Decriminalise Cannabis Petition UK

I've tended to avoid the subject of drugs and drug laws in this blog to date, for what its worth its a topic i would prefer to explore in greater detail rather than simple speculation and opinions.

Nevertheless, anyone with any intelligence can see that the drug laws are not effective. Not only do they fail to prevent the real crimes involved with drugs (infact most of these crimes are a result of the drug laws), they also fail to prevent the serious problems that arise from the use of hard drugs (crack and heroin). Drug laws criminalise a substantial proportion of the world's population, people who are otherwise decent law-abiding citizens.

While i personally believe that the only way we can move forward in this respect is the complete decriminalisation of all drugs, i understand that its a slow process and would require the co-operation of all the world's leading governments. However, the British government took a step in the right direction a couple of years ago by downgrading cannabis to a class C, unfortunately that decision has recently been reversed, due in part to the great media propaganda machine.

Full cannabis decriminalisation should be the first step towards a newer better system regarding drugs. Again, this is not something that can be achieved overnight. Aside from the fact that cannabis is a relatively harmless drug (unlike alcohol and tobacco), it is proven to have a great number of positive uses, especially medical. A great number of people with health issues can benefit from using cannabis, and research is constantly showing more ways in which this natural, easily cultivated plant can be advantageous to sufferers of many illnesses.

Unfortunately the current laws prohibit the use of this drug in these ways, forcing sufferers to criminalise themselves and turn to the so-called black market to relieve their suffering. At the very least laws should be changed to allow for people to grow their own plants for personal use without fear of prosecution. This would not only be an acceptance of the fact that a large number of people do (and will) use the drug regardless of its legal status, but remove the need for otherwise innocent people to have to purchase the drug from street dealers, and in doing so continue to support a criminal industry.

Surely this would be a better way to combat the crime associated with drug use than the current system of full-blown criminalisation. As we all know, the drug laws do not work.

The reason i have brought this topic up is because it has come to my attention that a petition within the UK has been launched to "petition the Prime Minister to Decriminalise cannabis cultivation for personal use only (not for profit)."

The petition can be found here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Growing-Cannabis/. Please sign it and tell as many people as you can, email your friends, post it in your own blog, make a video on YouTube, whatever you can. If enough people can show their support for what is a reasonable proposition, maybe our government might just take notice.

This is the Last Time I Talk About Snow

I'm going to keep this post short as i have said pretty much everything i wanted to in previous posts. There's still some snow but overall it seems to be clearing up now, to the disappointment of some and relief of others. However, it appears that a large number of employers are refusing to pay their staff for the days they were unable to attend last week. This is disgraceful, not only is it unfair (it might be illegal although i can only speculate), but in my opinion hugely irresponsible. Considering we are going through a serious recession here, any companies punishing their employees for a genuine inability to attend work are showing a complete disregard for the safety and well-being of their workforce, instead forcing their employees to risk their lives (and indeed the lives of others) by traveling in genuinely hazardous conditions just so that they can earn enough money to continue paying their bills. The government run Transport For London is guilty of this aswell as many other companies, both large and small. Again this is both greedy and irresponsible.

The BBC seems to have lightened up a bit on their reporting of this snow crisis a little though, perhaps due to the situation down in Australia. Aside from the few fatalities in Britain (and by no means do i wish to devalue them), the extremely hot weather down under has been far more serious than our freak snowstorm. Kinda puts it all into perspective, the value of the hundreds of lives lost in bush-fires is greater than the cost of the weather to our economy.

Nevertheless, i have dedicated a fair bit of time to this subject over the last week. As i have said previously, weather controls our lives in ways that governments, banks and religions can only dream of, this has been an example of that. It has not been my intention to criticize those so trapped within the work system as to be effectively forced into trying to continue with their daily business, regardless of the dangers. Instead i hope to have put forward an alternative viewpoint to that which has been propagated by the mainstream media, specifically the BBC. Hopefully, these last few posts, like the rest of this blog, has provided some food for thought if nothing else.

And for those that genuinely hate the snow, at least now you can look forward to plenty of rain!

