hey read this the other day and thought it would be appreciated here too, i don't read any newspapers lately, PE is great for real news, brackets are my comments:
High [hee-hee] excitement in the tabloids last week at comments by Julian Critchley, formerly head of the Cabinet Office's Anti-Drug Co-ordination Unit, about the ineffectiveness of government policy on drugs.

The Mail [Daily Maul] quoted him as saying: "It's much easier to come out with soundbites about being tough on drugs and continuing to crack down on drug dealers when in actual fact we know that doesn't work."

But Critchely said rather more than that. For ministers, he complained, "what worked mattered considerably less than what would play well in the right-wing press. The tragedy of our drugs policy is that it is dictated by tabloid irrationality". He added: "I find that when presented with the facts, the students I teach are quite capable of considering issues such as this, and reaching rational conclusions even if they started with a blind Daily Mail-esque approach. I accords the electorate the same respect."

Oddly enough, the Mail deemed these remarks not worth reporting.

same stuff DH has been _link_ing up, i don't think it's any coincidence. everyone knows the "war on drugs" is a complete fuck-up, it's just no one is addressing the huge elephant in the room... typical.

People's reactions to drugs are so pre programmed it's like brainwashing.

Peoples automatic response are drugs are bad therefore we should prohibit he substance.

I think what is needed is for us lazt stoner to get off our arses and start campaigning for change start a movement if every single one of us 4 million stoners (maybe more) all took to the streets and not asked but demand that we are given our rights not only as citizens but as human-fucking-beings who deserve the right to put a non harmful substance into our bodies, not just because we enjoy it but because it is our right, it is our mind and altering it is one of the oldest things that we've been doing and seeing as it is our mind do we not have the right to alter it in the way we want, not the way the government tells us.

Black people got their rights to freedom, homosexuals got their rights to do what they choose yet we are still oppressed by the same government that preaches equal rights for every individual, regardless of race, sexuality, age yet we are still persecuted for the life choices we make, life choices that don't do any harm to us or society or even the people around us, we have freedom forced down our throats and if anyone can tell me that we are free then they're fucking idiots.

I was actually asked by my sister (a fucking journalist, whose bosses are responsible for the propaganda and lies about the herb) how do you make skunk, and I said "what the fuck do you journalists not research what goes into your paper" any after explaining the downfalls of prohibition and what harm it causes she actually agreed but once over that automatic reaction that drugs are bad and all sensi is some dangerous super skunk, people realise that it isn't true and it's just more media scare stories and ultimatly causes alot of harm.

Then you have some of the worst people who on finding out you smoke dope accuse you of being a drug addict or a junkie, and in their own socially acceptable way also drug addicts, drug addicts to alcohol, tobacco and other evil corporate and pharmecutical medicines.

The government has successfully brainwashed most the population into believing that drugs should be illegal and the police are doing a good job arresting the sick, the vunerable and those that just want to support their families.

Drug prohibition is sick, it does so much more harm, they need to regulate heroin and crack most of all and the stupid thing is it would cut violent crime, it would cut hospital addmissions it would cut the ammount of people who start heroin to almost zero.

The idea being addicts who are sick people not criminals, can get free heroin from the state, meaning the gear is pure and the doses can be regulated, from my knowledge alot of the relapses occur on heroin and cocaine are because dealers will push them back into it. The cost of heroin and cocaine causes them to steal and also makes them sick because they don't eat enough, they don't drink enough and generally don't take care of themselves because all the money is spent on the next fix.

The other point is that no one would get addicted to heroin in the first place if it was legal because a dealer would have no incentive to get the kids hooked because as soon as some one is addicted they can go to the heroin clinic and get it free. Unlike now where they are offered crack, speed and heroin along side cannabis and XTC.

In most public health matters it is treated by the NHS but for some reason for drug abuse it is dealt with by the criminal justice system which seems absurd.

Anyway my fingers are hurting and I need to score some more grass, I think this is one of my longest posts.

:: STANDING OVATION FOR THEE LONGEST POST EVER ::

i agree with everything you've written there, ILB.
i didn't know about your sister being a journalist though, it's not surprising they don't know anything about what they're reporting, news isn't news, it's all sensationalism and diverting attention from the real news. they wouldn't know that though, they're just doing their job.

the only thing i'd like to change with your reply is that they should include alcohol abuse with "addicts" and stop glorifying being drunk to stupid levels. i like a drink, don't get me wrong, but there is something wrong when the majority of friday & saturday A&E shifts are treating paralytic and unconscious people 25 y.o. and under.
http://news.bbc.c...88000/7588865.stm

and it's not just in big cities, it's all over the country. i think dispatch had an episode devoted this topic, too. for me, it's christmas time, i have to make a special effort not to trip on the displays for drink at the end of nearly every f'ing isle at any given supermarket. but the gov't isn't going to do anything about the drink problem and the drain it costs the NHS, because it's a great cash crop for them with all that tax. that's why i reckon they hate weed so much, they're not making any money on it with tax.

which leads me to why i'm not sure where i sit on the issue. yes, i want to be able to smoke what i want when i want it, but if it's legalised, they'll probably a/ tame it down to a low percentage of THC and b/ tax it to death c/ make it illegal to grow it still in efforts to ensure they make money on it. i think there's a lot of people who aren't sure what to think about this as a result and that's why all 4 mil of us haven't done anything as of yet, not out of laziness, but because we aren't sure of what the conditions of legalising cannabis will be. no one has ever proposed anything for us to debate or discuss, so that makes it a bit awkward.

I think they'd have a huge problem limiting potency because it's so variable being a plant.

you reckon so? i guess, but then i'm sure they'll want a slice out of it too for taxes, sadly :/