Government reclassifies cannabis as class B

[Stewart]

Yea, but Stewart, you don't half reply with childish remarks! Why can't you reply in a civil way?

As I said, ignore me for a bit, reply to all the other people questioning and ridiculing you.

[Koolpc]

Koolpc.

What, exactly is the problem with canabis that warents it been a class B?

How come you're in possession of this knowledge, yet the drugs advisory concil aren't?

Look, it is 'my' opinion. Thats all. What i believe. I can't change the world but i do hope to try and put my point across to get young people to see the problems with drugs.

Alcohol is a big problem throughout the world too. But is is not 'illegal'. It is not the same as drugs which can fast track a person, in a very short space of time, to the morgue.

[Zadock]

Well put Stewart...

I think it was very inappropriate, not to mention rude, to call Stewart a "druggie". He's clearly an open minded, calm and very rational person... must be the drugs

But I don't think we show berate KoolPc too much, the fact that this subject does makes him angry enough to lash out suggests that perhaps his life experience has lead him to form the opinions he has and everyone has a right to an opinion... just a bit more calm next time though hey? people take you more seriously then

[TheAnimus]

Look, it is 'my' opinion. Thats all. What i believe. I can't change the world but i do hope to try and put my point across to get young people to see the problems with drugs.

Alcohol is a big problem throughout the world too. But is is not 'illegal'. It is not the same as drugs which can fast track a person, in a very short space of time, to the morgue.

Its my Opion that been borne in wales fast tracks you to un-employment.

At least i can (ab?)use statistics to show that my opion is valid. Rather than just bang on from an un-informed view point.

[Stewart]

Anyway, this is getting to the point of kicking someone when they are down. I'm all for an argument on the subject, but KoolPC doesn't have enough of a grasp of the subject to do that, short of calling everyone who doesn't agree with him a druggie.

I think we can all draw our own conclusions now.

I think it was very inappropriate, not to mention rude, to call Stewart a "druggie". He's clearly an open minded, calm and very rational person... must be the drugs

Cheers pal, I try.

[Koolpc]

Its my Opion that been borne in wales fast tracks you to un-employment.

At least i can (ab?)use statistics to show that my opion is valid. Rather than just bang on from an un-informed view point.

It is not un-informed as you put it as i have had experiences with both family and friends who have abused both drugs and alcohol. Drug users will always fight to condone the use of drug taking.

[mmh]

Koolpc... The reason no-one is taking you seriously is because you are being ultimately so narrow minded that you are not listening to what people are bringing forward, for example, facts, figures, and even bringing to your attention that a council advisary board advised that an increase in its classification is the wrong thing to do.

Your simplistic analogy of what your STEREOTYPE of all people who smoke aside, why cant you acknowledge that alcohol is even a drug?

Did you know that if Alcohol was classiied as a drug it would be Class-A?

so you are effectively using a drug thats in the same realms of cocaine, heroin and other narcotics... the only difference... the ONLY difference is that theres a piece of legislation which declares that alcohol is legal whereas everything else is illegal.

I would be much happier if alcohol was banned and cannabis was legalised.

ever heard of someone getting messed up on weed and going on a mission to fight people in the street for no reason?

how bout jumping off something stupid? (make sure you are talking about cannabis here!)

okay, how about choking on thier own vomit from cannabis intoxication?

No? wow, strange that! you know why you dont get these side effects from cannabis users?

because the nature of the drug is to relax the person using it, to chillthem out and make them laid back. Its not a drug that makes you active, its a drug that makes you more inactive if anything. But there are reports that have proven the intake of cannabis highers the interlect of the user... maybe you should take some to try and help you with a decent comeback, rather than your so far very childish "druggies kill people and rob and steal and stuffs, and everyone who has experimented is now sitting in a block of flats stairwell with a needle hanging from thier arms"

excuse me for paraphrasing, but thats what you are doing... and i can guarentee hat many people around you in your life smoke, and you wouldnt even notice, and consequently dont notice.

something about your ineptitude towards users of a less harmful drug than alcohol perplexes me.

