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Contamination

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

Government

Class B again! Cannabis has been re-reclassified to Class B -, or C+ or Bspecial or something. In celebration of the day the Newsblog explains how the message has been sent! 26th January 2009 Cannabis users are no longer third class criminals ACMD Report Ignored by the government The 2009 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.

UK 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 Draft Guidance on the Consumption of Alcohol by Children and Young People - if it's good advice for alcohol, why not for cannabis?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.

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.

Government consuts on the future of it's drugs strategy
September 2007

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

Reclassification - the first time around
What was reclassification all about, if anything?

Reclasification to class C - 2002
UKCIA comment - cannabis is not crack

Newsblog: 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.

Newsblog: 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

 

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The new Talking About Cannabis "Cannabis Helpline". Talking About Cannabis is a well known prohibition supporting site which is now about to open a "24/7 helpline"

Libdems tried to make seeds illegal

Libdem MP Tom Brake - one reason not to vote Libdem
The stated policy of the Libdems is to stop the prosecution of cannabis growers and ultimatly to leglaise cannabis. Strange then that Libbdem MP Tom Brake - MP for Carshalton in Surrey - tried to outlaw seeds with a 10 minute rule bill in Parliament. If you were thniknig of supporting the Libdems because of their drugs policy (which is by far the most intellegent of the main parties), maybe you need to think again - and tell them

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2007 - Second cannabis and mental health confernece
Kings College, University of London May 1st - 2nd 2007
Review
Abstracts

2005 - HIT conference - "Second perspectives on cananbis"
February 2005
Conference notes

2004 - Cannabis and mental health conference
Institute of psychiatry, London, Dec 2nd - 3rd.
Abstracts
UKCIA insert to delegates pack

Independent On Sunday debate
Cannabis : Should it be decriminalised?
Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre Westminster
11th December 1997

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The campaign
1998 - 2006

What you did
Smokey Bears picnics, Cannabis Carnivals

Medical Cannabis Awareness Day
24th May 2006

2001 conference
Includes speeches by Eddie Ellison, Roger Warren Evans and Caroline Coon
2002 conference
2003 conference
Includes speech from Biz Ivol
2005 conference
2006 LCA conference

A female flower showing crystals of THC on the leaves

Smoking? Back in 2002 the British Lung foundation (BLF) published a report called "A smoking gun" which made serious claims about the health risks of smoking cannabis. You can read our critique of that report here, as well as the original report. Later research has failed to support many of the more extreme claims made by the BLF, but unlike the enthusiasm shown for reporting the "Smoking Gun's" claims, the later research was all but ignored in the British media. However, UKCIA would welcome a factual information campaign about the possible dangers of using cannabis and we highlight some of the points made in the report in our "How to smoke cannabis" and "Risks" sections, especially the added risk posed by the use of tobacco. UKCIA doesn't claim that cannabis is harmless, but because of prohibition scare after scare claiming serious dangers have been made, most if not all of which have been shown to be false. It's been like shouting "wolf", many people simply don't believe government warnings anymore. Also because of prohibition safer ways of smoking, such as pipes or vapes are themselves dangerous things to have because of the risk of arrest. Their use is hardly encouraged in government "educational" material such as Talk to Frank.. UKCIA is running a campaign called Toke pure to encourage safer ways to use cannabis. Not only that but we point out that smoking isn't the only way to use cannabis - see our section "How to eat cannabis" - but again, prohibition makes this less appealing because of uncertain strengths and contaminated supplies.