A few days ago, I learned of a public consultation that’s to be held on the subject of the “possible” reclassification of cannabis. It takes place in London on the 5th of February.

This government has apparently decided the outcome of this consultation and Jacqui Smith has already leaked their decision to put cannabis back into Class B from its current status of Class C.

It widely known that the government has chosen this path for one simple reason, to appear “tough on drugs.” They identified this issue as one which Tony Blair and David Blunkett left them vulnerable to criticism that could be easily changed without much public outcry.

They’re correct on that score. How many dope smokers do you know that would attend a government-held, public consultation on cannabis, and confess to regularly breaking a law, which is about to become a lot harder on people who enjoy weed?

Let’s not bullshit around this…a change in classification from C to B means only one thing and that is to further criminalise people who smoke a bit of dope. The penalties for production and distribution of cannabis are exactly the same under class B and C - exactly the same! The difference is on the otherwise law abiding citizen, who partakes of this plant - the penalties for simple possession are significantly harsher.

Why would the government wish to criminalise so many people? Could it have to do with building new prisons and needing people to fill those places? Dopeheads aren’t dangerous or violent, you would have a prison population that was cheap and easy to manage!

Think that’s a bit “conspiracy theory” even for me? Ok, have you got a better explanation?

Just about every think tank, policy group and genuine expert feels it should be left class C, decriminalised or legalised completely. Many cops believe this too, and so do a fair few MPs and ministers, but many are afraid to voice their opinions for fear of the wrath of the Mail/Express/Telegraph set.

I considered attending that consultation on the 5th of Feb. I thought long and hard about going, stating my real name and reading a selection of entries I’ve written on this subject so near and dear to my heart. And then I pussied out.

Look, either we all go, or none of us go! That’s right, all 6 million (estimated) regular cannabis smokers have to register to attend. Every last one of us. I’ll go, if you’ll all go. They can’t put us all in jail, can they? If they try, we can just seek asylum in the Netherlands!

Here are a few interesting and related links:

This is from the cannazine and talks about the 5th Feb consultation and how they are ignoring the experts in the decision to regrade
Click Me.

This one is from the Independent, it’s the same story, only with some questionable mental health details thrown in to confuse the issue
Click Me.

This is from the Times and talks about how the government should base its policies on science, not emotion. It sites the cannabis “debate” as an example
Click Me.

And here again is my cannabis truth series, which is worth reading if you want to know the real story and not the twisted shit they want you to believe!
Click Me.

I’ve read a bit about Republican presidential candidate. Ron Paul and his rather sensible, if controversial views, but seeing him effortlessly field questions about drugs with rational, intelligent, informed replies is a wonder to behold.

My brother sent me this YouTube clip of Mr. Paul being interviewed by American television network, ABC’s John Stossel and the first two minutes are well worth your valuable surfing time:

I hate to say it, but this guy hasn’t got a hope in hell of winning. I know he’s got loads of support, I know he makes sense, but the powers that be will never allow anyone who talks that straight anywhere near the White House! If it looked like he had a chance, they would cook the election again. Anyway, the chances of him getting the nomination from the heavy christian-fundamentalist-ruled Republican party are slim to none.

It’s a real shame, because it sounds like Ron Paul could make a real difference and America would never let someone with that capability to run the show. Maybe we should all just elect him president of the world instead?

Perusing the internet, as I do, seeking inspiration and of course, cannabis related news, I stumbled upon this little gem, which can be found on quite a few news sites. I’ve opted to use a link to the Reuters News Agency website, as news agencies, especially Reuters and AP, are normally the most unbiased organisations.

Here’s the topline of the report:

“A study of more than 5,000 youngsters in Switzerland has found those who smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas as those who don’t, researchers said on Monday.”

I told you it would do your head in! Just imagine how hard it will be for governments around the world to spin this one away!

The evidence in favour of cannabis continues to mount, as witnessed in my “cannabis truth series”, but the fuckers with the power have no interest in truth and seek only to suppress it. Luckily for you, you’ve got me and “truth” is my middle name.

Ok, I don’t have a middle name, my parents couldn’t be bothered. See how goddamn truthful I am!

(Read the northlondonhippy’s cannabis truth series. Go on, learn something cool!)

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 northlondonhippy offers to be the voice of reason, truth, sanity and experience regarding cannabis - 30 July 2007

The GUARDIAN of truth - 12 June 2007

False hysteria sells - 27 March 2007

A homegrown harvest - 13 March 2007

Brave People - 27 October 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!

