An interesting development has occurred in recent months which is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and it hasn’t been pretty. For the past several months there has been a campaign waged against the leader of CLEAR, Peter Reynolds. which has taken the form of a “cyber bullying” campaign. What makes this perhaps even more strange is the fact that I have known quite a few of the people involved for a considerable period because they are people who have been involved in the law reform campaign for years.
I first came across Peter Reynolds about 18 months ago because of a BBC programme being made about medical cannabis. Peter had somehow arranged for “Pinky” (a well-known person on the cannabis scene) to travel to Holland in order to bring back some medically prescribed cannabis (see here). Peter was starting up the ill-fated medical cannabis register, the BMCR, and it’s fair to say I fell out with him at the time – I made no secret of it and it’s all explained in this blog . It’s true to say I was somewhat wary of Peter originally. However, this was to change.
The other group worth mentioning at this point isn’t a campaign group at all, but a website dedicated to growing cannabis: UK420. Given the nature of the site and it’s – er – ‘main reason for being’ it’s always prefered to keep a low profile but recent events have come close to getting it unwanted attention. At one time UK420 had the best activist forum (members only, you have to subscribe to view it). It was a place where everyone met and discussed things and there are some well-known law reform activists there. Like all forums UK420 has its regulars and some have been posting there just about everyday for years. Over time however it became a place dominated by arguments and insults and bickering. The LCA were the first to feel the wrath of UK420 members and for many years the “old guard” of the LCA were treated with derision on UK420, but perhaps not without good reason.
I had split company with the LCA back in 2006. Now I can’t really say this any other way but the LCA were a joke. It was almost as if they had gone out of their way to make the cannabis law reform campaign look daft, presenting the worst image of cannabis users they were the awful “unwashed hippy” stereotype writ large. It had become the the focus of ridicule – not just on UK420 – and it needed to be put out of its misery.
So it was with some interest I noticed that in late 2010 Peter Reynolds pops up in the LCA and is immediately promoted to spokesman. How that came about was down to the “main man” at the LCA, someone who I have known ever since my involvement with the CLCIA. It’s fair to say we have never really hit it off and although we both support cannabis law reform, we seem to do so for totally opposite reasons. Add to this his perhaps unusual characteristic of trusting people he doesn’t know more than those he does made him a difficult person to work with. Again, this all history and for anyone interested in the death throes of the LCA, it’s all here
The really important if very small-town point to all this is that the LCA generated a steady stream of alienated people who often migrated to UK420 where they either became additional objects of ridicule themselves or settled into the community.
Peter Reynolds had already engaged the wrath of UK420 before he appeared on the LCA. All this is really so small-town , given the millions of cannabis users out there, plus the unknown millions of non-users who support some kind of law reform it is little short of stunning how often the same names seem to crop up.
Anyway, Peter had arrived at the LCA like a gale and within a short period of time had stood for election as leader and had taken control. This was possible incidentally because despite existing for over 10 years and claiming to be the main cannabis law reform campaign in the country the LCA only had around 70 members, which perhaps shows how much of a joke it had become.
Peter didn’t waste time, he did what was needed and revamped the LCA into a modern, professional campaign called CLEAR. Frankly, I was impressed and when I was asked to take on the CLEAR website in late summer, I did so willingly. Since then I have got to know Peter as a real person, not as someone on the end of a computer terminal. I do not agree with a lot of Peter’s politics, but then I don’t agree with a lot of people’s politics and that doesn’t stop me working with them in my professional life. We do agree on the sort of law reform campaign that’s needed, the sort of image it needs to convey and the aims and objectives the campaign should have.
For the first time we have, in CLEAR, a cannabis law reform campaign worthy of the name. From the start this seems to have annoyed some people. Very shortly after CLEAR was formed a hate site appeared (Peter Reynolds watch), this was shut down but soon re-appeared. Unknown to the rest of us Peter was getting a constant stream of hate posts for some months. Just before Christmas the ex-main man of the LCA starts a page on Facebook demanding Peter step down from CLEAR.
