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 .

Let's not forget the child exploitation- county lines - all drug related.

This is a massive issue and very under reported.

I hate drugs but still think they should be legalised.

It's all sections of society. I work in a plant environment where I often deal with builders tradesmen. Loads of them love it. Every work piss up ends with the plant manager sniffing coke in his car with the lads.

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?

Well, cocaine wouldn't be cut with things like anaesthetics and far worse - currently done to pad it out. You also wouldn't be paying £100 for a gram of coke.

If we continue as we are , then all that will happen is what is happening now .

Slavery, exploitation, organised crime groups, weapons , gun crime, gang warfare , death, destruction, drug debts , violence, .

All the above is illegal. And happening in spades . The police are not winning this one and public opinion is against them when it comes to
Cannabis set ups .

I dismantled a set up as my last job on a safer neighbourhood team in police . 2000 plants . My god . Full house from cellar to
Attic . Spiders as big as saucers . Giles in the floor and roof . The gardeners slept on filthy mattresses in a freezing house with no amenities, in absolute squalor. The toilet didn't flush . I peed in the bath in desperation after being there 10 hours . It was an absolute death trap . After 10 hours my head hurt from the smell, I was freezing, I had been bitten by god knows what crawled about in there , I had 20 bags of evidence to bag and tag , I'd had no food , no loo break , modern slavery indeed .

Glad there are people like you working in the area. I've vaguely wondered sometimes about campaigning on providing HAT locally as I live in an area that's heavily affected, but for various reasons it's never quite been the right time. Sorry for your losses, you're able to stay very calm and gracious in discussing the topic. Not sure if I can take much more of the 'dirty junkie' talk (the ex heroin addict that I know volunteers multiple times a week at a food bank alongside his work, the ex alcoholic I know spent months volunteering in a Calais refugee camp, and they both overcame more than averagely 'shit' childhoods to get to where they are), so I'm going to bow out of the thread now, but thanks for the thought-provoking posts.

The many people whose lives have been ruined by alcohol would dispute your idea of 'perfect' self regulation. Alcoholics, their families, victims of drunk drivers, rape victims, DV victims and so many more. A new drug that had the same characteristics as alcohol would never ever be allowed, it's just too hard to stop now.

Having had a marijuana dependent family member, I agree with legalising cannabis but think it's a 'lesser evil' option that does come with reduced criminal activity but also more use, more dependency, more psychosis, not that it's some kind of cheerfully stoned utopia as some posters here think.

If you smoke cannabis, you have to accept that at some time your drugs have been in an underage orifice. These kids have been exploited and cannabis is not the only thing that has been in their orifices. The rescued kids get sent to very special schools where there are two teachers for every child. Keep smoking the weed, it keeps DH employed. As for the unrescued kids, well who gives a fuck.

My issue with that is, the children and young people who live be in/come from depravation become social experiments. If it fails are those people suddenly going to have enough money invested in them to recover?

batilda
Thank you . I think a lot of people just don't appreciate or understand the human cost .

Addiction is an illness, and rarely a choice . Good people get addicted. Tragic events create addicts . And due to the way our system works they are dehumanised and seen as the dregs of society, and that's often wrong . They are often a product of circumstance and more often failed by the system . Our services are so underfunded, I pray I never need mental health services.

Something has to change for change to
Happen . We need a different approach.

I swim against the tide on a daily basis and it's tiring . I do my best with what I have .
(0=O mostly !)

Some of these issues could be addressed if someone had the balls within government to lobby for change . I know it won't happen .

"You also wouldn't be paying £100 for a gram of coke."

So are we setting the price so everyone can afford drugs?

That's another issue

The price changes. If you owe a drug debt - you'll know that ! It will be double within a week .

Panoka

Not everyone who comes from a council estate is going to end up deprived- I had a shitty childhood and yeah all the cliches, council estate , abusive step father , alcoholic mother , heroin addict brother

Not everyone who comes from that socially deprived background stays in it .

Maybe try an open mind and give some credit for commons sense .

@Ponoka7 in the group I run, there are several parents whose teenage DC have problems with drugs. They are all middle class as fuck. Put your prejudices away.

The child wasn't killed by cannabis, they were killed by a bullet fired from an illegally-held weapon.

I agree that currently cannabis dealers should be prosecuted but even if cannabis were legalised I don't think that would have prevented this killing, the dealer would have made their money doing something else illegal.

Slavery, exploitation, organised crime groups, weapons , gun crime, gang warfare , death, destruction, drug debts , violence,

All of that happens in legal/legitimate business supply chains too. The only difference is western populations can safely ignore it as it happens mostly elsewhere, as can western legal systems/police forces as it becomes a regulatory issue at best.

Remember when Teaco were caught using sweatshops for their clothing line? Think anyone will go to jail for that? Of course not, the absolute worst that will happen is the company will have to pay out a few quid if a successful lawsuit is brought against them.

People are getting trafficked into this country to act as slaves for this vile trade. Still privileged people joke and about spliffs and getting high.

Credit where it's due: your posts are consistent in their inane bone-headedness.

Totally agree.

Spot on, @Theimpossiblegirl

LED lights are the norm now. Cheaper to run and hardly any heat output.

Agree, Leah Betts didn't put me off taking MDMA, far from it. Her case educated me in different ways though

If you smoke cannabis, you have to accept that at some time your drugs have been in an underage orifice.

And if you grow your own ? Seed to bud.

The drugs trade causes more deaths than sweatshops. Sure its awful and shouldn't be acceptable, but let's not downplay the human cost of the drugs trade just because other industry's are also abhorrent.

If we saw prohibition again and alcohol was banned you can be sure a hell of a lot of people would be buying booze on the sly.