UKCIA Newsblog
News and comment on the unfolding story of cannabis law reform

15th November - A critique of the prohibition case and a mention of Transform - Drug law reform seems to be on the agenda in a way it has never been before following the sacking of David Nutt and it's clear the prohibition camp is rattled.

A critique of the prohibition case and a mention of Transform - Drug law reform seems to be on the agenda in a way it has never been before following the sacking of David Nutt and it's clear the prohibition camp is rattled.

Derek

10th November - Party time in Berlin; repression is great when it stops. It’s party time in Berlin; twenty years ago on Monday night (9th November) perhaps the world’s most obvious symbol of intolerance and repression, the Berlin wall, fell. It isn’t pulling at the credibility strings too much to compare the mindset of the regime that maintained the Berlin wall with that which continues the prohibition of drugs.

Talk to Frank
The government's anti drugs advertising campaign

Talk to Frank answers some questions about its "Cannabis facts" - well, sort of. Read the reply to an e-mail sent two months ago!

Following up on recent observations about the Talk to Frank cannabis information an e-mail was sent to the Home Office Frank team

Talk to Frank gives good, honest information shock horror. The Sunday Telegraph spat blood at Talk to Frank's help line for giving honest advice.

A cost benefit analysis for the war on drugs? The government just says “no”! An examination of the reasons the Home Office gives for not allowing a proper examination of the prohibition policy. In truth, they know that if anyone did such a study, prohibition would be exposed for the sham that it is.

The first casualty of war is the truth - prohibition depends on it.

You may have heard Talk to Frank adverts on radio and TV that claim cannabis will make you sick (puke as they put it). Unless you mix it with alcohol cannabis is very unlikely to do that. The information given by Talk to Frank is highly questionable in many ways, but in this instance it is simply wrong. See information on getting a "whitey" here.

Cannabis information critique. Talk to Frank's latest version of the truth about cannabis - and by far the worst yet it contains claims which are actually wrong.

Cannabis: Mess with your mind. Seen the latest offering from the government's anti drugs advertising agency?

Inaccessible - despite costing the UK tax payer a huge amount, the Talk to Frank website is very badly designed. See how it appears to blind and partially sighted people who use JAWS screen reading software.

The Government on Drugs - talk to Frank if you must

You don't have to smoke
to be a class B criminal

the Keele study
Cannabis and mental illness

The Keele university study "Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005" was paid for by UK taxpayers and carried out for our government as a part of its review of the classification of cannabis in 2008, yet its results were kept very quiet for 18 months.

The study found no link between rates of cannabis use and mental illness undermining the stated reason for moving cannabis back to class B. The government ignored the results of the study and when it did publish the results, did so with as little media awareness as possible.

UKCIA Newsblog comment

Read the Keele study online here (Why Prohibition? website)

UKCIA isn't "pro cannabis", it's better described as a law reform site, or even an "anti prohibition" site. You don't have to be a cannabis user, or even like cannabis very much, to understand the harm prohibition is causing to individuals and the wider society and to want to do something about it.

Cannabis is a natural plant which grows widely all over the world. Some forms of the plant contain a substance known as THC which, together with certain other chemicals contained in the plant, produce an effect on perception known - in the UK - as "getting stoned".

This property is well known in British society and many millions of us have experienced it, but it is an experience which carries a prison sentence of five years simply for possessing a sample of the plant, trading in cannabis can land you with a 14 year stint inside which is more severe than you can expect for violent assault.

The aim of this law - called prohibition - is to prevent the use of cannabis through legal sanctions. It doesn't work and the result has been to create an illegal, uncontrolled and unregulated trade which employs hundreds of thousands of people and reaches into every corner of society. The dangers created by prohibition are outlined on this site, but they far outweigh anything the plant could do.

Nothing on earth is "safe", especially things we all enjoy doing for fun and cannabis is no exception. But prohibition prevents any rational informed debate about or study of the real dangers cannabis may or may not be capable of, instead we are fed a diet of hype, misinformation and downright lies. Even to the extent that this illegal, uncontrolled and unregulated substance is called a "controlled drug" by politicians and police. "Controlled", of course, is the one thing that cannabis is not

UKCIA is here for you to use. Get informed and when you hear stupid people saying stupid things about cannabis - put them right!

Please use our Forum to talk about issues, or tell us what you think with the Feedback Form.

The message from UKCIA is simple: if you want change, it's up to you to make it happen. The first step is to get informed and that's what this site is here for, please use it.

Pragmatism
UKCIA, the what and the why

Whatever politicians and the police might try to tell you, cannabis is not really a "controlled drug", prohibition prevents any real controls.

A pragmatic approach to law reform challenges this use of doublespeak. Instead it argues that the potential risks should form the basis of the regulatory approach.

UKCIA is a pragmatic cannabis law reform campaign for a drugs policy based on proper control and regulation of the commercial supply, coupled with effective harm reduction measures.

Cannabis pragmaitism and the case for law reform

What is UKCIA?

Contact UKCIA

Reefer Madness from the BBC Here is an example of Reefer Madness - ill informed opinionated rubbish - presented as fact by someone who claims to be an expert. This audio file was taken from by BBC Radio4's "You and Yours" programme broadcast in 2005 Listen here (mp3)