Almost Half of American States Have Taken Steps to Legalise Cannabis. the Federal Government Should Follow BESIDES choosing lawmakers, on November 4th voters in three American states and the District of Columbia considered measures to liberalise the cannabis trade. Alaska and Oregon, where it is legal to provide "medical marijuana" to registered patients, voted to go further and let the drug be sold and taken for recreational purposes, as Colorado and Washington state already allow. In DC, a measure to legalise the possession of small amounts for personal use was passed. [continues 555 words]
The Legal Cannabis Industry Is Run by Minnows. As Liberalisation Spreads, That May Not Last "FRESH and fruity, right?" says a bright-eyed young man behind the counter, wafting an open jar of something called "AK-47" under Schumpeter's nose. "Whereas with this one",-unscrewing another jar, fanning the scent up to his nostrils and closing his eyes in concentration-"I'm getting notes of dill." Drug dealers aren't what they used to be. In Colorado, which in January became the first place in the world fully to legalise cannabis, buying a joint feels more like visiting a trendy craft-brewery than a drug den. Dispensaries along Denver's "green mile" are packed with young, bearded men earnestly discussing the merits of strains with names like "Bio-Jesus" and "Death Star". Some varieties claim to be inspirational, while others say they promote relaxation, or "couch-lock", as the tokers call it. [continues 896 words]
As the Decriminalisation of Drugs Comes Back on the Political Agenda, We Polled Courier Readers on Their Views. Gayle Ritchie Explores the Results VISIT MOST Sheriff Courts in Scotland on any day of the week and the chances are they will be inundated with people charged with drug offences. Many, but not all, of these people are repeat offenders, flouting the law time and time again, and wasting taxpayers' money in the process. Some might argue the laws prohibiting drug use are largely disregarded; the vast majority of drug users shrug their shoulders at the law. [continues 857 words]
A Failure to Act on the Evidence of a Drug Policy Report Spurred Baker's Decision to Resign, He Tells Nigel Morris When Norman Baker closed a landmark Commons debate on drugs last week his final remark - "the genie is out of the bottle and it is not going back in" - had a secret personal significance. They were to be his final words from the Commons dispatch box. He had privately told Nick Clegg two months earlier that he wanted to step down from the Government after more than four years, including 12 months trying to get the Liberal Democrat voice heard in the Home Office. [continues 757 words]
Following the long-expected outcome of the Home Office report into drugs and punishment, can Professor David Nutt expect apologies from then Home Secretary Alan Johnson for sacking him? Simon Allen London N2 [end]
OK, Clegg, posturing over now get practical. Decriminalise cannabis. Sell licences for every postal address which wants one to grow up to six plants. Then get together with the cigarette manufacturers to produce a decent packeted joint say UKP8 per 20 and sell that as a state monopoly. Play your cards right and you'll double the annual UKP11bn tax yield already contributed by tobacco smokers, put street dealers progressively out of business and reduce a lot of petty crime. And on the health and safety pitch, cannabis users will at last know what they're buying. (Not one myself - doesn't do a damn thing for me.) Richard Humble Exeter [end]
As always, what is missing from the current debate about drugs is any discussion about why we take them in the first place. We are rightly concerned that everyone, especially our children, should be educated about the potential ill-effects of drugs and the possible health dangers. But unless we acknowledge that there are legitimate and positive reasons why a person might seek to get high, the "war against drugs" will not make much progress. Humans have been using "recreational" drugs for millennia, and for most people it is generally a positive experience. There are dangers of course - but these are mainly associated with excess use and poor quality. [continues 116 words]
IT is time Britain started to treat drug addiction as an illness rather than a criminal offence ("Cameron slaps down Clegg over calls to relax the drug laws", October 31). Putting people in jail for an illness instead of giving them the proper medical treatment they need isn't just counterproductive, it is also many times more expensive. Not only that, custodial sentences do nothing to help the addict's problems and only make matters worse. You wouldn't put an alcoholic in prison so why jail a drug addict? Jennifer May, Sunderland [end]
THE war on drugs hasn't succeeded and we need fresh ideas on how to tackle the problem. But that's not to say we should legalise drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin. That would be foolish and dangerous. David Cameron is right to say that decriminalising recreational drugs would send out the wrong message to our children. Drugs leave a trail of misery wherever they are found. If anything, there should be stiffer penalties for convicted drug dealers and users. Nick Clegg is naive to call for laws to be relaxed. James Clark, Bristol [end]
