So with Olivia's killer getting 42 years will people now recognise that dealing cannabis is not a victimless crime ?

[AnyaMarx]

Just as the title says

I work in this area and have for 15 years.

When police raid a cannabis factory all the comments on social media are "go catch some real criminals "
"It's just plants !"

Well done plod you caught some plants .

Do people seriously not realise that cannabis factories and dealing are linked to organised crime groups who run about with guns ?
And who kill people?

Maybe now this
Abhorrent crime has been tried people might realise their spliff isn't victimless.

I've dealt with countless factories where modern slavery has played a part - a couple of young Vietnamese kids living In Squalor , acting as gardeners, all to fund some organised crime group , the likes of which Olivia's murderer was .

Now will people stop vilifying police who raid cannabis factories and shut them down ?

Somehow I doubt it .

They are a fire risk too because of the UV lamps.

Two houses locally have caught fire in the last few years. We had a whip round for clothes and toys for a family made temporarily homeless because they lived in the terrace next door.

Well they are just plants. Plants the UK government have made illegal but just plants none the less.

But it's not really about the product, if it wasn't cannabis, it would be cocaine, or heroin, or ecstacy, or mdma, or dmt, or ketamine, etc, etc.

Unless the government (and public) are willing to come at drug abuse from a different angle they will never win that particular war. The absolute refusal of anyone in power to tackle the root causes of drug use and drug related crime, combined with the tories deliberate underfunding of support services and policing, means things will only get worse, especially as the standard of living continues to fall.

I'm in Canada and I'm high right now but I think the best answer is legalization.
I don't understand why alcohol is fine, but weed is the devil.

There are some ted talks by an ex undercover cop called Neil Woods . I completely agree with him - legalise drugs . All drugs . It cuts
Crime , death rates , all the unsavoury things associated with drug use .

Unfortunately the police
Have to abide
By the law as it stands .

Drugs fund organised crime as they are illegal .

Legalising drug use would take the wind right out of those sails but no one will ever ever have the balls to do that .

So
We are where we are .

I read he dealt in cocaine.

He was out to kill a rival dealer in cannabis .

That was the intended target .

I wonder why smoking weed is socially acceptable, given that its production is so tied up with organised crime.

I’m not sure that legalising it all is right either. If drugs are legal (like alcohol), then millions of people will think it’s ok to take them. And organised crime will find another source of revenue - perhaps an increase in forcibly keeping young women and girls as prostitutes.

YANBU

Prostitution and modern slavery is already here

But the majority of organised crime gangs are drug related .

IMO - as someone who works in this area - if drugs were legalised it would free up more resources to tackle the other things like pimps and slavery .

There was a doctor who had funding in Liverpool for a drug trial - he proved that giving addict's prescription drugs in a safe place cut crime and death rates hugely . The Sun got hold of the story and outed his trial and then the right wing got all hand wavy and stopped his trial - within 6 months half his study group were dead .

We need a common sense approach to this - just the same as prohibition and alcohol imo .

I can tell you that 9/10 shoplifters I deal with are only doing it to get money for a fix .

Surely it has to be worth a trial - it would cut deaths , cut crime and cut links to OCG s .

The Neil Woods book good cop bad cop is extremely eye opening.
It 100% needs legalising, people will not give up their drugs.

How many things do we read about traumatised kids becoming drug users? We're a society built on poverty and trauma and drug use is just normalised in most circles.

He was involved in a gang in Kensington who dealt with crack and heroin I just read.

They should legalise it. The law is a joke constantly flouted and it would free up the money to be spent elsewhere. Tax it like alcohol. Focus on the class A’s.

People have never paid any attention to the law anyway. Police have to go through the motions to tick boxes but it’s the big guys they want. Cashman tried to pretend he was a harmless cannabis dealer. It was all part of his defence when he was a hitman. He was being paid £100,000 to kill Nee. You don’t spend that kind of money on just cannabis street dealing.

The problem is one of over-regulation, the state has become parasitic, and is now trying to control every facet of people's lives. Drug taking should be a welfare issue, like obesity, not a police matter.

Society is perfectly capable of regulating itself in regards to drug taking, it's why most people aren't alcoholics.

If weed was legal, it would be the smoking equivalent of home brew, some would indulge, most wouldn't.

Heroin is just poison, making it illegal hasn't changed that.

I agree up to a point in that it’s not victimless but I don’t agree re legalisation.

Those of us who were brought up on estates with drug dealers know damn well it isn’t a victimless crime. Even before you bring guns into it, dealers are rarely good neighbours or fighters for women’s rights. They are usually closely linked with other criminal activities like stolen goods and prostitution.

Its been growing ever since the 80s to my knowledge, since decent employment opportunities, that also paid the cost of living, were absolutely slashed in this country. And then Blair came along giving them money to support their lifestyles.

How would it help being legalised? If people are stealing to get money to buy drugs at the moment, if they are legalised surely they’re still as addictive and still cost money?

this is a genuine question, I’m not being goady, I’ve always thought the same and that it should be legalised but this thought just came to me.

I have also always thought of cannabis as being a low level on a par with alcohol type drug, however, I have recently had experience of a family member being heavily involved in it and have seen the devastating effect it has had on them, they are currently sectioned with extreme paranoia.

Mumsnet will always defend drugs.

I have no idea why but you are in the minority if you are anti drugs on here.

Britain is the world's largest producer of legal cannabis. Private companies are allowed, by our government, to grow and exports tons of cannabis around the world making themselves a tidy profit along the way.

Then the police and politicians have the audacity to stand in front of the cameras talking about the war on drugs and how they are doing everything they can to catch the 'criminals' that deal cannabis. Honestly, fuck them all to fucking fuck.

It’s the rich middle classes who pay to take drugs to make themselves look exciting and rebellious, that’s why. Bloody politicians and bankers living the high life set the culture at the top.

I agree, there is still a black market in cigarettes even though they are legal.

You can be anti drugs and pro legalisation. Legalisation reduces crime and levels of problematic drug use. Have a look at what Portugal has done. Dutch kids are less likely to smoke weed than English kids despite their more relaxed rules. I get the impression weed is for foreign tourists and embarrassing old hippies over there.

You make powerful arguments for cannabis to be legalised, taxed and regulated in the UK, in the same way that alcohol is and the same way cannabis currently is in Canada, California, Oregon etc.
Why would anyone buy their weed from criminals if they can buy it at Tesco?

https://www.ft.com/content/e0954eb4-af0a-45ed-8d43-267de7da7337

While the Cashman trial was going on, the Home Office granted the first licence to a pharmaceutical company to sell medical cannabis products in the UK. Playing both ends of the field it seems.

I've not picked that up, not saying it isn't true though.

I am anti drugs. I have a close family member who's short life was destroyed by drugs. Even when he got help, even when he was clean he still went back to living amongst it, ‘meeting’ his dealers.

We knew he was at risk, we knew he would die. He did.

YABU. She didn’t die because he was dealing cannabis. She died because he shot her. Don’t try and trivialise it.

Cannabis should be legal. The government shouldn't be able to control what we decide to put in our bodies in this way. They can educate us on the risks but it's our choice. Cannabis users are rarely a risk to others unlike drunks. Many countries have now decriminalised it. Why are we so behind on this? Its widely used across all social classes and if the demand is there someone will supply it, so why not produce and sell it legally and benefit from the taxation? Otherwise the black market and all the vile crime and corruption that comes with it will continue to thrive.