Text only version UKCIA Newsblog Reefer Madness from a self apponted "expert" transmitted by BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" 2005 (mp3) Marjorie Wallace of SANE Cannabis videos on the web A new and growing collection of cannabis related videos here Transform Drug Policy foundation BEEN BUSTED? NEED HELP? The Independent Drug Monitoring Unit (IDMU) has legal advice and a find a solicitor service. IDMU IDMU drug use survey   The ACMD report on the classification of cannabis is online here.(Home Office website). The government decided to ignore the main recommendation and is to return cannabis to class B. UKCIA Newsblog News and comment on the unfolding story of cannabis law reform. Brown Wednesday 7th May 2008 The move to class C meant nothing and the move back to B will mean just as little to cannabis users. Indeed, the only difference is to make the theoretical maximum for possession 5 instead of three years. Three years isn’t a penalty that’s ever used, so it’s hard to see how a non-threat of 5 is going to send shivers down anyone’s back. So it’s all a bit more illegal again, just like the good old days. Whooppee. Unacceptable, lethal and Brown. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Cannabis and Children - and Brown stuff Cannabinoid combination affects cannabis-linked psychological symptoms A free press? Contamination - now its lead UKCIA has been warning about contaminated cannabis for over a year now. Back in December 2006 we were a alerted to the “Grit weed” problem - herbal cannabis containing microscopic glass beads. Things, it seems, have just taken a turn for the worse - much worse. The New England Journal of Medicine has reported that herbal cannabis in Europe has been found to be contaminated with lead shot which has produced casualties. Read more here Newsblog Advertisement Protest London 25th June 08 - more details here (UKCIA is not responsible for the content of this site) Warning: Using cannabis makes you listen to loud music, wear jeans and hoodies and grow long hair! OK, so what are the real risks? Remember the government's consultation on the future of its drugs policy? It was billed as being one of the biggest consultations ever held. The consultation, Drugs: Our Community, Your Say was launched on 25th July 2007 and communicated through the Home Office website. The full consultation document contained 52 questions with free-response text boxes. 5,000 copies of this document were issued to key stakeholders throughout the country. In addition to the full document, a shorter set of seven questions was published in leaflet form, aimed at a more general public audience. 300,000 leaflets were printed and distributed through outlets such as doctors’ surgeries, libraries and police stations. All this, including online submissions, produced a stunning 1,020 responses. Yep, just 1,020 from a UK population of nearly 60,000,000. Unbelievable, well done HMG, you really caught the public imagination there. Sorry for the sarcasm. When it happened UKCIA called it a sham, seems we were right. The IPSOS - Mori evaluation of this massive public consultation excercise is here (1M PDF) Remember: Cannabis is an illegal substance, it is illegal to have or to supply. A conviction for cannabis can ruin a career and cause many serious problems Though reasonably safe for most people, cannabis is not an inert substance and if you abuse it you can expect to get problems. Cannabis use may make conditions such as schizophrenia worse and may delay the recovery of ill people. Children and young teenagers are best advised not to use drugs of any kind including cannabis. Pragmatism UKCIA is a law reform campaign. read more Whatever politicians and the police might try to tell you, cannabis is not really a "controlled drug" in any meaningful use of the term "Controlled". Because it's an illegal drug there are no controls over the trade whatsoever and if you don't control the trade in a substance, you can't claim to control that substance. For example, in recent years there have been many claims of increased strength or potency (are they the same thing?) but there is scant information to to base such claims on because proper records of "street" cannabis based on statistically valid sampling methods have never been done. Of course, if cannabis were legal we would know the strength, not from surveys of what's on sale but because it could be properly regulated at the point of production. It would say how strong it was on the packet. This is just one example of what a pragmatic approach to law reform could achieve, there are many others besides. Cannabis pragmatism aims to campaign for laws which both reduce the potential for harm to a minimum and protect the vulnerable. Far from being being "pro pot" or "drug liberal" cannabis pragmatism is a campaign for effective and