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Cannabis set to be regraded amid new health-risk fears



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Published Date: 10 January 2008
By GERRI PEEV
CANNABIS is set to be regraded to a class B drug – with more severe penalties for users – in the wake of fresh health concerns.
Studies have showed a high risk of mental illness in users, and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is said to be determined to reverse the decision in 2004, under Tony Blair, to downgrade the drug to class C.

Such a move would be in line wi
th Gordon Brown's more conservative moral code over issues such as alcohol and gambling.

A separate study from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is due to report by spring on whether cannabis should be reclassified.

The group, which dismissed previous attempts to reclassify cannabis, has now also been told to take public attitudes into account as well as medical evidence.

If cannabis is reclassified as a class B drug, the penalty for possession is up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

The spread of super-strength cannabis such as "skunk", which is grown hydroponically, is also a cause of concern for the government.

Yesterday, Downing Street did not reject reports that cannabis would be regraded. The Prime Minister's spokesman said the government would issue a response when the advisory council published its report.



The full article contains 218 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 09 January 2008 9:07 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Drugs policy
 
1

weeshooie1,

Australia 10/01/2008 00:17:28
Good, it's about time. Try living with a family member who has a cannabis induced psychosis. It's heart-breaking.
2

Kipling,

10/01/2008 00:47:30
#1. You're right. The best antidote to taking these drugs is to watch someone who suffers from their ill effects. I was put off by seeing the inane stupid grins on the faces of those who smoked 'weed'.
3

ALX,

Glasgow 10/01/2008 02:02:40
Finally! out of my close friends i'm the only one who DOESN'T do it! I have to stand around in tunnels and trolley stops at Tesco while waiting for them to finish their bongs! - It makes me so mad that sometimes I feel like grassing them up to the police...

I know it sounds horrible of me but I can't wait for them to be caught one day - not put in jail but something to make them wish they never smoked the stuff.

None of them are working either so it's annoying when they buy £40 worth of hash to enjoy amongst themselves but can't afford a couple of quid for some booze at the weekend - something we can all enjoy.

Obviously it must affect other people more than it affects me but anyway...

Hopefully the class change will make them thin twice from now on...
4

GalacticCannibal,

Murrieta, CA ......ex Mexican Territory 10/01/2008 05:44:19
Cannabis set to be regraded amid new health-risk fears
--------------------------------------------------------

Clearly the UK Gov. are ignoring their real existing health-risks from the drugs Alcohol, and Nicotine.

But thats OK because they rake in £ billions in taxes from the users of these the most widely and deadly drugs, used by the masses.

Reason could be , its very hard for the Gov. to collect the same level of revenue from cannabis users , Since its production is from small and widely located production unites across the UK. Frequently one man or woman growing lot.

So the UK Gov turns a blind eye to the hordes of drunks laying in the gutter vomiting , and going home to beat up or rape family members , friends or strangers. Or kill innocent people when driving drunk. All this is a daily occurence.

And the Gov. also ignore the hordes of Nicotine addicts who die choking deaths prematurely, from ingesting this drug. That cost the NHS £ billions in health care attention.

---------------------------------------------------
Hey Dragonhead,
Living in polluted China, you are the last person to comment on health-risk dangers of cannibas.

Are you forgetting that in your country, your communist CCP friends execute 10,000 to 15,000 fellow Chinese every year.
Not forgetting the 100,000+ forced abortions on your Chinese women every year. Now these are health risks of global proportion.

Hey Dude you never sent us the CCP report confirming the number of executions carried out in your CHINA in 2006. We asked you for that report 4 months ago.

GC
5

Dave from Barra ©,

Western Isles 10/01/2008 07:57:26
Riiight. You can drink till you are dead, smoke tobacco till your dead, abort children up to and including 24 weeks, drive a death machine at high speed, get a license to own a shot gun or rifle and practice homosexuality all legally and within the law but ye canne have a spliff?

OK. I see. Hope the same law applies to the Netherlands then since most EU laws outweight domestic legislation.
6

Charles Linskaill,

.Edinburgh 10/01/2008 08:24:49
#7 Dave from Barra,
Dave, you brought that into good context!
7

AlunBFree,

Norwich 10/01/2008 09:34:39
"The group (ACMD), which dismissed previous attempts to reclassify cannabis, has now also been told to take public attitudes into account as well as medical evidence."

Is this the public attitude according to the press, or the recent survey scam?

To those who have suffered from watching their loved ones suffer from cannabis - I would say to remember that this happened under the present laws which you seem here to wish to support.

For every one person who suffers from cannabis there are over five thousand users (yes 5000) who do not - and most of them claim to benefit.

