p2pnet - rss feed: UK pot smokers face 5 years in jail
p2pnet news | Politics:- After today, Britons caught using marijuana could face five years in jail.
Making pot a class B instead of C drug will, “reverse the downgrading four years ago of Britain’s favourite illegal drug,” says the Independent.
Under Class C, cannabis was on the same legal level as steroids and anti-depressants, says the Telegraph, continuing, “A conviction for Class C drug possession carries a two-year sentence. In the case of Class B drugs, possession carries a five-year sentence.”
“This is gesture politics at its most pathetic, says an Independent editorial, going on >>>
It is hard to think of a more wrong-headed response from [prime minister] Gordon Brown to his plummeting popularity than the expected approval today for the re-classification of cannabis. This will constitute a reversal of a reform introduced only four years ago that downgraded cannabis from a class B to class C narcotic.
Mr Brown, chastened by Labour’s electoral humbling, claims that he is listening. He is; but not to those who know what they are talking about. The Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has come down against re-classification on public health grounds. Though popular varieties of cannabis are stronger, it argues that there have been no studies that demonstrate a causal “link” between cannabis use and mental illness.
Sadly, such informed counsel has been ignored. Instead, Mr Brown has turned his ear to the hysterical outpourings of certain sections of the press, which have long demanded a reversal of the downgrading of cannabis on the grounds that no government “tough” on drugs would have relaxed the law. The Prime Minister is giving them what they want.
Roger Howard, chief executive of the UK Drug Policy Commission, and a former government drugs adviser, “said last week that this case underlined the muddle at the heart of government over the purpose of a drug classification system which was unlikely ever to be able to ’send a message to young people’,” says the Guardian, adding:
“Since cannabis had moved from class B to class C, the number of schoolchildren who think it is fine to try cannabis had halved, he said.”
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.Stumble It!
Independent - Reefer madness: Do the drug laws work?, May 7, 2008
Telegraph - Cannabis U-turn: Q and A, May 7, 2008
Independent - Clouds of confusion, May 7, 2008
Guardian - Government set to defy its own experts and upgrade cannabis again
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May 7th, 2008 at 8:15 am
With the quality of the research of today in these areas, there is an equal chance of schizophrenic persons being more prone to smoke, as that the smoke itself causes the mental illness.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Wow, this seems a bit overboard, doesn’t it? Now Britain will have the prison statistics the US does, eh?
May 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Shut up! Pay your taxes! Think what we want you to think! Think different? Try prison.
Don’t do pot, never have. Even I can see this is pointless and self-defeating rhetoric.
Say goodbye Labour. You time is up.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
You know once they will be enought people in jail we will be able to raise an army out of them and retake our countries and restore freedom.
May 7th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
However as far as canabis and mariruana is concerned I advise anyone not to use it nor to use alcool or tobaco.
Beward the antidepressant drugs too! They are addictive and their long term effect on the brain are unknown.
Do you know that tobaco is more hamrful than maruiruana? Why not put tobaco as a class B drug instead then?
May 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The real problem is the statistics of youth that procure and use marijuana with enough regularity to cause development and education problems.
Laws that offer the same penalties instead for “provision to minors” would be a better way to deal with this issue. The adults that engage in recreational use aren’t the problem.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Yes, the “war on drugs” has worked so well in the US. Just like prohibition worked so well at eliminating alcohol. Gee, didn’t prohibition basically cause the creation of organized crime? Good going!
May 8th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Honestly, this one line caught my eye :::
“Since cannabis had moved from class B to class C, the number of schoolchildren who think it is fine to try cannabis had halved, he said.”
Heh, I don’t know about any of you, but, when I was a kid smoking dope, I always claimed I thought it was horrible and that I would never use it, and that was -when- I was into the wacky stuff. Kids are liars, especially to reporters, and any authority that might such idiotic questions.
Kids will do drugs, most definitely, especially in today’s society, where popular music is surrounded by drug-use.
-sigh-
And if you expect me to believe that the reporter who wrote that line down believed that kid’s were believing what it is that they said, I’d be extremely disappointed.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:10 am
It is simply time to legalize all drugs, and stop trying to dictate to people what they put into their own bodies. Reader’s Write also has a point, kids are known to lie and say what they think adults want to hear from them, on sex, on drugs, etc. while really thinking the exact OPPOSITE or near the exact opposite.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Thank you christopher….I for one don’t give a flying F**K if its illegal or not…if I wanna get stoned I will do just that….and law enforcement can kiss my ass.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Don’t worry they will release some pedos rapists and murders early so they can find room for the smokers in jail.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Speaking as a uk citizen gordon brown has been without a doubt the worst prime minister britian has ever seen his job as chancellor showed him more ways a goverment could make more money and the things he didnt agree with mr blairs decisions he is going to reverse he continues to be bullied by corporate goofs who keep saying something like STOP STEALING OUR MUSIC i say to that make music worth buying oh and some of yer settlement money give to poor amywhinehouse so she can go back to rehad crack is rediculous for such an upstanding member of the music buisness
May 9th, 2008 at 4:40 am
“Don’t worry they will release some pedos rapists and murders early so they can find room for the smokers in jail.”
Well, I agree with them releasing the pedosexuals (I happen to be one) because pedosexuals have gotten a bad rap from the few who have been driven INSANE by the stupid sexual morality of today. Children are born with genitals people, therefore they are supposed to be USING their genitals from birth. Even some children I have talked with have realized that and are NOT letting their parents dictate sexual morality to them anymore.
I also agree with them releasing the rapists, who would DISAPPEAR if females, both women, teenagers and girls, were a little more free with their sexual favors and stopped dismissing men just because they are not as ‘handsome’ as they want them to be…. women today make their OWN WORST NIGHTMARE, the serial rapist and random rapist.
Murderers……. I’m torn. Most murderers are simply people who have been driven to their limits and BEYOND by some asshole, or who have gotten involved in the drug trade and have to ‘protect their turf’ by killing people. The drug laws are to blame for that later situation, and in the former….. those people who are killed usually have to take some blame for their own deaths.
There are the VERY few who kill for the pleasure of killing, but in 5 years as a paralegal…. I haven’t seen ANYONE who kills just for the pleasure of killing.