Sometimes, this blog just writes itself and the following entry is ripped straight off the front page of today’s Guardian newspaper.

The headline reads “Cannabis use down since legal change” and it was written by their Home Affairs Editor, Alan Travis, based on the latest report by the British Crime Survey. Mr. Travis has continued to provide fair, balanced and responsible coverage of this very important issue. That can’t be easy in the current climate of fear and false information and I would like to publicly thank him for that. Please take the time to read HIS REPORT.

A few key quotes:

1) “Gordon Brown’s plans to tighten the law on cannabis by increasing the penalties for possession suffered a fresh blow yesterday as the latest official figures showed the decision to downgrade the drug had been followed by a significant fall in its use.

British Crime Survey statistics showed that the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds using cannabis slumped from 28% a decade ago to 21% now, with its declining popularity accelerating after the decision to downgrade the drug to class C was announced in January 2004.”

2) “…the BCS figures published yesterday showed that cannabis is beginning to lose its allure with teenagers. The proportion of frequent users in the 16-24 age group, who were using the drug more than once a month, fell from 12% to 8% in the past four years.”

3) “The decline in cannabis consumption prompted a call from the independent UK Drugs Policy Commission to take decisions about drug classification out of the hands of ministers. Dame Ruth Runciman, the commission’s chief, said: “We do not believe the credibility of the current system or the clarity of message has been enhanced when, in just the space of seven years, five home secretaries have sought one way or another to address the classification of cannabis.”

Good policymaking had been overshadowed by “politicking”, and much of the confusion among public and politicians stemmed from misunderstandings about the classification system. The commission also says there is no evidence a drug’s classification deterred use, and suggested that instead of tinkering the whole classification system should be placed outside the direct control of politicians.”

4) “Claims that “superskunk”,.. (is) dominant were also undermined by police and customs seizure figures…. (with skunk making up) less than one-third of the (UK) market.”

The significance of this report cannot be underestimated. It contradicts absolutely every lie coming from the government on their justification for possible reclassification of cannabis. It pisses all over much of the bullshit we’ve been reading the newspapers over the last few months too.

I think Dame Runciman is onto something when she says the decision should be taken away from ministers. She is so right. Drug use is mainly a health issue, and should not be confused with legal or moral arguments.

The Guardian wasn’t the only newspaper to cover this story, as you can see for yourself in The Times and the Independent. The truth always finds a way!

I’m looking forward to this Sunday’s “Independent on Sunday”, to see how they can spin this one into some silly-assed shite.

Yes, IoS, you print a hell of a lot of silly-assed shite when it comes to my beloved cannabis and I am really getting bored with it. I’m guessing a senior editor there must have a teenage son or daughter who got into trouble and decided it was easier to blame weed, then take responsibility.

The IoS campaign smacks of personal interest, bordering on vendetta. As journalists, you’re supposed to be the dispassionate observers, you’re not meant to further your personal agenda with lie after lie. I have an agenda as too, but I back it up with the truth and personal experience and am trying to do some genuine good. If the IoS continues like this, they will be exposed and no one will trust anything else they publish.

Is the reputation of your newspaper worth backing losing horse? The hypocrisy you’re showing will do you no favours. You can’t continue to ignore the hard facts and it would be much better for you to come out now with an editorial, explaining you got it wrong and revert back to your previous and long running campaign to legalise weed! We’d forgive you if you did!

I don’t see how anyone can ignore these hard facts and reliable statistics, but I’m sure our government will find a way. If they can avoid the truth to justify the war in Iraq, it will be a piece of piss to do the same thing with weed. Both of those things make this hippy very sad.

I get confused, sometimes, by all the different, conflicting bits of information offered to me on any given day.

I try to disregard as much of it as I can, but when it comes to the battle over cannabis, my ears prick up, which is markedly better than a prick up your ear.

The current lies being peddled about weed must be confusing to a lot of folks out there. The powers that be are not-so-subtly working hard to shift public perception. They want you to think marijuana is the devil’s weed; that it will turn your children in psychotic killers who are only concerned with where their next fix of dope is coming from.

This portrayal couldn’t be any further from the truth if they tried. Oh wait, they are trying and they are not in remote proximity of even a reflection in a puddle of piss of truth.

Yet, the newspaper headlines scream with outrageous anger and hyperbole over the dangers of cannabis.

Headlines can be wrong. Frequently, they are. It’s easier to parrot some make believe fact, if that fictitious fact creates fear and moral indignation.

