Archive for October 27th, 2007
October 27th, 2007 | 
Author: As well as relaying my own personal experiences with cannabis, I’ve been keeping track of the truth and the lies surrounding my favourite plant for quite a while now. I thought it would a good time to put links to some of my more relevant posts together on one page. I did something similar, but with a more limited scope a couple of months ago, and I left quite a few older entries out.
I’ll aim to update this listing again, in the future, as I add more related content.
So, without further delay, here is “the northlondonhippy cannabis truth series”:
A brief history of the hippy and cannabis — 29 June 2006
“Driven by moral panic” — 9 March 2007
Don’t just take my word for it — 11 March 2007
Class C = Significant Fall in Cannabis Use — 26 October 2007
Science confuses me — 25 October 2007
Acting without thinking, a policy without foundation — 21 October 2007
The rational voices are getting louder, but is anyone in power listening? — 16 October 2007
Finding truth amongst the lies — 24 September 2007
Enlisting in the battle over cannabis — 30 July 2007
Demand and supply — another angle on the status of cannabis — 30 July 2007
It’s not as black and white as they would have you believe — 30 July 2007
But what do real experts say about reclassifying cannabis — 30 July 2007
That Lancet cannabis study, the Daily Mail and the truth — 30 July 2007
Don’t just take my word for it (again) — 30 July 2007
The GUARDIAN of truth — 12 June 2007
False hysteria sells — 27 March 2007
Recently, I’ve been following a particular ongoing battle against cannabis.
This fight is taking place right now, between some very brave people who are running a cannabis cafe in Sussex and the police.
Here’s a report from the local newspaper, covering the case, which will give you a bit of background as well as a snapshot of where things stand today:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/search/display.var.1777072.0.cannabis_cafe_puts_up_the_barricades.php
=========================================
Cannabis cafe’ puts up the barricades
The downgrading of cannabis to a class C drug has led to a series of cannabis cafés opening across Sussex. Police have faced an uphill battle trying to close these illegal premises.
Reporter Miles Godfrey visited an alleged cannabis café in Lancing raided by officers only last week and found a steely determination to defy the authorities.
Officers smashed their way into the building in Freshbrook Road, Lancing, on October 11 using a two-tonne tractor.
They demolished a wall as they ripped a window from its frame and allegedly caused about £20,000 damage to the building and its interior.
However in a show of defiance, the café’s operators have rebuilt the wall, fortified the building and reopened for business in under five days.
The Argus gained exclusive access to the café and inspected the new defences. They include:
# Military razor wire.
# Reinforced steel girders used as height-restriction barriers to prevent tall vehicles gaining access.
# Steel posts and concrete-filled tyres surrounding the building.
A spokesman for the owner, who did not want to be identified, said: “We are back up and running. We were within days of the police raid.”
The people who run the café, which has also been fully repaired and redecorated inside, claimed the police’s “heavy-handed”
One said: “We don’t believe they did a proper health and safety check before the raid.
They have claimed that the building had a steel structure but it doesn’t. It could have easily collapsed completely with everyone inside it.
“As it was, people did get minor injuries, bumps and bruises and one woman suffered an asthma attack. We are worried about what tactics the police are going to use next.”
Those inside the building said they were horrified when officers pulled down the wall.
One said: “It was like something out of a Bruce Willis film.
Somebody could have easily been very badly hurt or even killed.”
Police said they found a “quantity” of cannabis during the raid. Those at the café claim less than four grammes was discovered, an amount they said did not warrant the raid.
The spokesman said: “The police caused about £20,000 damage inside and out during the operation. They employed numerous officers, hired a tractor and for what? They only found four grammes of cannabis so what was the point?”
Officers also found £2,000 in cash on the premises during the raid. The spokesman said the money was from the till and fruit machine and the rest belonged to four different people.
A strict over-18s policy remains in force and staff said they operated a strict ban on alcohol.
The raid was the latest in a series of battles police have had with similar businesses.
Officers have carried out a series of raids across Worthing and Lancing in the last few years as outlets allegedly selling cannabis have sprung up.
Many raids have been successful but others, like the one on October 11 in Lancing, turned up only small quantities of cannabis.
In August, 2005, more than 40 police officers were involved in a dramatic siege at premises in Victoria Road, Worthing. The officers, including a dozen riot police, forced their way through two 6in-thick reinforced doors using steel-cutting welders and a battering ram.
About 30 people were marched outside after police smashed their way into the building, which subsequently closed.
There were raids at the now closed Quantum Leaf and Bongchuffa cannabis cafés in Rowlands Road, Worthing, in 2003. Pro-cannabis campaigner Chris Baldwin ran the Quantum Leaf café as a “political statement” and in January, 2004, received a six-month jail sentence for supplying cannabis.
He served just over six weeks behind bars.
The alleged cannabis café in Freshbrook Road has also been raided before.