A strange – and frankly almost suspicious – thing then happened. People who had only months before been at each others throats for years joined forces to dig the dirt on Peter Reynolds. All the usual suspects were there, people well-known from UK420 in particular, but also people who had been ridiculed in tha past on UK420 and even the old guard from the LCA; the very best of enemies united in the single cause of attacking the leader of the most successful cannabis law reform campaign this country had ever seen.
Now it has to be admitted that Peter did give them some free ammunition. Before his involvement in the cannabis law reform movement, he had been a serial blogger and some of his comments were, perhaps, written in a language which some might have considered ill-advised. He discussed thorny issues such as immigration, saying how communities he had known as a kid had changed due to mass immigration, he touched on that hot potato that is the Arab-Israel conflict and more besides. These were his personal blogs and has always claimed they were written to be controversial. They were also known about before he stood for election at the old LCA.
It has to be said that Peter had written a lot of blogs, of which only a handful contained these controversial comments, but what we got was a Facebook campaign against him based on them which claimed to show proof that he was a raging homophobic racist, all run and coordinated by the newly united band of previous enemies who have been joined by others in a campaign which can only be described as obsessive.
Over the months Peter Reynolds has been accused of being:
A Police informer A Homophobe A racist A sex pervert In cahoots with big pharma
And probably a whole wedge of other things besides.
Things first came to a bit of a head on Christmas eve, when I was away from home visiting the rellies for at the festive period. I took a break from the enforced festivities and checked the CLEAR site where I saw that Peter posted a very aggressive comment, when I saw it I phoned him and it was then I discovered the extent of the campaign he’d been enduring for months. He was, it transpired, under a hell of a lot of lot of stress because of it.
No problem Derek. I was hoping for a response to my question though.
“The aim of CW is to give feedback to papers that print anti cannabis stories…”
My aim is to confront liars, hypocrites and bullshitters.
Peter Reynolds is all 3 and more: his dirty agenda is merely the icing on the cake of moral righteousness. (The cake is a lie)
If he steps away from the “cannabis law reform” campaign mine, and I would imagine, everybody else’s interest in him will end.
Narcissists like being the centre of attention so I doubt he’sgoing anywhere soon.
Good luck dealing with the fall-out when the story appears in the nationals. You might like to know that David Rose,the freelance investigative journalist who is looking into Peter Reynolds, is one of the nominees for the Paul Foot awards for investigative reporting; being held – I believe – tonight. You can rest assured he will be thorough.
@lem –
Oh for heavens sake Lem don’t set yourself up as some kind of guardian of morality, you sound really daft saying stuff like that.
Speaking of daft and seeing as you mentioned it, David Rose works for the Mail on Sunday and whichever idiot thought it might be a good idea to involve the Mail on Sunday to dig the dirt on Peter really hadn’t thought through what they were doing. You guys sold him a story but you also interested him in much more than CLEAR.
UK420 has always tried to keep a low profile for fairly obvious reasons, which is why I’ve hardly ever mentioned the website in any of my blogs. But all this is running the risk of giving it a lot of unwanted attention.
I wonder what the Mail will find more interesting? The story of Peter Reynolds, or the existance of a site like UK420, doing what it does and all that?
Actually, it will probably find both interesting, but it would hurt UK420 much more than it would hurt CLEAR.
Just think a bit before you dive in a do stupid things eh? Talk about an own goal.
@davedangleberry I can’t answer your question, I don’t know if Peter has any business links with anyone, but such things aren’t illegal, or even immoral.
A link to Jim Alekson would be a huge conflict of interest.
“The story of Peter Reynolds, or the existance of a site like UK420, doing what it does and all that?”
haha.
Oh dear. Is that the sound of a barrel I hear being scraped?
I didn’t contact David Rose, I have no idea who did, but they picked a good journalist, regardless of who buys his stories.
What will the papers find more interesting: a forum that has been in existence for well over ten years, or the leader of a political party who posts pictures of his cock on the internet.