Here’s something you won’t be reading in any respectable newspaper, any time soon. A recent study carried out by a respected Dutch university, compared the teenage brains via MRI scans of two groups of teenagers; group A were regular weed smokers, group B never touched the stuff.

Guess what? There was no discernible difference in the results, between the two groups. Or as it says in the headline of the article I’m quoting, “Cannabis not dangerous for young people”.

Could you imagine the front page of the Daily Mail or the Independent on Sunday splashing the same headline across their front page? Neither can I, but a hippy can dream and this hippy does. Far too much.

I’m not really a hippy, but I do play one on the internet.

That confession shouldn’t be a huge surprise to you, as I’ve said on more than one occasion on this very blog that I’m not an actual hippy.

I’m a genuine capitalist, not like the people who run the country. I believe that market forces should dictate what the market sells; demand should regulate supply. That is one of my biggest arguments for legalising drugs. People want them and the black market steps in where the controlled market fails.

If you’re anti-legalisation, then you’re not a real capitalist and I can’t take you seriously over any economic issue. Are you listening Mr. Brown? And you Tory twats? I hope you all wrote that down!

Genuine hippies don’t believe in survival of the fittest, they believe in a world where we all help one and other. All you have to do is step outside your front door for 30 seconds and you’ll see how unhippy-like the world truly is in that regard. People are cunts and they treat each other like cunts. That, my friends, is a sure thing.

I’m over-generalising, but you get the idea. The more selfish you are, the better your chances of survival are. If you put yourself ahead of everyone else, you’re probably going to come out on top. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule as well.

Think about your boss, or bosses in general. They all tend to share a common belief that they are better than the people working below them. This belief doesn’t come from having the more senior role, I’m sure they all believed they were superior prior to that. If anything, that innate belief in superiority is what got them the job in the first place. But reaching that position of power can come with a price, and the price can be dismissal from a hotshot, high paying gig.

I’m not selfish enough, but then I don’t claim to be the fittest and worthy of survival. I wouldn’t last 2 minutes in the real jungle, I don’t have that killer instinct, much as I pretend I do. I’m too pseudo-philosophical and too much of a pseudo-intellectual to care about anything enough to really fight for it. I’d be chewed up, swallowed down and shat out by a bigger, meaner, scarier animal than me.

And that would be OK. If you believe in the laws of the jungle, then you have to accept your fate. I accept mine every day the good lord above sees fit to let me wake up and endure another day.

Like I believe in “the good lord above”! You didn’t buy that shit, did you? There is no god, there’s only hippies and occasionally, once in a generation, there are hippygods. I am that hippygod and have the business cards to prove it.

Except, I’m not really a hippy. I don’t even own a pair of sandals, never mind love beads.

What are “love beads” anyway? Could a real hippy let me know? Preferrably one that was older than 6 when the 70s started, I was 6 when 1970 started and I just don’t know what they are.

I bet these people know. I mean, the people in THIS REPORT from today’s Independent, which checks up on some former hippies to see if they are still living the dream.

I guess the Indy left me out of that list because they think I am currently a hippy and they probably already know I was 6 when the 60’s ended. It still would have been nice for them to phone me, you know, just to say “hi”.

I know you guys at the Indy are coming here, hanging out, reading my shit. I mention your rag too much for you not too. I don’t mind if you sniff around my nether regions a bit. I kinda like it, actually, but usually I expect a bit of dinner or a drink before I let someone do that sort of thing to me.

Don’t worry, I still dig your Monday-Saturday editions, but you really need to sort those dorks at the IoS out. Their lies, exaggerations and mixed messages on cannabis are ludicrous, hurtful and unhelpful and they should cease immediately. You know it makes sense!

Yep, me again. And no, it’s not the threatened review of my brand new, shiny, lickable and superfast iMac. It’s coming. So is xmas. Xmas will not come first, because as we all know, coming first is rude.

As I was threading my way through the rush hour traffic this morning, struggling to get myself home, I started thinking how much I could really do with get seriously out of my skull.

What I mean is, I could really do with a psychedelic trip that got me totally off my face. I need to see some pretty colours!

I’ve done acid a handful of times, the last time around 10 years ago. I also used to enjoy magic mushrooms, around every week or so. I’ve lost count of the number of shroom trips I’ve had.

Magic mushrooms grow wild all over the UK and a friend of mine would take an annual pilgrimage to the West Country every autumn to collect them. He was always very generous with them and I ended up with a few trips yearly.

