Would you report - yes or no?

[fluffyraggies]

Quick poll:

A person you know, not family, is growing, using and selling weed (in high enough quantities to turn a tidy profit) year round.

Would you report them to the police?

Once upon a time, I think I would have said yes.

But these days, I've read a lot about how the sales of illegal drugs imported into the UK fund organised crime, human suffering, slavery, drug wars, etc. How the West's desire for nice neighbourhoods and illegal drugs causes masses of suffering in the countries that supply it. About Narco-states. The stuff I've read was mainly concerning cocaine, but before I did any reporting I'd read to see whether the same issues were associated with cannabis production.

If they do, then... I think that I might much rather the local spliffheads gave their money to some guy who grew the stuff in England, without slave labour, and spent the money at Tesco, even if he didn't pay tax, than they funded organised crime cartels in other countries, who were involved in sex trafficking, murder, torture, and all the rest of it.

I'd like to know a lot more about his customer base before I made the final call, for obvious reasons, but if he does actually have any scruples at all and he's working on his own, human suffering caused by drugs would remain the same in the UK after he went to prison, because local users would just find another dealer,but suffering in the rest of the world could increase.

Here is a link to some information on how cannabis can be useful.

www.cannabis-med.org/index.php?tpl=faq&red=faqlist&id=278&lng=en

I would love to go into details. However i daren't.

I was so hoping for a clearer majority one way or the other. I've been wrestling with this for a few months now.

I can safely say a few things;
The bloke is in his 30's - not a teen.
He is using cocaine as well as weed.
He is most def selling the weed. No doubts about it.
He is making between 1 and 2k every couple of months. Undeclared!
It's grown in his home. rented.
He has a normal job too.

I'm worried about the anonymity of reporting. There would be terrible repercussions if it was worked out that it was me who reported him.

I can expect individuals to agree to laws, yes. Because your argument sounds like a petulant teen saying 'I didn't ask to be born'. And yes, I have broken laws but have come the conclusion outlined above. And the laws I broke were often related to drugs. And I dealt a bit. Acid and speed, in case you were wondering.

I know for a fact about the CDs because of a long and boring story. And it was in 2001 and facilities to back them up were not quite so readily available. And part of the reason lots of them were irreplaceable was that family members and friends are musicians and they had given me things that were never available in the shop.

I am pretty sure I don't break laws now. I hope I don't. I even do 68 miles an hour on the motorway.

Is he likely to work out that it is you? He would probably have many people in mind who he was suspicious of. I doubt that you would figure highly on his list.

Your gut says report, doesnt it?

Okay. Given your update, not a sweet old hippy then.

Nasty violent criminal with enforcers, eh?

Why are you talking about peoples kids yellowballoons?you dont win a debate by saying oh youre not thinking about your kids.thats what you are saying.whether you shop everyone you know or not its down to the individual who chooses to participate.

Ginger. If you knew for sure that your mental health would be affected somewhere along the way doing your current lifestyle, would you stop taking the weed?

Might be a sweet old hippy that has kids that the op doesn't want to see taken not care?

in answer to the original op - yes, without a doubt.

To all those who say No - it's none of their businesses, don't moan then when your kids start smoking it. I am genuinely shocked at those who wouldn't.

Into ffs

No I wouldn't, wouldn't be my business. Why do you feel the need to involve yourself OP?

Yes! What's with this "none of my business" stuff? This is why bad crap happens in communities....because everyone shuts their eyes and doors to things like this.

LimitedEdition. Would you say that kids as young as 8 or 9 , or as young as 15 fully know what they are doing?

It is up to parents what they allow or teach their children.

If they wasnt to say to them that if you take weed, then there is no problem, that is up to them.

Yes, because children with crackhead parents always have perfect home lives, eh?

Violent drug dealers who intimidate their neighbours into keeping quiet make such good fathers, eh?

Social service involvement will split apart a modern idyll, eh?

I was merely speculating on why the op might have said it would have huge repercussions.

Report

There's always going to be a market for it so no, I wouldn't report it. Because it's none of my business and I don't feel I can judge. There's a reason it is prescribed medically.

Google Rick Simpson and read how people are being cured of cancer etc. with hemp oil.

It's big pharma that has a stake in keeping it illegal.

There's a big difference between prescribing something medically and selling it for recreational use. I would condemn someone who said Valium for recreational use.

Googled him and found this : Dr Grinspoon said: 'Simpson, who does not have a medical or scientific education (he dropped out of school in ninth grade), apparently does not require that a candidate for his treatment have an established diagnosis of a specific type of cancer, usually achieved through biopsy, gross and histopathological examinations, radiologic and clinical laboratory evidence.

'He apparently accepts the word of his "patients". Furthermore, after he has given the course of "hemp-oil" there is apparently no clinical or laboratory follow-up.'He apparently accepts the "patient's" belief that he has been cured.

fluffyRaggies, he'll get caught sooner or later anyway. They always do.

Not sure that makes you feel any better, it's a tough choice to make if you're close enough to him to know the ins-and-outs of how much he makes.

His conscience will be clear until the day the cuffs are banged on and he's in a prison for a few years. Scruples or not, he's breaking the law and on that scale of dealing, he's going to get caught. The stuff stinks for a start! Lots are found by the helicopters tracking lofts for heat.

If it was a great helpful drug, Pfizer would be selling it for a lot more money!

My gut says report it yellow, yes.

dragons - why do i feel the need to involve myself? I keep trying to answer that and then deleting it again. What i can say is that my reasons for NOT reporting it would be a) it's not my business, live and let live, b) if he gets stopped someone else will probably just fill the void and c) there is a small risk he might think it's me. Repercussions etc. He's very paranoid about getting shopped. I don't like the guy. He knows for sure that i know about his dealing.

The huge repercussions i was on about pertain more to me and my family than him and his. However he has a young son, yes. Who he sees regularly in the property where weed and drugs are dealt and used. Not good, but if he went to prison the son wouldn't see his dad any more.

This always happens on MN when weed is mentioned, it turns in to a debate of alcohol and weed.

Weed is illigal as when it's abused it causes serious problems. Serious mental health issues, higher risk of heart attacks and more dangerous than just smoking and of course causes certain cancers .

Does weed have certain medicinal properties when used right ? But the highest percentage that use it are addicted and abusing it. It's not some granny with ailments.

When abused, it sucks the life out of people, I've got to pot head in my family.

Does alcahol when abused cause severe issues? Certainly.

I live on an estate where it's normal to see very young teenagers with spliffs walking about, do I want my daughter to be around it? Hell no! Infact our local GP was actually part of the governments drug scheme and moved here to help fight the problem if young men and weed.

These people DO need reporting! They won't be paying tax on it and selling it to our kids!

I'd feel the same if they were selling knock of booze too!

yellowballoons

I've already stated earlier in the thread that I don't smoke it anymore as I quit smoking cigarettes (because of the cost of cigarettes) so the weed had to go as well. I smoked weed for about 11 years.

If I hadn't quit smoking I would have carried on smoking weed. It didn't affect my mental health.

I also stopped smoking weed when I stopped smoking cigarettes. With the benefit of hindsight I can say it definitely did affect my mental health.