Brian Dalton (letter, 30 October) is right to believe that we are sleepwalking into Ukip having a say in the next government. We are likely to get to this position on a very low turnout because, as Conservatives and Labour have identical policies, and we don't want to vote for minor party, there is nothing we can vote for. The first question on last night's Question Time demonstrated the dilemma we face. The Home Office has produced a report suggesting the hard line on drugs is ineffective. Many believe (myself included) that while drug dealers should get stiff prison sentences those merely possessing and taking drugs should be treated as victims rather than criminals, in the same way that the police should treat abused 13-year-old girls as victims and not prostitutes. [continues 139 words]
My blood boils when I hear loony liberal politicians (I'm thinking Nick Clegg) and middle class do-gooders telling us that ALL drugs should be legalised. That heroin, crack cocaine and LSD should all be freely available - even to teenagers. Their argument is that if the State was in charge of the drugs industry instead of criminal gangs then the drugs wouldn't be toxic and fewer people would die. And there'll be more of that silly talk in the coming weeks thanks to a Home Office report trumpeted by Clegg - which claims punitive laws have no effect on curbing drug use. [continues 604 words]
A Psychology of Macho Law-Making Steers Policy - in Defiance of Public Opinion and Common Sense The government should ban all reports on drug legalisation. They get you hooked on rage. Evidence-based reform is a gateway substance to common sense. Just send a message: no thought means no. Parliament's response to this week's report on the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act shows that psychoactive substances are the last taboo to afflict Britain's elite. It has got over past obsessions with whipping, hanging, sodomy and abortion, but it is still stuck on drugs. There is no point in reading the latest research on drugs policy worldwide. It is spitting in the wind. The only research worth doing is on why drugs policy reduces politicians to gibbering wrecks. [continues 961 words]
Prime Minister Rejects New Call for Decriminalisation Lib Dems Condemn Tories' 'Backward-Looking View' David Cameron yesterday set his face against a change in UK drugs policy after the Liberal Democrat crime-prevention minister Norman Baker hailed a Home Office-commissioned report finding "no obvious" link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use. Baker, minister responsible for drugs, said the report meant the genie was out of the bottle and was not going back in. He said: "I think the days of robotic, mindless rhetoric are over, because the facts and the evidence will no longer allow that." [continues 630 words]
DAVID Cameron ruled out relaxing Britain's drug laws yesterday, despite Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Tory MPs calling for a review. The Prime Minister said the current approach was working and decriminalising "recreational" drugs use would send out the wrong message to the nation's children. Mr Clegg blasted the current policy as "totally misplaced, outdated and backward" and called on the Prime Minister to "have some courage" and accept that the war on drugs is failing. Punishments The Deputy Prime Minister spoke after a Home Office report published yesterday found no evidence that strict punishments for drug takers led to a reduction in the number taking illegal narcotics. [continues 257 words]
DAVID CAMERON is refusing Liberal Democrat calls to review the Government's drugs policy, warning that as a parent he does not want to send out the message that taking illegal substances is "OK or safe". The Prime Minister insisted that the current approach to drugs was having an impact as abuse was falling, following a major Coalition row sparked by a Home Office report backed by the Lib Dems that suggested easing laws on hard drugs would not increase the number of users. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday attacked the Tory party's "facile" and "frightened" approach to drugs after Downing Street distanced itself from the report. Mr Cameron said yesterday that changing Britain's drugs policy would be "dangerous". [continues 180 words]
You'd Expect Drug Use to Go Up - But, Surprisingly, a Major Report Has Found That Sometimes It Actually Drops. A man lies on the floor in a squalid bedsit, a rubber rope tied around one arm, a needle in his hand. The door bursts open and two armed police officers run in. They take in the scene and swiftly find a bag of powder. What should they do next? The answer depends on the country they're in. The Home Office has published a major report into drug use across various countries, apparently surprising even itself with the findings. "We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country's enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country," the report said. [continues 1182 words]
DAVID Cameron clashed with Nick Clegg today in a furious Coalition bustup over drugs policy. In a surprisingly hard-hitting attack on the Liberal Democrats, Downing Street bluntly ruled out a "reckless" move towards decriminalisation. "The Lib-Dem policy would see drug dealers getting off scot-free and send an incredibly dangerous message to young people about the risks of taking drugs," a No 10 source said. But Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg tore into his Coalition partners over a report on international drugs policy which the Lib-Dems claim the Conservatives have sought to suppress. [continues 330 words]