So what sense to punish them - if we go along with that then we will have to ban sweets, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, tobacco and most pharmaceutical drugs. For medicines it is "acceptable" by Government that up to 5% (only) suffer bad side-effects from any ONE such effect.

To those who support this continued prohibition, I would say - try watching a loved one go through court and prison sentences for using cannabis, visiting them in those dreadful places, when you and he knows that no harm was done by anyone except the law.

8

Locutus,

of Borg 10/01/2008 10:03:51
The sad thing is that it's the vulnerable who will suffer.
There are plenty of people using cannabis simply for pain releif - a much better opsion than the opiates that are prescribed willynilly
9

Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 10/01/2008 10:42:47
ALX:

You have to ask yourself a question... Are these REALLY the kind of friends you want?

If I were you, I'd find some new friends.
10

Stu_R_20,

Edinburgh 10/01/2008 10:53:23
Lol, another load of journalism from a man whose only probable experience of cannabis was getting a passing whiff at a music festival.
As a university student practically all my friends enjoy a good smoke and living in Edinburgh, the easiest place in Scotland to pick up some, you only encounter around 6-8% THC. This nonsensical idea that our streets are full of 'super-skunk' containing 40% THC is laughable. I can assure you that unless your are a grower of many years experience you would not be able to produce such a potent bud and even then in minute doses. But go ahead and reclassify it as the government never take into account that it will stop no one: None of my friends or anyone else I know regard the law when skinning up and indeed contrary to government scaremongering cannabis use has actually decreased since being downgraded.
11

Stu_R_20,

Edinburgh 10/01/2008 10:53:50
*Man should read women after checking the author
12

DeltaPan,

Hammersmith. London. West Europe. 10/01/2008 12:29:06
"The group, which dismissed previous attempts to reclassify cannabis, has now also been told to take public attitudes into account as well as medical evidence."

And where are these attitudes coming from?

They are coming from media sensationalisation, using those who have come to unfortunate demises that actually have very little or nothing whatsoever to do with Cannabis but the media has used the bandwagon of Cannabis demonisation to whip up controversy and exploit people who have suffered from their lifestyle choices or engagement with criminal communities or have had psychiatric disorders which although not actually caused by Cannabis they have been represented as they have suffered all their problems because of it.

Exploitation of those people to sell newspapers, this paper is one of them as much as the National press and telemedia!

Sensationalising the disinformation and misinformation, manipulated research and utter lies to their own end where such stories citing Cannabis as being a catalyst for so many peoples demise has been codswallop and unsubstantiated and simplistic reporting of complex circumstances.

This is termed Media Shaping, you disseminate lies repeatedly then point at preponderance as though it must be fact.

It is the media themselves who have coloured societies attitude against Cannabis that is now being pointed at as being strongly against Cannabis when the truth is that media has influenced the public to think that way and believe what they do which is wrong, social sciences, medical sciences and psychiatry all say different but because the media has misrepresented at every turn, the general public believe Cannabis is a super strong killer drug which should be eradicated but that simply is not the truth.

The only killer here is the very prohibition of the drug which causes the problems in society that is claimed the drug itself causes, it doesn't, the illegality does that, forcing people to use in the shadows of society and
13

DeltaPan,

Hammersmith. London. West Europe 10/01/2008 12:32:56
and exposed to the nefarious people in the underworld and on the street but in the light of legalisation vulnerable people can be better identified and helped before they become irretrievable.

Prohibition does not protect the vulnerable and mentally ill, it forces them into desperate lives and kills them.

That is the truth, PROHIBITION KILLS CANNABIS DOES NOT!

As i have mentioned before, when one of the most dangerous drugs known to man, Alcohol, as well as other more dangerous drugs such as Heroin, Crack Cocaine and methamphetamine are on an ever increasingly steep curve of usage, to continue to demonise and keep illegal the least dangerous and deny it as a legal alternative to Alcohol and other drugs, it is simply insane and those agreeing with regression to class B need therapy, because they are delusional, obsessive and blind to the real problems in society, problems which Cannabis can help combat in reality.

As much and not least important, treating those who derive medicinal benefit from Cannabis, which is one hell of a lot i will tell you, as criminals and penalising them with fines and incarceration etc is bally well AMORAL and simply insane as well.

The media and certain people who purport to be experts when they are nothing of the sort and an element in government are all guilty of precipitating a swell of anti Cannabis consensus in society through lies and manipulations of the truth to their own end and to an agenda which has nothing to do with peoples health or protecting the mentally ill and vulnerable.

The truth is that legalisation is the only sensible way to progress and regression to class B will just overstretch an already overworked police and courts system and make the problems we have with eminently more serious drugs like Heroin, Crack and Methamphetamines as well as Alcohol associated problems of increasing violence, antisocial behaviours, ill health and death, much more worse as it steadily increases.

