WORLD of WEED & LEGALISATION HERE in WALES, UK
What is going on with the ever-changing face of legalization? There have been countless times when it has looked promising and then done a U-turn!
There is a lot of apathy in the world of weed and hash, let alone that of cannabis, buds, extracts and oils, sativa or indica! There is more to the marijuana scenes than Medical and Recreational herb. There are indigenous land race varieties of cannabis that proliferate the world which have helped, not hindered, mankind since time immemorial. It has been traded and used for 1000’s of years with no problems, but still we see it demonized at every opportunity.
Neither side of the modern arguments on dope are in agreement on legalization, let alone decriminalization. Whether it is politicians, doctors or gangsters, it seems they only agree that it should remain illegal. All those people think they have too much to lose- others cite the money issue. There seems to be only diatribe against the drug user, particularly cannabis.
The 1961 UN Convention on Drugs is still seen as the benchmark on international relations with the Laws on Narcotics, though many countries have their own rules and regulations surrounding these – even the death penalty for cannabis in some countries. Alongside ‘Suss’ laws, institutionalized racism, power trips and strip searches, interrogation and brutality all are flagrant abuses of power. The drug laws and enforcement are often worse than the drugs themselves.
The UK has the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971, which acts as a tool whereby it is supposed to curb drug use by criminalizing the individual, but it does not work, is outdated and is completely obsolete. Even ‘Police’ are saying that things are unworkable in the drug field. Release the drug NGO had the Nice People Take Drugs Ad campaign a few years ago to engage in dialogue with the scene, but this was soon withdrawn.
Whether it is Portugal treating drugs as a Health issue not a criminal offence, or Holland with their Coffeeshops, we now have Uruguay legalizing marijuana and several US States also allowing recreational use of this ancient plant in addition to many more Medical Marijuana States and countries.
Whatever is happening over the Atlantic in the US and later this year in Canada for recreational usage, the reality is that Medical Marijuana (MMJ) is here to stay and next year Germany (2019) has MMJ for its Citizens, without much in place to make it a real reality for the UK.
Belgium has 10 Cannabis Social Clubs while Barcelona alone has approximately 200 with many more Social Clubs scattered throughout Spain, all of which are tolerated and allowed. Even Ireland has two Medical Marijuana Dispensaries- one in Dublin and one in Cork.
Far from all that, here in the UK we have GW Pharmaceutical, peddling shares to MPs before peddling Sativex to the world as an aid to MS after patenting the cannabis plant and charging a small fortune for a spray. Putting greed before need! They now produce more legal cannabis than any other in the world, grown in secrecy behind closed doors whilst the government maintains the idea that cannabis has any medicinal properties whatsoever.
The former EU Drug Czar, Irishman Carol Edwards, advocated that countries can adopt their own strategy when it comes to Cannabis and are free to adapt their current policies from other models currently practiced. Surely it makes sense to use the best bits and see what works in practice?
Freedom to Farm is the idea of the NGO www.ENCOD.org for just and effective drug policy and also the Cannabis Social Club (CSC) is an area which they espouse. The CSC is now a reality in lots of countries and the UK has scores of them, operating outside the law but to a framework of rules advocating self-governance and tagged plants. www.UKCSC.org .
But in the UK in the past the Laws have been challenged by individuals who have demonstrated that things can change by example, whether it was Jeff Ditchfield (1), opening up Wales’ only Coffeeshop in Rhyl and others; to Free Rob Cannabis from his shop Hemp in Avalon, Glastonbury, starting ‘Turn Yourself in Day’ with the Smuggler Howard Marks, presenting themselves at Marylebone Police station in 1999, and being rebuffed by the Sergeant on the desk after presenting him with a live cannabis plant; as well as then orchestrating a Cannabis Harvest Festival on 23rd September 2000 at Speakers Corner, London Marble Arch.
The annual 4:20 outings around this country and abroad, as well as the Million Marijuana March around the planet highlight the plant and its many uses, but does not change the public perception in the UK as there is still so much negative ‘psychosis’ disinformation surrounding the demon ganja. The media are often playing into the hands of the law makers with scaremongering in national papers like The Daily Mail.
CC Newz newspaper in the UK, which was about back when there was a proper discussion about cannabis at the turn of the Millennium and the substance was reclassified as Class C or medicine was a start in treating the 6-8 million users in the UK with respect and as a Welshman myself we had Howard Marks as a high profile celebrity and a visible face of cannabis as Mr Nice; Promoting cannabis to the hilt in a positive way before his untimely death in 2016.
