Forum Topic

As yet unanswered  e.mail to Anne Keen

I don't know how long it should take to get an answer to an e.mail to one's MP bit this was sent on the 16.06.06, whilst I have received an acknowledgement I am still waiting for an answer.Dear Mrs Keen,I write to you as my M.P in the hope you can point me in the right direction and tell me where I can obtain the report of the No.10 Strategic policy unit on drug prohibition from July 2003, as I have just come across some information from the pressure group Transform, claiming that the Government tried to cover up a report by the No.10 Strategic policy unit.This report apparently stated that Drug prohibition does not work, never has worked, never will work and is in fact counter productive. Is this true and if so can you tell me how the 2005 Drugs bill is going to be any better.Could you also confirm that the Bill  bans 'Magic mushrooms' except for the only one that if not correctly prepared can kill namely Fly Agaric, would you please explain the logic behind all of this as it is at present, beyond me. Lastly can you tell me how much Cannabis in my possession it takes to make it ok to presume I am guilty of being a dealer, now that the presumption of innocence has been removed from British drug law?I await your reply with some anxiety having been a victim of the drugs war that does not work, all my life, as have at least three generations of my family. Yours truly,Phil Walsh P.s I have used Cannabis most of my Life and will only consider giving it up when the right to do so, in the full knowledge that the decision to do so is based on my own free will and not fascist dictates.

Philip Walsh ● 6897d16 Comments

The point that so many people fail to understand is that the reports do not use the same symptoms sometimes scarcely even similar to justify their conclusionAs for abuse it can take many forms and what one may not perceive as unfair the person on the receiving end might. I don't know what drugs the young man you spoke of took but he is obviously ill and I suspect would have had these problems anyway. I think you will find that most of the studies that claim causal mental illness also state that the types of Psychosis that can include episode of schizophrenia abate when the cannabis is withdrawn.  So I suggest this young mans parents consider finding a means to make this happen, even if this has to include having him sectioned. Im sorry John but I think you need to re read your own letter. Cannibis did not tern this young man into a peeping tom, that is hat he was beaten up for is it not.I very much doubt it made him lazy, just gave him an excuse for being so. As for the matrix act and the vilence that just shows him to be selfish and maliputive.Try not playing his game and tell him to get his crap together or else he is going to be sectioned., because one does have to be cruel to be kind and allowing the current state of affairs is an abuse of all of their needs. Perhaps you can sit down and read the reports instead of the headlines. They can be found on the net not the daily mail or its like.As for the young and drugs if alcohol was illegal children would become even more furtive in their use of it, and it would make it even more problematic and interesting to them. If cannabis was sold from shops legally licensed  outlets (I would not be granted one) and an age limit set, then the kinds of people willing to sell to children would be limited although like tobacco not totally eradicated but it would surely be better than the current set up, which brings us full circle.The site of young children smoking a spliff on the way to school angers me as much as the next parent and I WORRY ABOUT MY OWN but from a different perspective having been one of the kind of children we are talking about and having a troubled past, I have family with addiction and mental health issues and family without we have a shared upbringing and most smoked cannabis, I don’t blame cannabis for the ill or the well amongst them.  If you wish to quote my words can you resist adding your own into the quote and I did not accuse anyone specific of abusing their children as I don't even know the people you mentioned.Perhaps you have some difficulty understanding the difference between trying a fag as my son apparently did just the other day and buying your own regular supply but I can and it’s the same story with spliff, alcohol and any other drug.Wake up, get real, prohibition is not working, we need to change the way thing are being done. That was the point of the report and its distressing to see it buried and people like yourself supporting the status quo, because that is an abuse of the needs of these children and everyone else’s. Stop doing what does not work and we have a chance to re address the problem. Keep sticking your head in the sand and we ruin all our futures.