Cannabis is not the
14

DeltaPan,

Hammersmith. London. West Europe 10/01/2008 12:33:55
Cannabis is not the problem, the public have been subject to media shaping by lies and exploitation of those who have had problems caused by other factors and become ill or died.

Their belief that Cannabis is dangerous is the product of them being misled for decades and they should know the truth about Cannabis, not constantly being lied to.

Maybe if the news agencies and telemedia did not disseminate such ;lies and manipulations they would not feel so strongly, as such the public are as much victims of the media as those of us who use Cannabis medicinally or recreationally!

Your newspaper and the Times and all other newspapers have a bally cheek trying to influence the up coming decisions because it is you who have shaped public opinion with your lies and misreported citations of research and exploitation just to sensationalise the issue and sell more newspapers from those lies and misinformation’s.

The truth about Cannabis is widely available on the Internet and the truth is that it is actually very medicinal and a very much safer recreational drug with lots of benefits in usage than any other drug and that includes Alcohol which is a real killer and is actually destroying the fabric of society like Cannabis will never do and is incapable of doing.

Ergo, as per usual, newspapers are creating a big problem in the name of greater profits as they do with many things they lie constantly about.

Without the papers telling the public it is so dangerous, people wouldn't actually believe that it is!

So saying that reclassification should take into account "public attitudes", that is nonsense because it is the media who have precipitated those attitudes and what they have said about Cannabis is a nonsense designed to sell newspaper, most of what they come out with is a ruddy work of fiction that people accept as fact so this statement to the advisory council is also nothing but a manipulation and they definitely should not be listening to public attitud
15

DeltaPan,

Hammersmith. London. West Europe 10/01/2008 12:34:51
they definitely should not be listening to public attitudes, they are based on a load of media rubbish which simply is not true, they should be guided only by scientific bodies and the proper research, not the cherry picked stuff always presented as proof Cannabis is dangerous!

Sincerely.

Paul Lawrenson.
16

Winston Matthews,

Horley, Surrey. 10/01/2008 13:45:38
Reefer madness, which is the lies that were used in the 1930's , happen to be the same points of contention being used, as was then, do you see what I am getting at?

You have more of a chance of Mental illness with the drug Alcohol, or Nicotine, and statistically Coke Cola.

17

yolanda,

10/01/2008 15:23:22
I find it a bit worrying that the Government are prepared to disregard the opinion and advice of a highly respected group of experts with many years of scientific experience in favour of the opinion of the public, who are largely uneducated in such matters. Why set up an advisory committee if you intend to ignore their advice?

The continued reports by the media about the country being awash with plentiful supplies of Superskunk are completely unfounded. Most people would find it rather difficult, if not impossible to obtain it. Many couldn't afford it even if it WAS available. What we perhaps should be more worried about is the low grade, cheap Soapbar and the numerous nasty contaminants within it, which is in reality what many users are smoking. That's too boring for the tabloids and their readers though. They prefer the sensationalist version. The risks to physical health associated with smoking poor quality resin such as soapbar far exceed those of higher level grass or resin, although there is rightly cause for concern about potential long term mental health issues. Any cannabis use carries risks, as does use of any other substance use. I'm sure many users would love to try some of the legendary 40% THC Superskunk weed that is spoken about, but if it exists at all, it's certainly not on the streets of Central Scotland.
18

Stu_R_20,

Edinburgh 10/01/2008 20:15:08
#20
Well it surely can't be worse than your generation, everything since the 60's has been in perpetual decline. A right mess!
19

ex-labour,

10/01/2008 23:26:54
17 DeltaPan,Hammersmith. "they should be guided only by scientific bodies and the proper research, not the cherry picked stuff always presented as proof Cannabis is dangerous!"
I think you might have might be under the misapprehension that all research is independent. All academic and health reasearch is financed by government or multi-national interests, be they regimes supplying 'help' to stop smoking, drinking, eating etc, or those who seek to encourage it. Research proposals that do not attract finance never see the light of day.
So, we are left with the rantings of media owners who seek only to sell newspapers.
This is the real world. No wonder people need drugs and/or alcohol to get through the day.
20

DeltaPan,

Hammersmith. London 11/01/2008 13:57:49
@ex-labour,10/01/2008 23:26:54

Mate.

listen, i am a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, joined that group for very good reasons years ago and likely know more than you about this.

What in the great god Pans name makes you assume i am that naive?

Please do not patronise me with regards what happens in the scientific academia and research, you have stated an erroneous assumption which is quite insulting to be honest and don't even know where you got that idea from, pure projection geez and very wrong.

 

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