When there have been times of contaminated weed whether it is ‘Soap Bar’ or the ‘Grit Weed’ blight that decimated the scene previously, the UK Health Authorities have been lax to condemn the pushers and give warnings as with dodgy heroin, but are just critical of users of cannabis generally and say they are simply breaking the law and should not be doing it at all in the first place.
The law was soon changed to make it Class B again by Politicians keen to ridicule experts in the Drug field, such as Professor David Nutt and his science-based rhetoric on drugs such as MDMA and cannabis being viewed in a realistic fashion.
Many social networking platforms such as FaceBook have a huge cannabis world on the virtual level, but now there is also Instagram and WeedMaps too, providing access to a world in real time for dealers and growers providing networking connections and a real world relating to cannabis and its many facets. All of which are blatantly being touted.
Alan Buffry and the Legalize Cannabis Party in the UK (No Victim:No Crime) did much on the political front for raising the profile of the plant as did charismatic Marc Emery with Overgrow! in Canada along with his Dispensaries Cannabis Culture creating a bit of a monopoly, creating Political enemies though and ending up in Jail in the US and Canada for his troubles. Only the Green Party and the Lib/Dems want to legalize cannabis in the UK, the other parties are intransigent and are set on keeping the status quo.
It was over 40 years since Jamaican Peter Tosh sang Legalize It! back in 1976 and advocated joining NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) as there were 400,000 individuals being arrested in the US, but the anniversary reissue to celebrate the music adds that 800,000 arrests are currently made now in the USA, more than ever even with recreational use being largely allowed. Criminal records are still an issue and blight a person’s prospects for life!
There are festivals such as Glastonbury and the Big Green Gathering that give the aura of acceptance in society but the Imagined Communities (2) that encompass the cannabis world are ones of fragmented secrecy and are fickle, with law enforcement using it as a way of getting a handle on crime generally, with people grassing each other up when finding themselves in trouble…the Underground scene still has the Blackmarket as its ally, with little recourse if things go wrong legally with quality or weight being regarded as big problems in the cannabis world.
I was busted for one ‘reefer’ type cigarette and fined, when 18 years old yet I was given back a flick-knife by the ‘Poolice’ that I could have potentially have killed someone with (surely this is sending out the wrong impression!) and later given a conditional discharge over a blim of cannabis in London in my mid-twenties. Other misdemeanors have occurred to me with much head work and stress to contend with, but it has not put me off this wondrous plant and finding out about its myriad of uses as espoused by Jack Herer in his seminal book The Emperor Wears No Clothes! (3) From fuel to paper, medicine to fiber to safe plastics, the list of uses goes on and on…truly this is a plant to save the planet!
It is not a gateway drug; it is a pathway to health: Now 51 years old and still a keen cannabis consumer for over 35 years in its many forms from THC-laced joints and medibles to a supplement for Health using CBD oil for illness prevention as we all have an Endocannabinoid System. From medication to regulation, through Compassion Clubs which do not have a vested interest in money only health, people are actively promoting the many benefits of the plant that is more than medicine.
The book The Cannabis Manifesto (4) by Steve De Angelo and his Californian Harborside Medical Cannabis Dispensary offers a real vision, insight and clarity on the cannabis subject in an area which is fraught with obstacles, many sceptics and lobby groups from the Pharmaceutical Industry’s and the Drinks businesses (5) who oppose change.
Here in the UK we can only hope that lawmakers see grassroots change abroad as positive and a catalyst for real rewards for the cannabis consumer, their families and the state, both here in Wales (6) and abroad.
May common sense win and the plant prevail…the seeds of change have already been sown!
Jason Rice former www.encod.org member
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1 – The Medical Cannabis Guidebook 2014 Ditchfield/ Thomas Ocean Graphics International China
Bud Buddies- Project Storm You Tube
2 – Imagined Communities 2006 Benedict Anderson Verso London
3 – The Emperor Wears No Clothes 11Ed. 2000 Jack Herer Ah Ha Publishing USA www.jackherer.com
4 – The Cannabis Manifesto 2015 Steve De Angelo North Atlantic Books USA
5 – Marijuana is Safer, So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? 2009 Fox/ Armentano/ Tvert Chelsea Green USA
6 – www.facbook.com/encouragethewelshtogrowmoreweed
By J Rice
Image by Kaique Rocha
Originally Published in Weed World Magazine Issue 135