Home Office Fact-Finders Reveal Long-Delayed Report Legalisation Policies Do Not Result in Wider Use The Home Office comparison of international drug laws, published today, represents the first official recognition since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that there is no direct link between being "tough on drugs" and tackling the problem. The report, which has been signed off by both the Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, and the Liberal Democrat crime prevention minister, Norman Baker, is based on an in-depth study of drug laws in 11 countries ranging from the zero-tolerance of Japan to the legalisation of Uruguay. [continues 716 words]
No party ever won or lost an election because of its drug policy. Yet it is a subject that strikes fear in the hearts of most politicians and leaves them deaf to demands for a review or reform. They are locked in the old wisdom that if drug use is harmful the best way of tackling it is punishment, too timid to examine the facts or challenge conventional thinking - even though a significant number of ministers in both past and present cabinets, including the prime minister, admit that they have experimented with drugs themselves. Only the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has consistently argued that policy should be based on an examination of what works. [continues 645 words]
Home Office Study Finds No Evidence That Harsh Sentencing Curbs Illegal Use There is no evidence that tough enforcement of the drug laws on personal possession leads to lower levels of drug use, according to the government's first evidence-based study. Examining international drug laws, the groundbreaking Home Office document published today brings to an end 40 years of almost unbroken official political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or cannabis. [continues 852 words]
First Commons Debate for a Generation Offers Rare Chance for Honest Discussion Suppressed Home Office Report Casts Doubt on Current Punitive Approach A punitive approach to drug abuse including locking up addicts fails to curb levels of addiction, a Home Office study warns today, as MPs stage the first Commons debate on drugs legislation in a generation. The report suggests treating possession of drugs as a health rather than criminal matter reduces drug deaths and HIV infection rates without increasing addiction levels. [continues 1081 words]
The long-delayed report released by the Home Office highlights how its own approach to drugs is not based on evidence. In particular, the report which looks at the effectiveness of other countries' drug policies concludes that harsh penalties for drug users have no effect on levels of drug use. That punitive drug laws have a deterrent effect is a key assumption underpinning both the UK's approach and prohibitionist drug policy more broadly. The report says: "We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country's enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country." [continues 382 words]
Let Common Sense Prevail When at Last the Commons Opens Itself Up to a Debate on Drugs Few areas of public policy are as badly served by our political classes as that governing drug use. There is very little incentive for any politician even to suggest a rational approach to the problem. If the press doesn't finish off your career, then your political opponents, usually hypocritically, will use the supposedly maverick suggestion as a golden opportunity to smear and discredit you. If you happen to be a progressive sort, you will be dubbed "high on tax and soft on drugs" or the like, quite often by people who are even on the left themselves people who should know better and who, in reality, but very privately, most likely share the same outlook. [continues 511 words]
CANNABIS is seen as a harmful and dangerous drug but many believe it should be declassified. This year Brighton became home to a new campaign group which openly uses the drug in public and is fighting to make it legal. FLORA THOMPSON reports... WALK through The Lanes on a Saturday afternoon and you may see someone casually lighting up a cannabis 'joint'. Members of the Brighton Cannabis Club flout the law in public as part of their bid to make the drug legal. [continues 773 words]
FURTHER to the new cannabis study by Professor Wayne hall of King's College London (Mail), none of us calling for an end to the so-called War On Drugs is suggesting that cannabis (or any other drug) should be made available to adolescents. I'm equally concerned about the potential harm caused by drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. But the appropriate responses are evidence-based public health interventions and sensible regulation. Drug policies have neither curbed demand for illicit drugs nor reduced supply. They certainly haven't done anything to eliminate the risks Prof hall has identified. There are no greater obstacles to reducing harm than prohibition and the continued criminalisation of drug users. [continues 116 words]
THE day after a Lib Dem vote to soften the law on cannabis comes a devastating analysis of 20 years' research into the drug's dangers, especially to the young. Collated by Professor Wayne Hall, senior adviser to the World Health Organisation, the study finds that smoking cannabis is highly addictive, while doubling the risk of psychotic disorders, impairing brain function and affecting exam results. The Lib Dems claimed their relaxed approach to the drug was based on the 'latest evidence'. But that was Sunday. In the light of the most comprehensive research ever, will they now change their minds? Or are they so wedded to the notion that cannabis is oh-so-liberal and trendy that they don't care a damn what damage it does to the young? [end]