Hard one to answer that really.
scccccrape.
To be honest Derek, getting busted would be the best thing that could happen to me right now. Without the need to remain anonymous I would be far more effective. Trust me. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8RCQDDsMpU
For god’s sake davedangleberry – stop looking for conspiracies in everything. You belong on the 9/11 pages with your tin foil hat.
Lem, and all the others, who’s sole sad existence in life seems to be posting negative hate filled nonsense continuously – why do you not care if you are seriously damaging the push for change of the cannabis laws? Are you so selfish that you are willing to spoil it for everyone?
I notice on UK420 that “Underwater” posted the following;
“Anyone he comes into contact with needs to be given all the information available on him. It’s all in this thread. Anywhere you see him or CLEAR posting, chuck all the links in this thread in there too. Let people see.
Contact papers, tv, writers, bloggers or anyone who might be interested, it’s being done already but more people doing it can’t hurt.
Just a few of us have set him up for a monu-fucking-mental PR disaster if he goes near domestic TV for example.
Join in and STOP CLEAR – forget about removing him it ain’t gonna happen.
CLEAR is fuck all – it’s one mans ego-trip, it’s not as hard as people think. They are already an arse hair from being completely irrelevant.”
Look at what you have become. Who is so hate filled that they do that? Was Underwater frothing as he wrote that pure hatred? He’s not going to find a girlfriend spending all day on the internet acting like that – girls don’t like that shiz.
Besides which, CLEAR isn’t just one man’s ego trip – it’s lots and lots of members who want change. You are deliberately attacking those people. That’s not good. We live in a real world. Why would you want to make real enemies in the real world? It just seems silly.
“Besides which, CLEAR isn’t just one man’s ego trip”
Yes.
It is.
It really is, it’s been nothing since the beginning.
As so eloquently pointed out by one recent commentator there is an onion ring with over 150k likes on facebook and another with over 25k. If you honestly use the like button on facebook as a measure of success, I despair for you, I really do.
CLEAR is a toxic brand; the sooner you realise that, drop Pedro, and start something that isn’t tainted by him and Vic, the better.
Wow the sound of the pack indeed.
When I emntioned the press interest in UK420 above, I meant it not as a threat but as a genuine warning. It’s not somehting I would want to see happen, but then I haven’t read the thread Jack mentions above. If that is the level of UK420 now, I wouldn’t miss it.
But my item was about the obsessive nature of the people behind all this, the number of posts from a couple of people here – 00 and Lem in particular – prove my point I think. These are seriously sad people who need to get a life.
In all the excitement I forgot my point.
Lem – and all ye others would just seem to have a sad single existence of hate – if you truly reckon that you represent the cannabis community, why aren’t you campaigning positively for change? Why are you instead damaging the hopes of realistically millions of normal fellow smokers? Are you really that selfish?
Campaign for yourself for what you believe in. I’ll gladly support you. It’s all good.
Lem.
No.
It.
Isn’t.
Stop it therefore. You are making real enemies of real people.
“You are making real enemies of real people.”
I really, really, really do so hope you are telling the truth. I honestly can’t tell you how good that makes me feel.
I am obviously being effective.
My life is wonderful thanks Derek. Have a nice day all.
Oh come on Jack its not an unreasonable question given whats been published on Clears own website. An answer can’t be so hard to give. Peter seems to voice his opinion on pretty much everything else.
Lem – why would you revel in deliberately making people you do not know dislike you? God’s honest truth – it’s really really weird.
What is your life Lem? Shall we dig some dirt on you? Shall we just find out how pathetic your life is on a personal level? Shall that become the comment warrior’s mission – to post hate filled stuff about just your life; small details ridiculed to extremes? Shall we forget the positive message we are spreading to change to just post the nastiest shit we can on you? We can just make stuff up as well. We can start a Facebook campaign.
