the largest in Ontario, if not Canada," said Supt. Pat Dietrich of the Waterloo Regional Police.
"There's no question that an operation of this size is driven by organized crime. This is a very large production, and it certainly goes beyond somebody growing a few plants," he said. The plants come from a property in Lovat, Bruce Township -- not far from Lake Huron, Full Crime.......

'grotesquely restrictive circumstances'
Timesargus.com
October 16th 2005
Rama Schneider

Under most circumstances it would be hard to connect dots involving lower teen drug use, improved understanding of medicines and law enforcement ... but when we're talking about the ruthless cannabis prohibition it's actually an everyday affair. I have long proudly stood with my brothers and sisters who advocate an end to the cannabis prohibition. In general I am repulsed by the attitudes that ignore the numerous proved uses of cannabis (aka hemp or marijuana) as a medicine or industrial and food crop ... all to enable one end: a compulsive governmental disorder that insists people smoking a little pot in the privacy of their own lives cannot be allowed! (As an aside guess which practice is the one seemingly unaffected by the cannabis prohibition?)
Vermont last year finally passed a law giving state sanction to the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes under a few grotesquely restrictive circumstances, Full Circumstances........

Marina Hyde this week used her column in the Guardian to criticise the current fascination with

politicians and past drug use. She accused certain newspaper editors of being "addicted" to the story and called it all "pointless questioning" and a "false debate". "So tedious are the attempts to needle David Cameron into coughing up to former use that I yearn to be heavily medicated each time the question arises…" she said. Ms Hyde pointed out that it was silly to expect all politicians to be 'squeaky clean'. "In order to speed the demise of this latest contribution to the alleged debate on narcotics, I feel duty bound to remind inquisitors that God's own messenger, George Bush, was exposed earlier this year as a former marijuana user, and was still in the job last time anyone dared look."

"In the 2005 growing season, CAMP [Campaign Against Marijuana Planting] says it so far has destroyed more [of California's marijuana] plants than ever -- 1.1 million worth $4.5 billion on the street, up from 621,000 plants last year. But agents still lost ground to growers," USA Today reports. "No longer is marijuana cultivation the cottage industry that flourished in the 1960s and '70s after waves of counterculture migrants bought cheap land in the northern California mountains and grew pot for their own use and extra income." Full Threat.......

He's gone to pot, but Dean's on right side of law
Leedstoday.net
Richard Edwards
October 14th 2005

GIG-GOERS

are in for a high old time when they roll up to catch quirky US singer Dean Friedman at Leeds City Varieties. That's because not only is Mr Friedman's tour sponsored by www.goldenseed.co.uk, the UK's largest supplier of cannabis seeds, but the first 10 people to buy his new album will get a free packet of the company's produce. Mr Friedman, best known in Britain for his 1970s hits Lucky Stars and Lydia, has included an ode to marijuana smoking on the new album Squirrels in the Attic, titled Doint, Doint, It's Just a Little Joint. He said: "As long as it doesn't start to rain and the seeds don't get wet, everything we're doing is perfectly legal. If it rains, though, and the seeds start to germinate, we may have a problem."Under UK law possession of cannabis seeds is not illegal, but growing cannabis is. The seeds are commonly sold as fishbait on some websites and market stalls, Full Tale.....

Cameron rejects tough line on cannabis
Telegraph.co.uk
Toby Helm & Brendan Carlin
October 14th 2005

David Cameron, the bookies' favourite for the Tory leadership, has backed away from the hard-line anti-drugs policy

championed by the Conservative Party at the last general election. Aides to Mr Cameron, who has refused to disclose whether he took drugs while at Oxford University, said yesterday that he was undecided about whether cannabis should be upgraded from a Class C to a more dangerous Class B drug. David Cameron's detractors will seek to exploit the issue
Mr Cameron believes that the emphasis should be placed on educating young people about the dangers of drugs and on rehabilitation of addicts. Appearing on BBC's Question Time last night, Mr Cameron again refused to be drawn on whether he took drugs, although he said politicians should be allowed to "err and stray" before they go into public life, Full Rejection.......

They do

say that appearances can be deceptive. Perhaps whoever coined the phrase had the foresight to have the Cannabis Man in mind. Here is a man who works seven days a week, works out five times a week and has been growing his precious plants for thirteen years whenever time allowed. Not once in thirteen years has he sold so much as a leaf. All he has done in that time is learn everything there is to know about the weed; experimenting on himself; examining health benefits; testing different strains and breeding his own unique plants. Now he’s had enough. Thirteen years have passed without the corruption of youth, without a penny being earned and yet the Cannabis Man still has very good reason to fear the authorities because they have decided that this weed of a plant is one of God’s mistakes. The arrogance is stunning enough, but the lies told about cannabis are, perhaps, even worse, Full Comment...........