A drug derived from cannabis, which many with multiple sclerosis say helps ease their symptoms, has been ruled too expensive to be used by the NHS in England even though it is approved for Wales. In new guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of people with the disabling disease, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says the price set by the manufacturer of Sativex (nabiximols) is too high for the benefit it gives patients. But the decision opens up the sort of "postcode lottery" that Nice was set up to end, with MS patients in Wales able to use the drug on the NHS while those in England either have to buy it themselves or go without. Some will use the illegal drug instead. [continues 380 words]
A definitive 20-year study into the effects of long-term cannabis use has demolished the argument that the drug is safe. Cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs, the study found. The paper by Professor Wayne Hall, a drugs advisor to the World Health Organisation, builds a compelling case against those who deny the devastation cannabis wreaks on the brain. Professor Hall found: One in six teenagers who regularly smoke the drug become dependent on it, [continues 1173 words]
THE WAR on drugs internationally cannot be won, crime prevention minister Norman Baker warned yesterday as he called for a "more logical and compassionate" approach to tackling the domestic problem. Instead, he said he was interested in minimising the harm from drugs rather than continuing with a policy based on the "prejudices of yesterday". The Liberal Democrat told delegates at the party's conference in Glasgow: "Medicinal cannabis is a very sensible objective to take forward. "Why should people who are ill not have access to medicine which helps them when other medicine doesn't? And more to the point, they are made criminals when they access the cannabis themselves. [continues 183 words]
THE WAR on drugs is based on "the prejudices of yesterday" and cannot be won, Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker warned. The Lib Dem said he was interested in minimising the harm from drugs rather than continuing to prosecute addicts. The MP told delegates at the party's conference in Glasgow: "Medicinal cannabis is a very sensible objective to take forward. "Why should people who are ill not have access to medicine which helps them when other medicine doesn't? And more to the point they are made criminals when they access the cannabis themselves. [continues 93 words]
Those who used marijuana daily before age 17 were less likely to finish school and more likely to abuse other drugs. LONDON - Teenagers who use marijuana daily run a higher risk of becoming drug-dependent, committing suicide or trying other drugs, and they are less likely to succeed at their studies than those who avoid it, researchers said yesterday. The scientists analyzed studies on marijuana to determine its long-term health and life effects. "Our findings are particularly timely, given that several U.S. states and countries in Latin America have made moves to decriminalize or legalize cannabis, raising the possibility the drug might become more accessible to young people," said Richard Mattick, a professor at Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who co-led the study. [continues 205 words]
Daily Smokers Found to Be Less Likely to Finish High School Teenagers who smoke marijuana daily are more than 60 percent less likely to complete high school than those who never use. They're also 60 percent less likely to graduate from college and seven times as likely to attempt suicide, says a new study of adolescent cannabis use Tuesday in the Lancet Psychiatry, a British journal of health research. Researchers gathered data on the frequency of cannabis use among 3,725 students from Australia and New Zealand and looked at the students' developmental outcomes up to the age of 30. They found "clear and consistent associations between frequency of cannabis use during adolescence and most young adult outcomes investigated, even after controlling for 53 potential confounding factors including age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, use of other drugs, and mental illness." [continues 497 words]
ANTI-DRUGS campaigners last night condemned an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew where speakers will discuss the uses of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. The Intoxication Season is open to visitors of any age and displays plants including cannabis, the hallucinogen peyote, and poppies, which are used to make opium. Professor David Nutt, who was sacked as a Government adviser for his views downplaying the dangers of drugs, will give a keynote speech on the 'chemical underworld of mind-altering plants'. [continues 492 words]
Our Inflexible Laws Are Denying MS Patients Access to a Drug That Could Change Their Lives The letters columns of The Daily Telegraph do not immediately spring to mind as a rallying point for the liberalisation of this country's drugs laws. But two correspondents yesterday drew attention to what must be the most irrational and unjust restriction of all: the ban on the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Just as there is plenty of evidence that cannabis is harmful (as, indeed, are tobacco and alcohol) it also has palliative qualities. People suffering from multiple sclerosis, for instance, find that cannabis, or substances based on the drug, help relieve symptoms. Jacquie Langham, an MS sufferer from Holt in Norfolk, wrote about how she had been forced to buy Sativex, a legal cannabinoid that is administered in spray form, from the internet because two GPs would not prescribe it for her. [continues 798 words]