Philip Walsh ● 6886d

‘because they do not acknowledge that they have a problem,’"That is exactly the attitude and treatment I am talking about, it’s you that have a problem in accepting their choices and the rejection of your ‘principles’."The two schizophrenic young people I am most familiar with have not made any choices (other than that of getting involved with drugs in the first place), and indeed are incapable of making rational choices. They do not acknowledge that they have a problem because they are ill not because they have espoused some "alternative lifestyle". Far from espousing an alternative lifestyle, they are 100% dependent upon the responsible "normal" lifestyle of their caring, supportive and distressed parents without whom they would starve or become institutionalised - the same parents you have the audacity to criticise for "messing them up." One of these young men, for example, spends all day asleep and all night in long, rambling conversations with himself, or with the television set, (when he is not standing stock-still staring into "inner" space, imagining himself to be "the one" a-la the Matrix, and therefore incapable of being understood by mere mortals). He is occasionally violent and more often the victim of violence when his behaviour (eg staring for hours into someone's front window) is deemed unacceptable.  That's not "rejection of your 'principles'" - that's mental illness."Whether you like it or not children that feel the need to experiment with drugs are already suffering from problems and those problems often stem from the lives they lead, which is usually coursed by their parents and others in authority abusing them in one way or another."This is possibly the most nonsensical statement I have heard in many many years. Forget official statistics, most experienced drugs workers will tell you that a majority of young people (ie well over 50%) experiment with drugs. Something like 90% experiment with Alcohol. Are you honestly saying that all these young people have been abused or are suffering from problems? Young people experiment with drugs because it is fun and risky - that's what young people do - not because they have problems! Unfortunately, for a whole raft of different reasons, some people take that occasional use to another more dangerous level.I am not an anti-drug puritan. Lke most young people I did a bit of this and a bit of that during my youth and, until recently, when I became aware of a number of young people in my area suffering from various degrees of schizophrenia, I always took the view that for cannabis smokers, the most dangerous aspect was the tobacco it was being smoked with. My recent experiences have caused me to seriously question my previous view.

John Coxall ● 6889d

‘because they do not acknowledge that they have a problem,’That is exactly the attitude and treatment I am talking about, it’s you that have a problem in accepting their choices and the rejection of your ‘principles’. Education is what’s needed, education about sensible use, not puritanical twaddle from those that assume they know best. I have at no point said that cannabis use was safe, I only pointed out that the many studies done on the subject are ignored by those that do not wish to hear both sides of the argument and that is not me.Any drug legal or not has be the potential to be detrimental to the Physical or mental health of the young.  The problem is getting that message across without getting your views dismissed because of your own unwillingness to examine the whole issue. This statement would ring true to even the most sceptical; a young person is like a test tube of chemicals bubbling along to it final conclusion anything added to this mix may effect that final conclusion and this includes pressures exerted on the mix.Cannabis is a very big issue, as the plant that underpinned the world’s economy for thousands of years it should be.cannabis can de motivate people but it is the CBN content that courses that effect not the THC content, real Hashish has a higher content of CBN than most weed varieties and what most people in this country smoke is soap bar Hashish and this contains many if not all of the following:Beeswax, turpentine, milk powder, ketamine, Boot polish, henna, pine resin, aspirin, animal turds, ground coffee, Barbituates, glues, dyes plus some known carcinogenic solvents such as toluene and benzene but of course it must be the THC that f**ks people up, not the impurities that only exist due to the illegality of the substance.No right to health care. This is a basic human right and this form of fascist outlook deservers nothing but contempt. Lets withdraw it from the fat, those that became infertile or have caught Aids due to unprotected sex lets make underage girls deal with there own Pregnancy, and as for those that smoke tobacco, leave them to die in agony from their cancer they were told about the dangers and perhaps we can stop wasting money dealing with all of the many problems associated with those that drink. Got problems with your Kidneys, Liver, and sponginess of the brain go on f**k off and die, we told you all about it when you were young.I Have two teenage children they don't take drugs, unless you include the two Vodka breezes that my 15 year old daughter has been allowed during the last year Perhaps if the parents of the children had a proper respectful loving, understanding and supportive relationship with their children, then their children may not get so messed up that they start using drugs. Whether you like it or not children that feel the need to experiment with drugs are already suffering from problems and those problems often stem from the lives they lead, which is usually coursed by their parents and others in authority abusing them in one way or another.As for my vested interest, I guess that why I know so much about the subject but it is odd that I should have one with the amount of Cannabis I have consumed during the last 35 or so years. I should have no motivation whatsoever and should live in a rubber room occurdind to statistics as for the UN Why did the UN spend years trying to bury the World health councils report into cannabis, apart from the fact it would not endorse the reports of cannabis related mental health problems. The answer lies in the pressure groups funded by the prohibition movement of Amirican self intrest in keeping Hemp from fullfilling it's natural role as compitition to petro- chemical based products. Those of you that know anything about history and economics may remember that hemp underpinned most of the world’s economies for thousands of years prior to the turn of the last Century before the commitment to oil and the imposition of the ban on Cannabis in all its many varieties and uses.