'his time in Canada has run out'
Vancouver.24hrs.ca
Robyn Stubbs
October 13th 2005

Medicinal marijuana advocates across the U.S/Canada border were left feeling sick after the Canada Border Services

Agency took Steve Tuck from his gurney in St. Paul’s Hospital and handed him to U.S. authorities this weekend. Tuck, an American citizen who fled to Canada after facing state charges in California in 2002 for using pot, was in hospital Friday afternoon when his time in Canada ran out.
Tuck was handed over to authorities at Bellingham’s Whatcom County jail, and later transferred to the King County jail in Seattle, where he was refused medical attention, said Seattle criminal defense attorney Douglas Hiatt.
“This is just an outrage having this guy in jail. The idea we’re now ripping people out of the hospital to toss them in jail is crazy, Full Time....

The Bali

High Court has reduced Schapelle Corby's 20-year sentence for drug smuggling by five years, according to her lawyer. On October 8 last year, Corby, 28, was arrested by Indonesian police at Denpasar Airport, where customs officers found 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her unlocked boogie-board bag.
She was jailed for 20 years in May this year and had been awaiting the outcome of an appeal to the Bali High Court that could set her free, reduce her sentence or increase it to life imprisonment.
Corby's lead lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea said the appeal court had notified him of the decision to cut the sentence this afternoon, although he had not seen an official document. There is a verdict. They reduced by five years to 15 years,'' he said, Full Reduction.

'writing is on the wall for drug prohibition'
News.bbc.co.uk
Danny Kushlick
October 11th 2005

Director of Transform Drug Policy Foundation which lobbies for legalisation and regulation of drugs In 1961 over 150 member states signed the first UN Convention on drugs codifying prohibition as the overarching global regime for a specific selection of drugs - including heroin, cocaine and cannabis. Over 40 years later, all the evidence is that global drug policy - prohibition, the so-called 'War on Drugs' - is not only futile, but that it is actively counterproductive. We have reached the end of the line. The writing is on the wall for drug prohibition. Over those four decades the drugs business has grown into one of the largest commodity trades on earth. When high demand for drugs collides with laws that prohibit them, the result is a dramatic rise in drug prices, with low value commodities becoming, quite literally, worth more than their weight in gold.Full Writings.....

Eminent singer-songwriter Dean Friedman has ditched plans to give away cannabis seeds to his fans at The Stables after facing a joint ban by the venue and local police. Self-confessed pot smoker Friedman was booked to play at the Wavendon

concert theatre, founded by John Dankworth and Cleo Laine this month as part of his 25th anniversary UK tour.
But then it was revealed that not only is the American hippy singer-songwriter being sponsored by Goldenseed.co.uk a firm that sells cannabis seeds, but he promised to give away a thousand of them to the people when they buy his new CD at the concert.He insisted the transaction was perfectly legal... "as long as it doesn't rain and the seeds don't get wet!" "Everything we are doing is perfectly legal. If it rains though and the seeds start to germinate...uh, we may have a problem," he told the Tuesday Citizen last week. Friedman, whose new album includes a song called 'Doint, Doint. It's Just a Little Joint", is billed by The Stables for the show on October 21, as "one of today's pre-eminent songwriters and recording artists". But yesterday (Monday) Stables chief executive Monica Ferguson said following discussions Friedman had agreed to not to distribute free cannabis seeds at the concert.
"We would like to reinforce that, as a music education charity, The Stables does not condone the promotion of illegal substances in any way," she said. Mr Friedman had earlier told the Citizen: a spokesman for Goldenseed when asked for a comment said "its a fair cop guv societies to blame" Full Wind-up.....

The

Minister with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy today ruled out the legalisation of cannabis. Noel Ahern was speaking at the launch of a major new survey which shows that one in six people in Ireland have used cannabis at some stage in their lives. It found that the drug was more popular among young people, and that men were more likely to use it than women. Minister Ahern said cannabis would remain against the law.