It's Confusing and Unfair to Deny Sativex Spray to Those Plagued by Muscle Spasms I've read with utter frustration news reports over the past week about plans to make Sativex - an oral cannabis-based spray - available on the NHS in Wales but not in other parts of Britain. Cannabis grown for medical use on a farm at a secret location south east of London Sativex is licensed for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) to alleviate muscle spasms and stiffness, and I'm one of a few thousand people in England who could significantly benefit from taking it; I have secondary progressive MS, experience excruciating muscle spasms and cannot tolerate any other muscle relaxant treatments. [continues 818 words]
Deaths linked to legal highs could surpass those related to heroin use within just two years, a new report by a think-tank will say. A think-tank says there could soon be more deaths from legal highs than from heroin use The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is to release a report this week calling for more to be done to combat the drugs, known as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), while also calling for a "treatment tax" on alcohol. Legal highs w ere linked to 97 deaths in 2012 and h ospital admissions rose by 56% between 2009-12, according to new CSJ data. The think-tank estimates that on current trends deaths related to legal highs could be higher than heroin by 2016 - at around 400 deaths a year. [continues 375 words]
THE grieving mum of a Wearside man who died of a drug overdose today called for more help to stop young people following the same tragic path. Cath Wareing's son David Pace, 26, died in April this year following a heroin overdose. He had intermittently took Valium, cocaine and crack cocaine. Although his family insist David, who was dad to Josie, three, wasn't an addict, they believe he and many other people in the situation he found himself in need support quicker to stop their lives being wasted. [continues 480 words]
Police netted six suspected drug dealers - including a 13-year-old boy - - in a series of early morning raids. A seventh person, a 31-year-old woman, was also arrested for possession of heroin as teams of officers forced their way into homes around Preston in a co-ordinated swoop codenamed Operation Arrow. The raids were carried out in St Paul's Road in Deepdale, Villers Street in Plungington, and Fishwick Parade as part of a major attempt to smash organised gangs which are blighting neighbourhoods. [continues 467 words]
THE number of drug-related deaths in Glasgow has fallen sharply, according to new figures. Deaths from legal highs rose from 47 to 113 last year There were 138 deaths in 2013 across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) area, 49 fewer than the previous year. In the Glasgow City Council area, the number of drug-related deaths fell from 121 to 103. A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: "The impact of drug misuse in some of our most deprived communities has enormous consequences for the people who take drugs, their families and the local community. [continues 254 words]
AN MP has called for a government review into the medicinal use of cannabis. Drugs Minister Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, wants the Department of Health to consider broadening the range of medical conditions for which cannabis can be used. The MP wants new laws passed that legalise the widespread use of the plant to relieve symptoms of certain medical conditions - including the side effects of chemotherapy, Crohn's disease and MS. Mr Baker, who admits to smoking cannabis in the past, said he was uncomfortable that there were "credible people" who use cannabis to relieve their condition but had to break the law to help their health. [continues 299 words]
As a pharmacist with a special interest in the medical uses of cannabis I am delighted that Norman Baker has spoken out. We are not talking here about the widespread use of cannabis in the community. One particular cannabinoid, CBD, is not psychotropic nor toxic and shows promise as a useful drug in certain conditions. The two active ingredients, THC and CBD, were discovered in Israel. That much maligned little country is a world leader in research into the medical use of cannabis. Its health service already uses cannabis for certain conditions. Monty Goldin London [end]
Norman Baker MP is calling for liberalised drug laws so that medicinal cannabis can be made available (Minister calls for looser restrictions on cannabis to treat sick, 14 August). People with multiple sclerosis who turn to street cannabis to treat their condition often do so out of desperation. For years they have been told by successive governments to wait for a pharmacological, legal alternative to cannabis as a way of treating their symptoms and pain. Now one such treatment, Sativex, exists - but the latest draft National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) clinical guideline proposes rejecting it based on a flawed assessment of its cost effectiveness. Just one in 50 people currently have access to this treatment, most of them paying privately. Unless Nice amends the guideline, the majority of people will be left to battle painful symptoms, or face financial strain as a result of funding the licensed treatment themselves. Sally Hughes Programme director for policy, MS Society [end]
