Reference
Section The
UKCIA newsblog
Comment
on cannabis current affairs Research
database
Factual
information about cannabis and it's effects on health and society Law
library
The
full text of the most important legislation regarding drugs in the UK Links
Go away here -
sites we found on the way Cannabis
videos
Music, politics and campaigning Media
site
A small
but growing collection of interesting reports and features. Posters
and leaflets
Download
Media
reporting - Examples of bias in reporting Radio
Sussex - Skunk Panic!
- 20th June 2011
- Reefer madness on the radio - classically bad reporting,
constant fishing for tales of harm, constant repeating of factoids and mood music
in a news report. About as bad as it gets. "Skunk"
is not "Genetically engineered" - March 13th 2011 - A claim made
by the BBC in a recent documentary, all a part of the reefer madness hype BBC
3: "Cannabis - what's the harm?" and The Sun: survey. 30th January
2011 - BBC3 surprised us all with a pretty well balanced report and Sun readers
don't support prohibition. Pigs may yet fly! Cannabis
what's the harm Pt2 6th February 2011 and it's back to business as normal
with pure propaganda and distortion of the truth, where the effects of prohibition
are described as problems caused by cannabis. BBC
Audio and video libary - cannabis reports
BBC website The
cannabis trade
The BBC at its worst Press
reporting of police raids on grow ops
September 2006 Web
censoring
web filtering is being used in libraries, schools and colleges
to filter websites concerned with illegal drugs BBC
Horizon - Cannabis, the evil weed?
A critique of the programme - was
it a fair and objective report? BBC
Radio 4 - The Report - David Nutt's sacking as chief drugs advisor in late
2009, a critique of the programme.. Cannabis
growing - BBC 3 documentary "Cannabis - Britains secret farms" broadcast
January 2010, a critique of the programme. How
drugs work - cannabis: A critique. BBC 3 tries to be objective and honest,
better than some of the rubbish BBC 3 has done, but still not really good.
 |
The Archers
explaining government cannabis policy and suggesting attitudes normal, hard working
people should have towards it. From March 2004 The
Archers on dope pt1 pt2
pt3 MP3 format |
Contamination
- Grit weed and more2006
started with reports of herbal cannabis containing microscopic glass beads. UKCIA
broke the story which resulted in an alert from the Dept of health, but not much
else. Of course, high levels of contamination are regarded as an indication of
"success" for the prohibition policy
Grit
weed -the story LeadUKCIA
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
Viagra10th
November - Latest cannabis contamination - homosildenafil and thiohomosildenafil
(AKA Viagra). Weed sprayed with a liquid containing these chemicals found in Holland.
Newsblog item Fake
/ low quality hashishContaminated,
polluted product of prohibition.
Soap bar
Contamination
– Now we have some real evidence. A
report by John Moores University spills the beans on the contamination issue.
Prohibition really is harm maximisation.
Newsblog item
Strength
/ Potency Strength
Is cananbis 30 times stronger than it used to be?
THC,
CBD and the misleading concept of “Potency”. new research by Dr
Zerrin Atakan and Prof Philip McGuire has thrown some light on the way cannabis
actually works by looking at the effects of THC and CBD - the two principal components
of cannabis.
Mental
health
Does
cannabis make you mad? Just what is the truth behind the reefer madness claims?
Treating those you claim to want to help as criminals is, well, simply mad. Cannabis
and psychosis
an examination of the claims that cannabis use is linked
to mental health problems - a part of the "Risks" section of Culture The
Royal College of Psychiatrists "Cannabis and mental health leaflet"-
a critique. Anyone wanting good, honest, professional advice about cannabis and
mental health will be very disappointed with this effort from "RC Psych". Cannabis
and mental illness - the Keele study is finally published.
A large study by Martin Frishera and his team from Keele university looked at
rates of mental illness over the 10 years 1996 - 2005 and found no increase. This
destroys the claims that cannabis causes mental illness and demonstrates that
Gordon Brown not only ignore expert advice, but also hard scientific evidence Preventing
cannabis use will not have much effect on rates of mental illness - study.
Just how many people would you need to prevent getting stoned to have any hope
of reducing the rates of mental illness if the theory of a causal role for cannabis
were true? The answer, it seems, is rather a lot. The
dangers of cannabis: High-potency cannabis and the risk of psychosis Vs contamination.
It's time to take stock of the dangers posed by the present cannabis trade, not
only in terms of the potential role in the development of mental illness, but
also in terms of the contamination issue.
