February 14th, 2009 | 
Author: Hello. Welcome back. Did ya miss me?
Its ramble time. Woke up too early following too little sleep. Must focus.
On what?
Its a pleasant, relaxing day off, or rather it should be, but I’ve got heaps to do ‘round the house and I might even wander up to my local high street.
Do they call it a “high street” because you have to get high before you go there? No? Well, tough, because I will be high when I go.
It should be a rule that you have to be high before allowed onto your local high street. It would make the entire shopping experience more pleasant for everyone involved. The shop assistants would think all the customers were mellow and pleasant, the shop assistants would be helpful without being overbearing and I wouldn’t nearly get into fist fights with all the rude, surly people knocking into me and blocking my way.
Oh wouldn’t it be grand?
As soon as they start opening cannabis cafes around the country, this is the sort of relaxed Utopia we can expect. Until then it will continue to be no fun.
Did you see a group of former presidents from Latin America are urging the world to adopt a controlled and regulated cannabis market? Did you look here?
Even the UN is working towards this fairly obvious and sensible conclusion. In the good ol’ US of A, they are moving in this direction. President Saviour Obama has even said that federal raids against medical marijuana establishments must end and the federal government needs to start respecting laws passed by individual states.
Many states in America have already decriminalised weed. That means it is considered the lowest possible policing priority, with penalties for possession being the equivalent of a minor traffic or parking offence.
Why can’t we do that here?
We could and we were going to until Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith started mucking around with things. These two nincompoops believe laws should be used to “send a message” to people, rather than reflect the scientific evidence or the truth.
This week the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). the body that advises the government on drug policy stated that ecstasy (E, pills, MDMA), be re-classified from its current A grade, back into Class B, to reflect its relative harm to the user. Sounds sensible enough as E is not in the same league as coke and smack.
The head of the ACMD, Professor. David Nutt went on to say that taking ecstasy is no worse than horseback riding and an equivalent number of people die from both activities annually. You would have thought that he said Jesus was secretly Satan for the drubbing he took over the comments. He was even forced to apologise and his future on the ACMD has been questioned.
Just for telling the truth!
In America, MDMA has been used by mental health professionals to assist in the therapy process. Would medical doctors prescribe something potentially lethal when their first rule is to “do no harm”? What do they know that we don’t know.
Nothing! The difference is our government uses legislation to “send a message” rather than to treat people with respect. Legislating morality never works, because people have their own moral compasses and that counts for something.
The simple fact is that anyone who’s ever smoked a joint or necked an E knows that what the government is saying is bullshit. What do you reckon that does to the government’s credibility?
It knocks it into the toilet. When a government lies about anything, we all suffer.
Drug taking is a health issue, not a moral or legal issue and trying to force it only does a disservice to everyone. If I choose to ingest MDMA, or cannabis or chocolate or even broken glass, its my body and my choice.
Criminalising millions of people serves no one. If you’re having trouble with drugs, you should be able to seek help without worrying about ending up with a criminal record. And if you are enjoying them responsibly, it should be nobody’s business but your own.
Common sense and compassion will eventually rule the day, but for now we’ll have to just keep watching our leaders screw things up more and more. Its frustrating, annoying and unavoidable, for as long as politicians can use the debate over drugs to score points with Middle England, the senseless persecution of people who enjoy something other than booze will continue.
Gee, that wasn’t as nearly as rambling as I expected it to be. Lucky you, or maybe even lucky me.