Then, in 2003 I discovered that fresh magic mushrooms were available, legally to purchase and consume. I didn’t believe it at first, that you could really buy them that easily. At first, I thought it was some sort of a scam. How wrong I was!

I first ordered them from EDIT my friends who are now the exclusive distributors of my NLH deluxe bong. They arrived the following day and were exactly as described. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I started researching shrooms, learning about different strains, potencies and dosages. With my friend’s West Country shrooms, I never measured them; they were dried and relatively easy to consume, if not totally disgusting.

Fresh shrooms are even nastier, slimy and cold, with the flavour of what I expect the insides of a rotting corpse might taste like. Gross!

I started out on 30 grams of Mexican p-cubes, which is a reasonable, but not overly strong dose - for me anyway. Over the few years I did them regularly, I worked my way up to higher doses, peaking around 55 grams or so.

The trips were amazing, I got to hang out with the mushroom god. Search for him on my site, if you want to know more. Basically, if you eat enough shrooms, the mushroom god visits you and shows you the pretty colours!

Shrooms take a while to hit you. On an empty stomach, it would take 60-90 minutes before feeling the first effects, with a peak reached anywhere from 2-4 hours and lasting for 4-6 hours. It pretty much wasted a whole day, but what way to waste it!

Psychedelic drugs enhance your perception; the simple way to understand it is they make the synaptic nerves in your brain fire faster, giving you more sensory input. Your vision sharpens, as does your hearing which makes music sound amazing. As you get further into your trip, patterns in things swish and swirl, wood grain flows like a river.

On one particularly pleasant trip, on some Colombian p-cubes, right at the point where I peaked, I saw a burst of rainbow colours in the air, in a sun-filled room. It was astoundingly beautiful and completely unexpected. Colombians are apparently known for the colours they produce, but try as I did, I was unable to repeat the experience.

No two trips are exactly alike, which is why I had no chance of repeating my explosion of colour by premeditating it. Shrooms take you on the journey, though I can’t say I really lost any control. Except once…

For my birthday a few years back, I had some Hawaiian shrooms, which are very well known for their ultra-high potency. I had tried them before, electing to experiment with the recommended starter dose of 10 grams. They didn’t do that much for me. Then, I did something stupid, I doubled the dose.

Bad move! I had a seriously strong trip which ended with me hiding under my duvet with my eyes closed for several hours, still seeing a multi-coloured geometric pattern stretched from right in front of me, all the way to infinity. I couldn’t see what my eyes were seeing, I could only “see” what my brain was generating. Kids, I seriously recommend you do NOT try this at home!

A few months after that, the government put fresh magic mushrooms into Class A, which is the same category as coke and smack….the fuckers! In no way are shrooms anywhere near as bad for you as heroin or crack. Used responsibly, they are very safe, good fun!

Thanks to the actions of some stupid tourists, the Dutch have just banned shrooms as well. So much for tolerant Holland! The tourists in question were all drinking as well, but booze had nothing to do with their unfortunate incidents. Sure thing! Booze never causes anyone any trouble, does it?

I think I read that shroom farming is a 14 million pound a year business in Holland. That’s an awful lot of money to be just throwing away. And people will still want their shrooms, they will just have to go underground for them.

I haven’t had any shrooms since the government outlawed them. It’s not because I haven’t had the chance, one can still get them, if one knows where to look - like online! You can still get grow kits from Europe, if you really want some and they’re dead easy to grow. I haven’t had any shrooms because I don’t do Class A drugs and haven’t done since I gave up coke and E’s over 5 years ago.

I still love weed and continue to sample lots of different legal highs, and as of today, I wouldn’t mind something psychedelic. I don’t think I will actively seek anything electric, but should I be offered some shrooms or even a blotter, I would be sorely tempted to accept the universe’s generosity. I could really use a little break from reality right now, I think it would do my mental health a world of good.

It’s clear to anyone with an open mind and access to the facts that the prohibition on drugs is not working on any level. Supplies are at an all time high, potency is up while prices continue to fall and prisons worldwide are filled with otherwise law abiding folks who are no threat to society or other people. Yet, in the face of all that, our leaders continue to cling to irrational policies that only make the situation worse.

I’ve been pro-legalisation for many, many years. I can see the serious harm that current drug legislation causes to societies around the world and that damage it does to individuals. As an otherwise law abiding citizen myself, I find it absolutely abhorrent that I am criminalised because I enjoy smoking cannabis in the privacy of my own home.

