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.