Philip Walsh ● 6889d

"This study makes it clear that socially approved cannabis use could largely replace alcohol (in this case Rum) if it was available."Why would we or should we replace one drug with another? I am not a puritan, but I have a problem with any drug being promoted for "social" use, whether it is alcohol, heroin, cannabis or nicotine. The problems of the young people I know personally who are suffering from mental problems which seem to correlate to their heavy and early use of cannabis, does not in any way relate to their "treatment" as, in the main, they haven't had any. These are young people who are hanging on to the margins of society by a thread. They don't work, they don't sign on, and because they do not acknowledge that they have a problem, are in limbo, usually living off their parents until their illness reaches the point at which they become a danger to themselves or others and they get sectioned.These young people may be the worst affected by their drug use (if cannabis indeed has a causal relationship with such problems) but many more young people are severely damaged educationally by the fact that heavy cannabis use drastically reduces motivation - and that is just what young people studying for exams etc really don't need. Unfortunately, as in many cases, those with a vested interest tend to promote the evidence which proves their case, ignoring other evidence. I am still unsure about the relationship between cannabis use and mental illness, but would accept your assurances about cannabis' safety with more confidence if you were not so partisan.

John Coxall ● 6890d

Toby I think you should caste your net a little wider if you expect me to except that you know what you are talking about.  Try reading up on some of these. The Coptic Study 1981, Drs.Ungerlieder and Shaeffer (UCLA) their conclusion -no harm to human brain or intelligence.The Jamaican Studies 1968-74 also 1975 study sponsored by the American National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) centre for Studies of Narcotic and Drug Abuse, containd in the publcation - Ganja in Jamaica - A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marijuana use by Vera Rubin and Lambrose Comitas (Moulton and Co, the Hague, Paris/Anchor Books, NY). Sorry I don't have its ISBN No.This is probably the most comprehensive study ever done studying the long term effects the average starting age of the subject at the first puff was 12years 6 months. Their usage was high in both duration and frequency the potency of the THC was very high (good Jamaican weed is still as strong as the best hydro skunk despite what keeps being said in the press) Conclusions - Definite benefits to drug users the fact that cannabis use is not treated with horror in Jamaica result in cannabis users having 'positive social attitudes’. It showed 'No link to Criminal behaviour'.‘No Physiological Deterioration’.‘No Stepping Stone /Gateway Effects,A quote from the Psychological assessment ‘The smokers seemed to be more open in their expressions of feeling,somewhat more carefree and somewhat more distractable there was no evidence of organic brain damage or schizophrenia.The Costa Rican study 1980 titled Cannibis in Costa Rica – A Study of Cronic Marijuana use, edited by William Carter for the Instutute for Study of Human Issues (ISHI, 3401 Science Center, Philidelphia. This study reinforces the findings of the Jamaican study but with one noticeable difference Alcoholic social problems, so evident on neighbouring cannabis free islands were not found on Costa Rica.This study makes it clear that socially approved cannabis use could largely replace alcohol (in this case Rum) if it was available. I could go on but what would be the point, so I will just point you in the direction of the real issues try reading ‘The Emperor wears no clothes by Jack Herer ISBN 1-878125-02-8 and perhaps Hemp Lifeline to the future ISBN 0-9639754-1-2.As for the mental health issues these studies show that the current ‘over the top panic that that young cannabis users are subjected to and the often flawed treatment of these young people is largely responsible for f**king up the well being of many of these young people. Some of us are round pegs we don’t and we don’t want to fit in the square hole that society tries to force us to fit into and being given crap to confirm makes us, Ill and sick both Mentally and physically. I know that I am and it wasn’t smoking strong hash and/or weed since the age of ten. 

Philip Walsh ● 6890d

"the vast majority of the users I have met in the last 10-15 years have tended to indicate a real need for an expanded mental health facility in this country."I agree with Philip on the utter ineffectiveness of the "war on drugs" and believe that the only effective means of minimising the harm done by drugs is via education. Also, it is fairly obvious to anyone who analyses the stats, that the really dangerous and damaging drugs are alcohol and tobacco - I would be surprised if all the annual deaths attributable to illegal drugs made up even 1% of those attributable to alcohol and tobacco. Certainly for the majority of cannabis users in the UK, the greater danger to their health lies in the tobacco they smoke the cannabis with rather than the cannabis itself.BUT (and this is a big but for me) there is increasing evidence of numbers of young people suffering from schizophrenia, whose mental illness can be related to heavy use of cannabis at a young age. I have a 24yr old stepson with this condition so I am particularly aware of this situation. Worryingly, he is not alone amongst his immediate peer-group in experiencing this problem. I know there are chicken and egg type arguments about whether the cannabis "causes" the mental health problems, or whether they are dormant and cannabis encourages their development. Either way, it seems clear that for some users of cannabis at least, it is not the cosy, harmless drug we would sometimes like it to be seen as. 

John Coxall ● 6896d