There has been much made in the media recently over cannabis with many trumped up scare stories based on weak science and a repetition of non-facts to justify a reclassification of weed back to Class B from its current status of Class C. Those of us who have taken the time to examine the facts know that this is a politically motivated move, meant to make our new leadership appear strong on the drug issue, with no regard for how it effects society. When it comes to drugs, most people in power refuse to be rational on the subject, instead they prey on your emotions.

Current drug policy is built on these twin themes, of attempting to appear tougher than your opposition and appealing to people’s emotional and moral views. The prevailing criteria for dealing with this complex issue should not be based on anything other than, clear, rational, common sense. Laws should provide the most benefit to the most people. That’s common sense. Current drug legislation benefits only one group of people, the black marketeers who insure their wares are readily available to anyone who wants them at wildly inflated prices.

You don’t have to believe me, as there is a cover story in the most recent edition of a publication called “Foreign Policy” which has been making waves in political circles around the world. This rather conservative, respected and highbrow magazine is calling for the complete legalisation of all drugs. It’s extremely well-presented, thoughtfully considered and thought provoking and worthy of your valuable surfing time. Please read it by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.

It’s not just crazy, pseudo-intellectual hippies based in north London who want to see drugs made legal. A top police officer, a bit closer to home has come to the same conclusion. Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales is preparing to submit just such a proposal to the Home Secretary, laying out this very sensible solution regarding illegal substances. My friends at the Independent newspaper had THIS STORY on the front page of their newspaper on Monday.

Whenever I’ve personally spoken to law enforcement officers or read about their views in the press, they always seem to support decriminalisation or legalisation. These are the people on the front lines in the “war on drugs”, so their voices should carry a bit more weight and gravitas than even our elected politicians, who remain blinkered to reality.

Here’s another example of the view from someone formally, very senior in law enforcement. Lord Ramsbotham, who used to be the chief inspector of prisons, has come out in full support of Chief Constable Brunstrom’s proposals. Again, my friends at the Independent published THIS REPORT today, which details Lord Ramsbotham’s comments.

As an aside, I’m still continuing to be amused by the giant schism between the Independent (the one published Mon-Sat) and the Independent on Sunday regarding drugs. While the daily version of the Indy continues to provide fairly balanced and commendable coverage on cannabis, the IoS is following a policy of misrepresenting facts to justify fictitious banner headlines nearly every Sunday.

I’m sure someone at the Indy is tracking back to my site and reading this. I’m also certain I can’t be the only one amused by this silly situation and I bet their own employees are laughing too!

The most recent example of this poor level of journalism in the Independent on Sunday, was a misquote from Mr. Nice, Howard Marks regarding an as-yet unproved link between cannabis use and psychosis. I won’t provide a link, so as not to further embarrass the IoS, but what Mr. Marks said is that the situation is worthy of further study and the question was similar to that old favourite, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does cannabis cause psychosis or does having psychosis help steer people towards cannabis for relief? It should be studied further, because the reports so far are extremely inconclusive and like most things in this world, far more complex than a newspaper headline can allow.

The government has already said that a proper rethink on drugs policy is out of the question, Their minds are closed to even posing the question for debate. In a free and open society, how is that beneficial to anyone?

I don’t understand what the problem is with rational thought, examining the hard facts and reaching a sensible, common-sense conclusion. I apply these simple rules to absolutely everything in my life, both professionally and personally and these this approach has never, ever let me down.

Why can’t we present the facts properly? Why do we have to be ruled by people who refuse to consider things unemotionally? Why can’t we just do what’s right and rational? Shouldn’t we all be doing our best to make the world a better place?

I just sited several examples of intelligent, rational people, with experience and knowledge on the subject of drugs, offering up alternative views on something we all agree is a problem that requires a solution. Why won’t they listen? Why do the powers that be automatically react as a reflex in attempting to discredit both the message and the messenger?

Wouldn’t changing our tack on drugs be prudent? Isn’t our new PM supposed to be a fan of prudence? Isn’t he in favour of a free market economy? Doesn’t he claim to care about the future of Britain? Then why won’t he even entertain a full and frank discussion of the issue? Is there a wider agenda which lurks beneath all of this?

I don’t have the answers, but I do have some more thoughts on the subject, which many of you know is near and dear to this hippy’s heart. I’ll be returning to the subject soon, with a glance in the direction of the latest anti-drug phenomenon, the cannabis-hysteria mum as well as offering a possible explanation why cannabis is currently under such a serious assault from the establishment. Bet you all just can’t wait!

(read the hippy’s cannabis truth series)