enforceable laws. People use cannabis, they want to buy it and as there's money involved someone will supply it. That is the nature of capitalism, the driving force of our society. A pragmatic approach to law reform doesn't claim cannabis is harmless - indeed we wish to draw attention to the potential risks because they should form the basis of the regulatory approach. As with all things we must have reliable and firm data on which to base our laws and to do that we have to be able to measure and quantify the supply side. Prohibition makes this impossible. Pragmatic cannabis law reform is a campaign for drugs policy toward cannabis based on proper control and regulation of the commercial supply coupled with effective harm reduction measures. As long as the demand exists for a commercial cannabis supply there will be one. The issue is therefore how, not whether, we manage it. Welcome to UKCIA Smoking isn't the only way to use cannabis see here for more info   Cannabis Grit weed Contamination April 2008 New contamination danger - lead - read more. It used to be assumed that herbal cannabis was unlikely to suffer from contamination but this is no longer true, the workings of prohibition have managed to create the economic circumstances which have lead to the mass contamination of supplies. How did this happen? Before summer 2006 cannabis was readily available due to a number of large scale cannabis farms. Operation Keymer, which was widely trumpeted in the press, either busted them, or more likely sent most to ground, creating a shortage virtually over night. It wasn't long before this shortage was filled from another source, only this time the cannabis was contaminated. How dangerous is this contamination? The answer to that is no-one knows, it's a totally unmeasurable unknown. The only sensible advice is really very simple: Don't sell grit weed Don't buy grit weed Don't smoke grit weed The only way to ensure you have pure cannabis is to grow it yourself or to know someone who does. The government's warning is welcome, but of course it doesn't highlight the cause of the problem (their own policy) and tries to use the danger as an argument against cannabis use. Contamination isn't a problem caused by cannabis, it's a problem caused by the law. As contaminated supplies are used as an indication of "success" for the war on drugs, it's clear that the government is happy to deliberately create extra unmeasuarable dangers in its effort to deter use - no other government policy sets out to do that. Yet the health warning was issued because the government accepts it has a duty of care to warn people about the danger it caused. Joined up policy making this isn't! The contamination story Grit weed story on YouTube - ITV Wales report. Part 1 Part 2 Government health warning Department of Health website The government on drugs Talk to Frank if you must Soap Daily Dose is the premiere news service of drug information. Subscribe to the daily e-mail here UKCIA We aim to draw attention to the problems the present policy of prohibition is causing and the nature of the culture it's causing problems for. The core team of UKCIA are a collection of activists - users of cannabis and sympathisers - who all have two things: An Internet connection and a desire to help repeal the cannabis laws because we believe that they are bad laws. The prohibition of cannabis introduces the huge number who use it to an often violent illegal drugs market providing everything from cannabis to crack. It prevents any sort of quality control and treats those it claims to be protecting as the enemy. Used in moderation by adults cannabis is a very safe substance, but we don't claim that its totally safe - few things in life are - and we don't set out to encourage its use. Subjecting cannabis to a regime of prohibition simply imposes new and unnecessary dangers in additition to anything the plant might do   It's our aim to the tell the truth about cannabis, something the government can't do because of it's prohibitionist agenda. That means warts and all. UKCIA supports harm reduction and for this reason we give information on how to use it as safely as possible and what the risks of using it are. Of course, cannabis is also much more than just "dope", the arguments for legalising it go much further than recreational drug control. Cannabis is truly a plant with a huge range of uses. We know that the best weapon against the continued prohibition of cannabis is the truth. So UKCIA sets out to be a store of factual information and you can find out about all aspects of the cannabis plant, its uses and the way its used here. Cannabis legalisation is a major issue and isn't going to go away, the law has already changed because it had to, further change is needed. Contact UKCIA Use this banner to link to UKCIA Page designed and maintained by UKCIA