Sniffer dogs are being used to hound drug-using revellers out of town centre pubs. Two Labradors and a King Charles spaniel were stationed outside eight pubs and clubs twice last week and sniffed out several drinkers’ stashes of cannabis and one person’s class A drugs. The sight of the dogs also scared several people into dumping their dope police said. The trials last Thursday and Saturday were so successful that the dogs will continue to be used right through until after Christmas at a cost to the taxpayer of £6,200. The dogs are owned by private company Grosvenor International Services and are being paid for by the crime and disorder reduction partnership between the police and Reading Borough Council. Full Stupidity.

'whose minds are steeped in cannabis'
Telegraph.co.uk
Stewart Payne
October 7th 2005

Cannabis

smoking leads to criminality, judge tells arsonist.
A judge issued a warning about what he believes to be a clear link between cannabis and crime when jailing a drug user. Judge Anthony Niblett told an arsonist who had set fire to his former girlfriend's house while under the influence of the drug: "Those whose minds are steeped in cannabis are capable of quite extraordinary criminality."Sentencing Peter West, 33, a habitual drug user, at Hove Crown Court, East Sussex, he added: "Your brain has been steeped in cannabis for most of your adult life."
He described West as a danger to the public after hearing how the blaze gutted the three-bedroom house in Partridge Green, West Sussex, and left his girlfriend, Full Influence.........

Cannabis and hydroponic equipment was seized during a drug search by Minlaton and Yorketown police on SYP last week. As a result, an SYP man was reported for hydroponic cultivation of cannabis, and possession of cannabis and implements. Police remind members of the public any information they may have in relation to illicit drugs can be given directly to their local police or to Crime Stoppers by phoning 1800 333 000. All information will be treated confidentially and police will act on all relevant information. Copper Coast police report one local driver has had his car impounded twice in a week. On Monday, September 26, the vehicle was seized after the driver was reported for misusing a vehicle (sustained wheel spin) in Doswell Terrace, Kadina, Full Grass............

Drugs

minister Paul Goggins says celebrities should be treated as anybody else. The debate on drugs must get beyond headlines about celebrities and become more mature, Drugs Minister Paul Goggins has said. After the rash of stories about supermodel Kate Moss' alleged cocaine abuse, Mr Goggins says there is no need for a "counsel of despair" about drugs. On Thursday he will start a tour of England to try to show how the government is tacking the problem. The tour comes after a bleak report on drugs from Tony Blair's top thinkers, More Despair.........

Cannabis plants worth one and a half million pounds have been seized during a week of raids. The fifteen hundred plants were found at four houses in County Durham, equipment used for growing the plants was found at another. The raids were carried out as part of an operation by Durham Police aimed at breaking up a major organised crime ring. Three men have been charged with drugs offences, three others and a woman have been arrested.

7 out of ten 14-year-olds have tried cannabis at least once. Research by drug workers has also revealed half of all teenagers claim they are regular users of the drug. Drug support groups including Crew 2000, Streetworks and the Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Project were involved in the research exposing the widespread availability of hash. One source involved in the research said: "Teenagers don't see it as being a drug partly due to the debate about its medicinal qualities and the relaxation of cannabis laws. Seventy per cent of youngsters have tried it at least once." Tom Wood, chairman, Full Figure.......

Criminals are growing 5000ha of marijuana in Australia every year, an area the size of 689 Melbourne Cricket Ground precincts, according to a US intelligence report. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report, obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun under Freedom of Information, paints a grim picture of illegal drug use in Australia. It says: AUSTRALIA has one of the world's highest rates of ecstasy and methamphetamine abuse. there are 200,000 heroin users in Australia...

Canada's marijuana dealers are converting suburban homes and abandoned warehouses into pot farms, creating a C$10 billion ($8.5 billion) market that's three times the size of the nation's biggest legal crop, wheat. Cities such as Vancouver,

Montreal and Toronto may each have as many as 20,000 pot factories according to some estimates, said Rich Baylin, former national coordinator for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Cultivation is rising because penalties are often one-eighth those in the U.S., and Canadians' acceptance of pot has risen. ``This is a scourge on our communities and a danger to our children,'' Liberal Party lawmaker Jim Karygiannis said following a raid on a so-called grow-operation in a bungalow about 100 meters (109.256 yards) from a Toronto elementary school. The ``grow-op'' business has created a rift with the U.S., where police say much of the weed is sold. Efforts by Prime Minister Paul Martin to decriminalize marijuana are a bigger threat to U.S. relations than the softwood-lumber dispute, according to a Compas Research poll of 146 Canadian chief executives in March, Full Rift.......