UK: British Cannabis Lobby calls law-change "unjustifya

[Puffin13]

British Cannabis Lobby calls law-change "unjustifyable"

The British Cannabis Lobby has called the decision to reclassify cannabis "unjustifyable" in light of recent events in the United States, and it has urged the Home Secretary not to implement a law change which it says "Will return the United Kingdom to the bad old days of unfounded and sensationalistic "reefer madness", which is based not on hard evidence and scientific fact, but on a raft of lies, deceipt and racism".

When Cannabis Lobby press officer Bill Stone talks about cannabis issues you can't help but listen to the man who says he kicked a dangerous 20 year alcohol habit and swapped it for some light cannabis use, and in his own words "If I sound like a cannabis evangelist sometimes, I make no apology. As far as I'm concerned cannabis saved my life".

And according to Stone, it should be allowed to save others. "I think its fair to say we trust the United States implicitly", continued Stone. "Lets face it we're prepared to blindly follow them into a military situation in the gulf which has cost Billions of pounds as well as costing hundreds of British lives, and all for what?"

"There's any number of arguments you could subscribe to, with oil and drugs being just two, but the fact is, we're over there whether we like it or not" So its fair to say the UK and US administrations are quite closely aligned on a number of "foreign office" issues."

"So why then" asks Stone, "Do our administrations differ so much when it comes to public health issues?"

"On the one hand we have the state of Michigan in the US. Traditionally the home of the working class US motor industry, which boasts the motor city "Detroit" as its capital, (whilst "Lansing" is the official capital city, Detroit is bigger and far more well known). With a total population somewhere over 11 million people Michigan ranks as the 8th largest of the United States, and recently it became the 13th US state to implement a medical marijuana program.

While all eyes were on the main event, which saw Barack Obama become the 44th President Elect, the people of Michigan were at the ballots, voting on a very different topic. The matter of whether medical patients who have a recommendation from their doctor, should be allowed to grow, and to consume, cannabis.

"As if its not enough voters in Michigan overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana ballot measure, they did so by a majority of 63 percent, or 2,983,388 people, who voted "yes" on Proposal 1, which removes state penalties for registered patients to buy, grow and use small amounts of marijuana."

"Thats quite some margin of victory", said Bill Stone. "Only thirty-seven percent, or 1,778,939 voters, were opposed" he added, "and thats a real "sea-change" in public attitudes". Meanwhile, fast-forward (if you will) to January 2009, when the British government looks likely to implement harsher punishments on those who choose to consume cannabis, and regardless of whether this is for medicinal reasons, for recreational or what..the new law makes absolutely no allowances even though millions of Americans just came out and gave a fair indicator of how public opinion stands on the cannabis issue right now!

"So I think its about time the British government done the same", said the Cannabis Lobby's press officer.

"I think its about time the government stopped hiding behind faceless nameless "medical studies", and let the people who have the experience of using cannabis decide for themselves.

"Fully 25% of the United States of America has legalised medical marijuana", concluded Bill Stone, "and I think its fair to say in todays "litigious" society, absolutely any risk at all of physical or mental injury being caused by the US administration sanctioning the use of medical cannabis, would be hit with dozens of compensation claims within minutes of it being rubber stamped into law."

"What this tells us is the US legal system have looked closely at this, and decided the public risk is absolutely minimal, and the British Cannabis Lobby demands, on behalf of the tens of thousands of UK citizens who use cannabis out of medical neccessity, that they be afforded the same protections from law as their American counter-parts."

"Denial of this protection, with the evidence we now have from Michigan, as well as 12 other US states, will be deemed a gross breach of human rights, and we look forward to the government removing bona-fide medical cannabis patients from the war on drugs at their earliest convenience".

Source

[murphyscafe]

i couldnt agree more!