marijuana upgraded to class b

http://news.aol.co.uk/cannabis-upgraded-to-class-b-drug/article/20080507081909990003

well this is what happens when people arent active in favour of de-criminalisation .

why dont they criminalise alcohol ? surely there is more evidence that that does harm ?

 

bollocks. legalise it! wish i was old enough to actually have any kind of say in politics.

 

bummer man, bummer.

though there is plenty more evidence for the harmful effects of alcohol, there's not a cat in Hell's chance of alcohol being criminalised in the current political climate. Maybe Jacqui Smith is trying to appeal to the Daily Mail readers after Labour's drubbing in the local elections.

 

i was just about to write a post about this, came across the report on directgov. here it is if anyone's interested:

 

I doubt it'll make much difference. People smoked it before downgrading, people smoked it after, people will continue to smoke it now. It's still illegal either way and the change in the letter after the name will deter no one....

 

I assume she has stakes in the market then, the only thing that alters is the price.

 

Already posted this but meh . Yeah, bloody ridiculous to be honest. Though the daily mail plan backfired, because they still managed to criticise labour over it, mainly because they completely ignored the advisory committee and the police. Still, as Peace_Phoenix said, harsher sentences don't deter people at all. Just ends up with more money in the dealers pockets.

 

I was talking about this the other night with a few friends. At the end of the day nothing will change, except as has been said the dealers will have a bit more cash in their pockets. People will do drugs reguardless of the laws and the best way to keep people safe is often just to make it legal, look at America in the time of Prohibition.

 

It's just something for politics to debate about while everyone else gets high. It doesn't make much difference, beside the technicalites of the law.

 

yea it wont make a difference i think the smart thingto do is copy our neigbours holland

 

I was freaking out when i saw this.. then i realized this was the UK forum.. lol

 

lol

 

This means, if you deal, you will face 14 years imprisonment.

 

They pretty much never exact the maximum penalties for these sorts of things. You might get that if you were a major importer....

 

good job they have the space in prisons to lock up all these 'organised criminals'

 

Yeah, god, I mean imagine if they were running out of space in prisons....

 

I was watching a news article about this the other night. Its obviously been a 'another pointless ill thought out ideas week' for the goverment. The article on the BBC said that the use of cannabis has fallen since 2003, so i'm wondering where the logic comes in to upgrading a drug that the number of its users are falling, if the usage of cannabis was rising i might see some sense in trying to put people off by longer prison stretches but i don't see it as an idea with any great weight or conviction to it. Like everyones said it won't put of people from smoking so maybe the goverment should concentrate on trying to get the country back in to some sort of order instead of wasting there and everyone elses time with pointless reclassifications of drugs.

sorry for the rant but i lost any small amount of faith i had with the goverment the day i found i was 11 pounds worse of a month when earning a pittance as it is!! socialists, what????

 

The thing is people are getting criminal convictions and going to jail .

The people who say well it wont change anything people will still smoke dope are right but other people will get involved in the court system they will have lifelong criminal records (which may effect their future employment ,or could stop them from living in another country).

The fact that marijuana is illegal encourages gangsterism , it gets people involved with drug dealing and dealers .
I suppose this doesnt matter to the government as they are the main people behind importing illegal drugs .

 

i agree jonny. often lots of usually law obiding people who would not usually mix with gangs and dealers have to become involved in that if they want to have a smoke because the goverment are now pushing them down that route. and its like bass sic above says, no wonder there are overcrowded prisons. Holland have the right idea. and also i agree with your first post and have the debate quite often with my sister that surely all signs point to alcohol being a much more dangerous drug, examples of which are for all to see every weekend, but still thats a nice taxable revenue for the goverment.

 

Evidence?:tongue:

I don't go with the conspiracy version, it's just a decision based on cultural and political factors. Brown is chasing votes ... popular opinion is going more conservative, and the Labour party is following it. Sounding tough on what is perceived to be a public danger, in their calculation, will win them votes. The facts of the matter (that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, that we would all be better off if it were legalised and properly regulated, not to say taxed) are irrelevant.