Weed and the uk law

[changedforonenightonly]

Inspired by an ongoing thread.

In your opinion and on your experiences should cannabis be illegal to grow, sell or consume.

My view is yes to all. With restrictions. Happy to be told I am wrong.

I don't know what they would look like but yes in general as I believe it's less harmful than alcohol.

I speak as a person who is a consumer on a weekend. Not every weekend and maybe once a month but yes a consumer.

I'd like quality checks. I'd be prepared to pay tax on this like alcohol.

No I don’t think it should be made legal, apart from anything else it stinks. I know someone unlucky enough to live in the same block of flats as someone who smokes weed. The whole block has this horrible smell.

Before I got this job I was fairly neutral toward weed.

But now I spend my working days in the criminal courts and see the sharp end of cannabis use. I absolutely do not think it should be legalised. It addles brains and causes people to sink into depression or, worse, psychosis. It impairs straight-thinking and stops the juveniles who use it from fulfilling their potential. I’ve no idea why we’d want to inflict that on society.

And worse still, the people who use cannabis seem to be completely ignorant toward the effect it has on them.

Ask people who work in the criminal justice system or in mental health services what they think and the majority will say legalisation would be a bad idea.

I use for medical reasons: chronic pain (11 years), muscular spasms, sciatica, etc. The prescribed alternatives of Tramadol, the Gaba range of meds and a few other have been horrific. Finding quality organic Indica strains (body high - pain killing) over sativa (head high - get fucked up) strains is a never ending problem.

An ex prime ministers husband is, or at least was a major director/ shareholder of GW Pharmaceuticals, one of the worlds, if not the worlds biggest exporters of medical grade cannabis, none of it for the UK market, save for a MS prescribed med. Sold to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, registered in Ireland, building a big complex in Kent, go figure...

I would only support legalisation for medical uses, but not recreational.

I have seen far too many people who loose the will to work and do anything productive with their lives on it. Also they can stink out entire blocks of flats with it. Do you really want your toddler to be constantly breathing in someone's second hand weed smoke because they can't afford to move?

I don't take drugs myself (although I do drink alcohol, so, you know), but I fully support decriminalisation / legalisation.

Throughout the history of humanity, people have always and will continue to take mind-altering substances.

Impose quality standards, standardise outputs, make points of consumption safe and available, tax sales.

There is no such thing as 'zero consumption', so the best thing we can do is to make that consumption safe, thereby removing the risk of harm not only to users, but those involved in trade, too.

I'd also argue that the illegality of cannabis has given rise to this horrible super-strength skunk that's on the go these days (which smells foul and contributes, I think, to the rise in weed-induced psychosis).

If people had the right to grow their own, more mellow forms of cannabis (the sort of resin that was popular when I would occasionally partake in the late 90s/early 00s) without fear of arrest, would that alleviate the problem?

So where do the personal users get their supply?
You've made it illegal to grow it or supply it.

It's a no from me. I know too many people with mood disorders, anxiety disorders and one poor sod with schizophrenia as a result of cannabis use. I'm not a fan of alcohol either but I suppose it's too late to roll back on that. I know lots of people say they smoke a spliff at the weekends or in the evening and it's lovely for them and that's great good for you but it isn't for a lot of people and I don't think it is talked about enough. People constantly go in with the alcohol is worse argument like that makes the ill effects that many suffer from cannabis use ok.

My mom smoked cannabis all my life and it never caused any bother. My dad on the other hand is an alcoholic, no more words needed really. If I could pick out the two, I would legalise weed and make alcohol illegal!

I have a twenty-something son that can't touch the stuff. No matter what the strain even the tiniest amount of THC induces terrible anxiety in him. And he doesn't normally suffer from anxiety; it's definitely a reaction to the THC.

So it definitely doesn't agree with some people's brain chemistry.

Cannabis absolutely ruins lives with the mental health issues related to its use ! I have witnessed the effects of it from different people and how it has caused absolute chaos in other peoples lives ..bloody shocking! Definitely should not be legalised and dealers should be in prison!

My mother and step father used to smoke it along with everyone else at BBQs/parties they held, drink and drugs everywhere, their behaviour under multiple influences is unforgettable, fear inducing, especially when I remember trying to shield my much younger siblings from it all.

Unfortunately my brother has used from a young teenager and has multiple MH issues, is abusive, neglectful and absolutely horrendous to everyone in the family unless he wants something.

He was a beautiful little boy and now he's ruined.

I can not abide the smell of it in public, I find it quite distressing actually when I get a random whiff. I have an addictive personality so I have never partaken and I only have 1 alcoholic drink with Christmas dinner, once a year, that's my limit.

I support the use of it in medicine and feel it should be prescribed more often for an array of conditions, more than currently, however I would never support a legalisation of it, ever.

If it is regulated there will be legal growers growing it under controlled conditions, not some poor immigrant trapped in a house watching it. It's the same with selling, you might be able to get it in a licensed shop like you do alcohol.

Oh god yes the stink too. Rank

Weed is massively harmful. It wrecks people's MH.
I hate it and would not want to see it legalised.