Comment
– High-potency cannabis and the risk of psychosis study. The latest skunk
and mental health paper from The Institute of Psychiatry in London. A bit like
fishing in a bucket... Cannabis
and mental health - two new studies give the "wrong" results! So
cannabis causes mental illness and makes it worse does it? Not according to these
studies from the USA. Cannabis
Psychosis - more reefer madness or not? A study in the BMJ claims to demonstrate
a causal link between cannabis use in young people and the onset of serious mental
illness. But is this really an argument for prohibition as the press claim and
is the study valid in its conclusions and just what are they really? 2nd March
2011 COMT;
another “wrong” result for the reefer madness hype 9th October 2011.
One of the big planks of the reefer madness scare has been undermined by a new
study - the COMT genetic weakness. 25% of us are not, in fact, at increased risk
from cannabis. Reefer
madness returns?
15th Novemebr 2011 RETHINK, the mental health charity are back again with their
cannabis campaign. They were largely responsible for what became known as "Reefer
madness V2", with the claims of "Skunk" being 35 times stronger
and all the rest. Will it be any different this time? It could be.
SmokingCannabis
and cancer – Another “wrong” result! - … current knowledge
does not suggest that cannabis smoke will have a carcinogenic potential comparable
to that resulting from exposure to tobacco smoke (research). |
GovernmentUK
drugs law descends even further into farce
with the government's
rejection of the Ecstasy review. What future for the Misuse of Drugs Act. Do we
even care? The
Government on drugs: alcohol Vs cannabis yet again. Draft Guidance on the
Consumption of Alcohol by Children and Young People - if it's good advice for
alcohol, why not for cannabis? Cannabis
reclassification - impact assessment.
The
government has produced what must be the worst impact assessment ever produced
in order to try to justify the move back to B. Even given the gloss, they accept
it will harm race relations and divert funding from serious drug work, cost £50Million
and much more. Cannabis
classification, a pointless issue that just isn’t going to go away. -
Proffesor Nutt of the ACMD has never forgiven Gordon Brown for ignoring his advice
to keep cannabis as a class C drug and he's been all over thenews today The
ACMD Cannabis Potency Study
Based on bad data this is a flawed study,
but it's about the best we can expect under prohibition. The
UK Drug Policy Commission report “Tackling Drug Markets and Distribution
Networks in the UK”
The latest official report into the total failure
of prohibition, this one makes depressing reading for anyone who still thinks
there is a future for the war on drugs UKDPC
report online here - PDF document The
case of Professor Nutt and the need for political lies - To paraphrase Douglas
Adams of “The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy” fame: The skills needed
to get elected mean that anyone who has the ability to do so is precisely the
sort of person who should never be allowed to. That would seem to describe politicians
only too well as recent events have demonstrated. The
Beckley Foundation: Global Cannabis Commission Report. Written in 2008 this
report is now available online. It outlines the changes which can be made under
international treaties and what changes are really needed.
ACMDSacking
of Prof.David Nutt
The
Home Secretary Alan Johnson sacked the head of the ACMD, the committee which advises
the government on drug policy, Prof. David Nutt towards the end of 2009. Nothing
like this has ever happened before and is likely to have serious implications
for the development of UK drugs policy.Newsblog
comment on Prof Nutts sacking
(Sunday
November 1st)
An
Audience with David Nutt - recording of the recent meeting at King College London
- UKCIA mediasite Evan
Harris MP blog - critique of why the Home Secretary was wrong, it's devastating
stuff. The
politics of arrogance, faith and denial. Did Home Secretary Alan Johnson realise
the can of worms he was opening when he sacked Professor Nutt? The
interesting case of Professor Nutt - Famously sacked by an ex-postman for
taking an evidence based approach to drugs and telling people about it, his family
slandered by the Sun and who's developing a new wonder drug for people to have
fun with. Dirty
political tricks and the membership of the ACMD. December 2010
One of the
most devious tricks a government can play is to hide a significant change to legislation
deep in a long and complex bill and then to keep quiet about it, hoping that no-one
will notice until it’s too late. That is what the government has just tried
to do with the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.
Details
of the Freedom of information ruling
about the government's proposals to reform the Misuse of Drugs Act The
government wants you opinons – and the Home Office finally coughs up its
secrets. Two new government websites to ask you're opinions and the revealing
of the redacted bits form the recent DEA Freedom of Information request. Government
forced to publish consultation paper on the future of drugs classification 2006.
- We all know and understand that the drug laws are supposedly based on the harm
drugs can cause, hence the ABC classification system. What is also becoming common
knowledge is that the whole thing is in a mess. It now seems that the government
has been aware of this for some time and tried to get out of the mess by adopting
some other measure to justify prohibition | 