More Snow... And Buses

Its still snowing! What a fun week this has turned out to be. I guess i was wrong about it all being cleared by yesterday, its great to wake up and see my hometown of Swindon covered in a thick white sheet, certainly makes a nice change from the usual grey theme!

Of course, while we should be enjoying ourselves and making the most of this rare treat, the BBC have continued to report this as "some of the worst weather in almost 20 years", personally i would call it some of the best snow since i was a kid. The BBC have definitely taken the throne as the champions of British propaganda this time, citing huge figures regarding the cost to our economy as the main tragedy in what they surely want to call the "snow crisis". You would think from the way they have been reporting that Britain had been hit by a tsunami or something.

But who's really losing out here? Those workers that are getting to spend the day with their loved ones surely aren't suffering, they should be entitled to pay for this time off if they physically can't get to work. The big corporations have got loads of money, enough to cover them for this week. I should think most of the rich fat shareholders are too busy having fun to worry about this (if they are worrying, they shouldn't). City traders selling up their stock in public transport companies know full well they can by them back next week cheaper and make a nice profit. Perhaps some of the small businesses and tradesmen might be having a hard time right now but that doesn't exactly account for the billions that the official statistics are giving us.

I reckon the BBC and everyone else like them are just out to make us feel bad for enjoying ourselves. Clearly they want to maintain the idea that our work defines us and that our jobs and our economy are so important that we should once again risk our lives and the lives of everyone else by trying to get to work by whatever means necessary. Then, of course, they can report about how the snow is causing all these road accidents.

I think i said more or less everything i needed to in my previous post here, nevertheless snow is fun for kids, why can't us grown-ups enjoy it too. Everything will be back to normal again next week, so make the most of it.

On a completely unrelated note, i read today that a Christian alliance are retaliating against the probably blasphemous Atheist Bus campaign with their own range of adverts claiming that "There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life". While we atheists, backed up by scientific knowledge, have had to compromise somewhat by using the word "probably", its seems completely wrong to me, and many others, that the Christians can be allowed to use the word "definitely" in such a way. Considering the foundation for much of the Christian complaints were that the “no God” claim could not be substantiated, surely then their own claims are even more unsubstantiated. I would suggest, in a fair compromise, their slogan should read "There might be a God...".

Maybe we should complain to the Advertising Standards Authority, i probably will.

Snow!

Well, apparently Britain descended into chaos yesterday, brought about by that great influence on us that is the weather. Or so the BBC would have us believe (here is one of many stories from their website).

I don't want to sound like i am downplaying this, but when serious weather hits us like this there is nothing we can do but accept it, Britain is perfectly well equipped to deal with rain, we get enough of it, but snow, forget it. In fact it seems that the real problem here is not the weather itself but the fact that people couldn't get to work, and i suspect for many they chose not to go to work instead enjoying the only thing that makes cold winters worth enduring.

The BBC repeatedly asked the question "could anything have been done?", while showing footage of some Londoner complaining that the roads weren't gritted and likening the situation to being in a third world country (about 30 seconds in to this video). With much public transport unable to operate, the only way for anyone to get to their oh-so-important jobs was to drive themselves through hazardous conditions. No wonder then that there was a large number of road accidents and injuries.

The way i see it, much of this chaos could have been avoided if everyone just took the day off. All the workers for big corporations who actually contribute very little to society should not put their lives and the lives of others at risk just so they go into the office and attend their apparently important business.

Ok, i'm not saying everyone should stay at home, doctors and medical professionals are needed more than ever in cases like this, similarly people still need to eat. But in times like this, people need to shift their priorities and think about each other, think about their community, their friends and family. Apparently the snow cost our economy £1.2 billion. I don't know how they work this out but in the current economic climate thats not the worst day we've had.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on the things that the BBC addressed, i have a very basic understanding of economics at best. I just can't help thinking that if our priorities changed a little, yesterday could be seen as an exceptional day with exceptional weather, rather than some sort of small scale natural disaster as it seemed to have been reported. Life goes on, tomorrow the snow will be gone and everything will return to normal, yesterday could have been fun for everyone. I think the kids had the right idea.