[Zadock]

It is not un-informed as you put it as i have had experiences with both family and friends who have abused both drugs and alcohol. Drug users will always fight to condone the use of drug taking.

Perhaps... there probably are people that condon drug use but its usually people who are into it for some kind of spiritual reasons. Noone here is condoning the use of drugs just encouraging a wider view of the subject. Most drug addicts realy don't condone what they do, quite the opposite usually.

there are some beneficial properties of some drugs e.g. alcohol in moderation its actually quite good for you. red wine for antioxidants, and a little alcohol in general is good for those who suffer from a condition where you get lots of little strokes (the name of which I forget), as it thins the blood. Derivatives of cannbis encourage appetite and might be useful for those with eating disorders, its also quite good for some kinds of MS as well.


Key word here is "MODERATION"

Its when people abuse drugs that problems begin, and thats down to the person more than the drug. People use drugs as a crutch...

[mmh]

Its when people abuse drugs that problems begin, and thats down to the person rather than the drug. People use drugs as a crutch...

Slightly Edited

QFT

[G4Z]

YouTube - hicks on drugs (contains swearing)

[Koolpc]

Well, i have had my say. I am against all illegal drugs and anything i say on here is just me ranting on. Yes, alcohol is a drug as is smoking. All i care about is that young people are educated in the right way about drugs and not influenced to try them because some people say they do no harm etc etc etc.

[Zadock]

Fair enough...

Provide kids with all the facts then they can make the decision for themselves, should be the same for all drugs.

In the meantime alcohol is being advertised, and young people think its cool to get utterly munted on it every weekend... yet its legal and socially acceptable, crazy world we live in.

[Koolpc]

Fair enough...

Provide kids with all the facts then they can make the decision for themselves, should be the same for all drugs.

In the meantime alcohol is being advertised, and young people think its cool to get utterly munted on it every weekend... yet its legal and socially acceptable, crazy world we live in.

Very true.

[Knoxville]

Look, it is 'my' opinion. Thats all. What i believe. I can't change the world but i do hope to try and put my point across to get young people to see the problems with drugs.

Alcohol is a big problem throughout the world too. But is is not 'illegal'. It is not the same as drugs which can fast track a person, in a very short space of time, to the morgue.

If I went out right now, and bought £180 worth of high grade "killer" skunk and £180 of whiskey and tried to consume either stash all in one day the whiskey would put me in hospital possibly even the morgue, the skunk would send me to sleep on the sofa. Even opiates like heroin or morphine if administered safely (with clean needles and no contamination of the drug it's self) do very little harm to the body, its prohibition because of small minded people that makes drugs more dangerous than they could be.

I'm gonna go ahead and quote myself from a thread a while back on a very similar subject (mainly because I've got better things to do than type out the same post again) I understand you've formed your opinion, but theres a distinct lack of fact and way too much in the way of stereotypes and supposition there from what I've read.

The problem here with cannabis, is that it's illegal.

This means that any figure's obtained by any researching body on cannabis use and it's effects on society may as well look like a big pair of clown shoes because they are about as much use in any reasonable argument from either side of the fence.

A perfect example of this is The Independent's campaign for the legalisation of cannabis ten years ago....

The Independent made calls in the late nineties for the legalization of cannabis. Their campaign had ended with a 16,000 person strong march by advocates for cannabis legalization through Hyde Park and undoubtedly played a role in the labour government’s decision to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug.

The paper claimed that this "harmless" drug was linked to a meager 1,600 cases of mental illness in the mid nineties, It quoted several senior scientists in its pro-legalisation arguments, including the head of the Medical Research Council, Professor Colin Blakemore.