In July this year, officers smashed their way into the building using a battering ram.
However they recovered only small qualities of the drug.
Thick black smoke was spotted rising from the premises during that raid and the most recent one.
Officers believe it may have been cannabis being burnt inside but they have been unable to secure enough evidence to bring charges.
Chief Inspector Lawrence Hobbs, Adur district police commander, said police did not want to rush in. He said: “It is early days. We want to gather some evidence, seek some legal advice and listen to how the community want us to deal with it. I do not sense there’s any physical threat to residents.”
However, since February when police first suspected the building was being for drug smoking, his stance has toughened significantly.
He was unapologetic about the damage and said: “There has to be recognition that these types of illegal enterprises will not be tolerated.”
The latest raid was certainly the most dramatic but it may not be the last.
(22nd October 2007)
==================================
Have you ever read anything more ludicrous? You would think they were staging an assault against an Al Qaeda cell, primed and ready to attack a city centre shopping district in the run up to xmas!
Do the police really have the time and budget to be targeting a peaceful, non-violent group of old stoners in such an over-the-top and unjustifiably harsh manner?
The people are continuing to operate this cafe are extremely brave and courageous, for they are taking direct action to protest an unfair and unjust law, which criminalises decent, honest, otherwise law abiding folks for nothing more than smoking a bit of dope!
The police are showing no signs of letting up the pressure, as the follow-up article in another local paper, shows. You can check it out RIGHT HERE and vote in their online poll of whether the police should continue to persecute these good people.
As of this writing, 92% of people responding to the poll, do NOT want the police to continue with this wasteful use of their resources. Or as one of the many people who commented on the article online points out:
“Interesting that the police can spend thousands on harrassing a few old stoners, but were unable to attend when my car had its’ windows smashed by vandals on Tuesday. It’s this low-level antisocial crime that is the problem, not spliff smokers listening to Pink Floyd…”
Think about it, would you rather have the police harassing a group of people sitting inside a cafe, smoking a bit of weed, or would you prefer they go after genuine criminals who might mug your granny for her pension money, or break into your car to steal your stereo?
I think the answer to that is so fucking obvious that it gives me a headache!
Most of the police officers I’ve spoken to personally would like to see cannabis decriminalised or legalised, because they know their time would be better spent tackling real crimes. Why do we disrespect our police forces so much by asking them to waste their valuable time and resources on something so utterly pointless?
Tractors for cannabis raids? Are tanks and F-16’s going to be next? Where does it stop?
I don’t know where, but I do know when. As soon as humanly possible, please!
My “100 post in 100 days challenge” seems to be working out for me so far and for you too, my beloved hippyfans. Just check out all the new content!
Forcing myself to get back into the very good habit of posting at least once a day is helping to focus my mind and improve my writing. I’ve been very slack of late and my daily output has suffered as a result of this. I don’t just mean here on the hippy, but with other things I’ve been working on too.
Recently I asked, is this still a blog? With new found participation on my part, does that mean my site is becoming a blog again?
I think that would depend upon your definition of a blog, or weblog to give it the full title.
I rarely tell you what I’ve had for lunch, which in my mind is a prerequisite component of any blog, so I’ve already failed my first test. In general, this site has evolved into far less of a diary of my life, and is more of a forum to express my views on whatever particular subject (or lack thereof) takes my fancy.
Posting every day also doesn’t justify calling this a blog, as some bloggers post dozens of times a day, others post sporadically and others still don’t post at all. Remember ghost blogs?
I suppose the one thing that really decides if this site is a blog or not is whether I wish to call it one. I suppose it makes life easier for everyone to think of me as a blogger and this site as a blog. Otherwise, I could end up leaving myself devoid of description. If I’m not a blogger, what am I in the generic sense?
I’m not the webmaster here, I don’t actually administer my own site, I mainly provide creative direction and content. I didn’t design the layout, the graphics, I didn’t even choose the WordPress software that is the technical framework we use here.
If I was to choose a title for myself; one that actually expresses what I’m presently doing here, I would probably opt for “internet columnist”. It doesn’t exactly trip pleasingly off the tongue, though and there is no obvious shortening of it to “netnist” or “netcol” either. Perhaps I defy description?
It wouldn’t be the first time!
Just as I am a misfit in the real world, a square peg for an endless succession of round holes, I’m exactly the same in my online incarnation. Maybe, I’m whatever I want to be that day, or only for the particular post I’m writing.
I might pop up one day and tell you what I’ve had for lunch. I might review a film or a TV show, or talk about my love of electronics and gadgets, or recommend some music (which I haven’t done in ages!) or most likely, I might tell you again why legalising drugs makes sense. I might tell you anything!
The one thing you can be certain of is that whatever I’m writing about, I’ll tell the truth about it to the best of my ability, I’ll be honest about myself and the world around me. I’ve been doing that since day one and I don’t intend to change that now!