I just got this link from one of the wonderful clandestine researchers on the Healing Herbs film that Diarmuid and I produced:
Duncan Campbell for The Guardian wrote:A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored.
The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.
There are, according to the report, now more than 160 million users of the drug worldwide. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," according to the report. "Historically, there have only been two deaths worldwide attributed to cannabis, whereas alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone."
To read the full article please click here.
My standing on cannabis legislation. The stuff has been used for centuries by other cultures to control pain, enhance the human experience, resolve conflict (native Americans - peace pipe), and even as part of certain religious practices.
The British governments (whichever one is in power at any given time), and all war-making governments fear the reality of the plant in that; when injested there is a very real potential for the user to open their mind's eye and perception to all the wonder of being alive. This does not sit well with these 'powers that be' when they are hellbent on getting as many young people as possible tooled up for war and bunged into uniforms. Britain makes a vast fortune from the sale of arms to poorer regions which they then exploit further by sending in troops to kill / control. A bit of cannabis/pot allows people to feel a gut reaction that tells them war is inherently wrong...
I could wax lyrical about this all day. All week in fact, but I wont...
Decriminalise cannabis and the dealers are removed, or have to switch to selling hard drugs which do indeed do harm. Decriminalise cannabis and Tax payer's money which gets absorbed in pointless court cases and policing staff hours can be used to either work towards even more efficient NHS provision of services (Britain), or research into cures/treatments for cancer and other life threatening conditions (worldwide)...
Hyperlink in this post is to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/ ... rugspolicy