In 2004 when the government downgraded cannabis from a class B to a class C drug The Independent on Sunday said it believed the current classification and level of police enforcement to be "about right, the fact that the possession of cannabis - and other drugs - is illegal acts as an important social restraint,". The paper then goes on to say skunk smoked today contains 25 times more of the active ingredient than was typically found in cannabis during the 1980s.

It also says cannabis is more easily available, having fallen in price from about £120 an ounce in 1994 to £43 today

Now, those of you that know your smoke will know that crossbreeding in the sixties and seventies gave us most of the strains available today and that cannabis and cannabis resin with a THC content of over 20% have not exactly been uncommon throughout the time line of cannabis use in the U.K.

So how does "skunk" bought today magically have 25 times the strength of the cannabis people have been smoking for decades? Pure and simple truth is, it doesn't, crossbreeding strains did indeed raise the potency of cannabis in the early years but because of it's status as a controlled substance there are next to no official records to support the truth.

Oh and those of you that think an ounce of anything cannabis related with a THC content of over 5% can be purchased at the price of £40 an ounce would be dead wrong. An ounce of good cannabis is still between £100 and £180, it's only "soap bar" or "resin" that are available at such low prices and that's a substance thats generally made up of less than 5% cannabis by the time it reaches the end user.

The turncoat change of heart made by The Independant would be followed by pretty much every major newspaper over the next couple of years starting a propaganda machine that would eventually lead us to where we are today.

The links to cannabis and mental illness are also heavily sensationalised and are often quoted out of context, having worked for one of the bigger providers of care for people with challenging behaviors in the West Midlands I can confirm that it housed not one schizophrenic victim of "Killer Skunk" abuse, problem is the people often asked by newspapers for a quote on the dangers of cannabis are people like Marjorie Wallace, a woman who publicly criticised Big Brother series seven for putting -

"vunerable people in the house"

and

"playing fast and loose with people's lives"

Obviously a woman that never exaggerates, ever.

Of course, many newspapers are now shouting from the rooftops that the number of people being treated for cannabis abuse in this country has doubled/tripled/risen tenfold over the past ten years I think it may be time to bring in a few quotes to help explain this sudden jump.......

The 2006 UNODC World Drug Report also notes this:

“….the best data on treatment presentations comes from the largest cannabis market, the United States, in the form of the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS)…. According to TEDS 111,418 people were admitted to treatment in 1993…comprising 7 per cent of the overall treatment population. In 1999, this number was 232,105, comprising of 13 per cent of the treatment population. In other words the number of cannabis admissions more than doubled in six years…However, this increase took place at a time of renewed law enforcement focus on cannabis use: the number of cannabis arrests increased from 380,700 in 1993 to 704,800 in 1999, an increase of 85 per cent. During this same period of time, non-cannabis arrests by 11 per cent. Partly as a result, the share of of cannabis users in treatment who were there due to a criminal justice referral increased during this period. It appears that changes in criminal justice policy were responsible for the bulk of the dramatic increase between 1993 and 1999, but they do not account for all of it. With regard to treatment data, therefore, the American case is inconclusive.” (Pg 178 – 179)

But that's America, what about the u.k....

The UK in 2007 was just coming to an end of its 10 year Crime and Drugs Strategy (CDS). What was significant were the new CJIT teams – drug treatment workers hired within the criminal justice system and who work alongside probation officers – and innumerous new treatment programs for drug “abusers”. Everything in UK drug policy under CDS was about diverting users of any substance towards treatment. Treatment was the be all and end all of drug use.

Hmm the plot thickens....

[Knoxville]

Fair enough...

Provide kids with all the facts then they can make the decision for themselves, should be the same for all drugs.

In the meantime alcohol is being advertised, and young people think its cool to get utterly munted on it every weekend... yet its legal and socially acceptable, crazy world we live in.

Spot on.

[IBM]

I bet if you met Stewart in real life you wouldn't be able to tell that he smoked from time to time.

You mean you haven't met Stewart since his accident and major facial reconstructive surgery?