Yes, it smells and is disgusting and leads to stupid outcomes. However, I still think every drug should be decriminalised, regulated and treated as what it is, a MH and addiction issue. Not a criminal issue.

Legalise and tax cannabis. Decriminalise everything else. Use the money for treatment and social services.

And do what would ACTUALLY reduce addiction, reduce childhood trauma. Try to deal with sexual, emotional and physical abuse and rehabs would be half empty. As would prisons.

I live in a state where it was decriminalised a few years ago.

There was obv a huge pent up demand.

The state taxes sales. Growers have to be licensed. There were efforts to assure racial equity in the issuing of licenses. People who want to buy it and other pot based products including delivery items (for vaping) can choose from a variety of options - it's quite an industry, employing a good few people, all contributing to the economy.

I don't see drugs and alcohol use as moral issues. I think the 'war on drugs' is a massive and unconscionable waste of public money thst has devastated many communities. All of the problems associated with the illegality of drugs were amply demonstrated in the US during Prohibition - the rise of the Mafia, horrific crime, ruined lives. Yet on either rside of the Atlantic politicians appealed to the same moral panic and launched the war on drugs, and worse, kept at it for decades even though it was perfectly obvious that it was having exactly the same results as Prohibition. Yes, Al Capone got his comeuppance, but the network of criminals he and others built endured and blighted American cities for decades, amd continue to do so and to inspire others to this day.

My late FIL was a surgeon who was on call once every four weeks, and frequently got the call late in the night to get tot he hospital for yet another surgery on yet another young person whose life would never be the same again thanks to the buying and selling of illegal drugs and surrounding violence.

He was an advocate of legalising all drugs, controlling sale through state run clinics where users could access various services to help them get clean, amd help their families. He was also conscious of the toll illegal drugs have on the law and civil society of countries where drugs are grown - Mexico, most of Central America, Colombia, Afghanistan, etc. Those places are tightly in the grip of criminal gangs, politics are corrupted, and the lives of ordinary people are very, very difficult. I think his arguments made a lot of sense.

Do you drink tea? Wear clothes? Wear shoes?

You're very likely contributing to modern slavery.

Disingenuous argument. All slavery should be prevented, but so much of what we do already contributes to it. I'm not convinced that other trade will make much difference.

Why aren't newer recreational drugs treated similarly to the established recreational drugs alcohol and tobacco?

Legalising drugs might even be a way of improving producers' conditions with schemes such as Fairtrade.

Having met a lot of drug users I feel very strongly about it staying illegal.
Cannabis causes so many problems through psychosis and brain damage in young uses. Most regular uses seem to develop either extreme lethargy or paranoia.
The effects of alcohol (unless you're an alcoholic) wear off quickly, with cannabis it's real risk of brain damage.

Also you say that by legalising it you'd remove the modern slavery etc. I doubt it would because why would all the users buy the expensive taxed legal stuff? It doesn't work with tobacco, the market is flooded with illegal untaxed tobacco. It's a massive area of organised crime.

Same. I work with people with brain disorders. Every single one of my patients under the age of 35 has drug induced psychosis caused by smoking weed. One of them literally smoked it once when she was peer pressured by her ex and his friends, she had such a bad experience it completely and permanently altered her mental health. It resulted in her dropping out of uni and going missing for 4 years as she was ashamed for her family. She was eventually found living in squalor with 2 children after someone reported her to social services. The children were taken from her and she was sectioned, she is now living in an assisted living facility and probably will be for the rest of her life. She has anxiety, depression, panic attacks, cannot leave her room, has ocd, has attempted suicide multiple times when she goes downhill, the list goes on. I don’t give a fuck when it comes to statistics. She was an outgoing and successful young woman with the world at her feet until that night. It has the power to destroy lives in the most agonising way. I know alcohol statistically causes more harm overall, but I don’t know a single person who has developed psychosis, dropped out of school and had their children removed after drinking a single beer. People underestimate what this drug can do.

Legalising it wont stop the trade they will just undercut legitimate producers and grow stronger product if anything it will make it worse

I live in a high drug use area the stench is appalling not just the cannabis but the excessive users (who definitely arnt addicted noo) they have been known to wet themselves when they fall asleep on the streets and just lie in it then they do more drugs and more drugs until they are shuffling around the streets in crusty clothes begging for money to get to their sick mum or sick child just need some petrol or a train ticket they are a fucking liability a fair few started off as rich children can't even blame poverty for it

I think it should be legalised, controlled and most importantly taxed at the rate of alcohol.

@Ihatethenewlook and @XenoBitch presumably that happened in places where cannabis was illegal. People conflate decriminalisation with acceptance.

I believe cannabis is harmful and I d think it causes disproportionate amounts of harm to young people's mental health. I also think it should be legal. Because young people are using it ANYWAY and the only things illegality does is makes it harder to seek help, easier to get a criminal record and further ruin your life, more difficult to standardise and tax, more likely to fund crime, more likely to increase violence and gang activity, less like to be able to research strains which might help more and hinder less.

Young people are doing it anyway, we need to understand that and treat it as a public health issue, not a criminal one. Apart from anything else it's all based on racism anyway.