SIR - No wonder that the treatment of extreme chronic pain lags so far behind other medical disciplines when cannabisbased medication is denied to patients who could benefit from it (report, August 16). Today pain management largely relies on derivatives of the willow tree and the poppy and its progeny. The former cannot alleviate excruciating chronic pain and may damage internal organs. The latter require ever-increasing doses, leading to confusion, physical instability, addiction and again, possible organ damage. Until the NHS is prepared to be more adventurous in the search for new painkillers, possible funders will remain reluctant to invest in this desperately needed branch of medicine. Erica Barrett Hastings, East Sussex [end]
SIR I have had multiple sclerosis for 20 years, and in June I experienced the joy of walking through town without looking at the ground. My right hand, which had been curled and numb, started to straighten, and the fearful muscular pain abated. For the first time I slept soundly without sleeping pills, and was able to watch television without leaning on a chair to cope with spasms. A dear friend had financed my first online purchase of Sativex, the cannabis-based drug, since two GPs in Shropshire and Norfolk had turned down my request. I could scream with frustration and desperation, not on my own behalf but on behalf of all MS patients, many of whom are both younger than me and less mobile. Jacquie Langham Holt, Norfolk [end]
Marijuana Legislation Is Being Relaxed All Over the World but Not in the UK, Where the Most Unlikely of Horticulturalists Are Taking the Law into Their Own Hands and Donating Their Crops to People in Need In the heart of Cumbria stands a two-bedroomed cottage wrapped in ivy that for half a century has been home to a lady named June. She makes a pot of tea in a cluttered kitchen brimming with fresh herbs in labelled jars, assorted saucepans and drying socks, then potters across the slate floor and into a garden. Here lies what June calls "her private retreat". An overgrown rose bush dotted with apricot-coloured blossoms creeps over a rusting bench and from one of the many ceramic plant pots comes the scent of rosemary. At the back of the garden stands a decaying shed, lost beneath a white climbing hydrangea. Nestled behind this sits a small grow tent, which June tells me contains a single cannabis plant. She pulls down the zip to reveal the hidden green leaves. "You wouldn't believe it was only one plant!" [continues 2197 words]
The scientist talks to Laurence Phelan about fighting the establishment, battling preconceptions and breaking down egos On a hot evening in June, in a crowded room above a London pub, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, a research associate in the Centre for Neuropsychopharma-cology at Imperial College, is giving a public talk about his work. He is having to make himself heard over the boozy commotion downstairs, where people are watching Chile put Spain out of the World Cup. But there is a slightly giddy atmosphere in the function room, too, because the doctor's area of research is as exciting as it is taboo: he is investigating the brain effects and potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs. [continues 2697 words]
THE Sun newspaper, which has in the past been a keen cheerleader and bootlicker for the Blair creature, the Iraq and Afghan Wars and for David Cameron, now wants a 'rethink' on drug laws. Well, you can't rethink till you've thought in the first place. Its pretext for this irresponsible tripe is an interview with Nick Clegg, in which he claims we're too tough on drug possession. The courts, he drivels, are 'imprisoning 1,000 users a year who have not committed a crime other than possession'. [continues 280 words]
Brothers aged 14 and 15 walked free from court despite being found with crack cocaine while dealing for a notorious "Wire-style" gang in London. The younger boy had 21 wraps of crack on him and his brother spat four wraps of crack from his mouth in a sale to an undercover officer. They were arrested in an operation targeting a gang engaged in "prolific drug dealing". Police say the group -- the Church Town Militants -- terrorised the Churchill Gardens Estate and surrounding areas in Pimlico for several years. [continues 135 words]
The fact it has taken the Government years to pass legislation adding foil to the list of paraphernalia drug workers can legally dispense is another example of how the UK's drug laws are out of touch. This is despite overwhelming evidence that moving people from injecting heroin to smoking it is positive in terms of public health. It is estimated that more than half of people who inject drugs in the UK have hepatitis C, a debilitating condition that can be fatal. Reducing its prevalence should be a priority but it has taken the Home Office over a year to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. [continues 86 words]
Anyone who has witnessed the horrors of heroin at first hand knows it is a lethal drug that wrecks lives and tears families apart. Although its use has declined in recent years, particularly among young adults, it has still been responsible for thousands of British deaths over the past decade. Heroin use can never be safe, but it can be made safer, which is why today's announcement that aluminium foil will be made available to addicts is a sensible measure. [continues 236 words]
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