That’s not what we are about. We would never do that. CLEAR isn’t like you. Peter Reynolds isn’t like you. People genuinely don’t want to be with people who constantly act this way. We are not about negative, skewed shit – and especially sleeping with the enemy – man that is honestly selling your soul to to devil. CLEAR is about positive change. Your clique mentality, with a common constant enemy, is about as welcome as a turd in a hot pot in our push for positive change.
Imagine after the revolution as well and you have to show your face amongst the community at large. At best you’ll be the laughing stock.
Lem – get a frigging life for god’s sake. What the hell are you doing? Pull yourself together and stop acting like a complete gimp. Your life will never improve doing what you are doing.
“You are making real enemies of real people.”
Oooh scary!!!
As stated before Petey the pied piper of flimflam’s only answer is hollow threats and abuse.
How very banal indeed.
00
No Dave, seriously, from an outsider looking in, it is weird. You seem to be looking for stuff, anything, and then you run with it like it’s gospel. And then there’s spin offs from that – it’s honest to god too much time on your hands or something.
It’s exactly the same as 9/11 conspiracy nuts. The latest on that front is energy beams – honestly – as yet unknown super science frikkin energy beams man that can bring down massive buildings!
I’m sure Peter Reynolds is involved in there somehow though! Run with it, it’s got legs.
OO – same answer applies to you above.
Why would you revel in deliberately making people you do not know dislike you? God’s honest truth – it’s really really weird.
What’s on the cards for you this week OO? Anything interesting or productive? No – oh well. Same old shit posting hate filled nonsense all day? Hate filled nonsense filling your every waking hour? Is that how you imagined your life would turn out when you were at school?
Did you tell your career’s adviser? Did he recommend you to a child psychiatrist? Has your life been downhill from there. Look on the bright side -it’s got to be rock bottom right now, so, like Yazz said; the only way is up.
now you tell a little truth lem and oo you want to offend and make enemies thanks it is now easy to see what you are doing and why. so now in my mind your behavior makes you either in cahoots with the Daily mail brigade or you are in fear of proper regulation of the criminal black market so why does anyone give you morons any time your spite and venom is not something i recognize as being a part of the cannabis community in your tone and manner you are exactly the kind of people that have caused the problems in the past with the cannabis campaign you are why it failed time after time. This is not your private drug this is not your private campaign and when you pull your heads out of each others arses you will be surprised that millions of other people who use cannabis have a different view to life than your nasty troll mindset could allow with your constant wineing credibility
Mr. Reynolds,
Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to weigh in here, in spite of being the subject of only one short paragraph. If you would be so kind as to point out exactly which elements of the article are inaccurate, and provide the disproving evidence, I will be happy to retract those elements in my blog and while I can’t speak for Mr. Elliott, I am sure that with his journalistic credentials he wouldn’t want to publish anything not solidly backed up by research. As it is, reading your comment, I only have more questions than answers.
If Mr. Alekson would like to comment here as well, perhaps he would be willing to provide direct answers to questions. There’s great potential for an illuminating conversation. I’d like to start by asking how, exactly, his corporation intended to dictate public health policy.
Thanks again,
Kassy
from http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/02/corporation_aims_to_co-opt_medical_marijuana_make.php
I suppose an American lady who I’d never heard of before yesterday is a no-life troll too?
Scrrrrrrrrappeee. That barrel is getting mighty thin-bottomed chaps. Please do carry on with the ad hominem attacks though, they reflect wonderfully on you.
I am not the leader of a political party therefore I wouldn’t have thought my personsal life is of any interest to anybody. Dig away though. I’ll give you a head start, I have bipolar disorder: you can call me a “certified nutter” now.
It isn’t Vic Hamilton, Peter Reynolds or Jim Alekson’s private drug either. They are the ones trying to stake a claim to it, not me.
I’m not sure what “wineing” means so I can’t answer that one.
Venom and spit is pretty much all that ever pours, or has poured from the mouth of Peter Reynolds. Maybe his ex wife is paying me? You ever think about that? She isn’t but hey, it’s another crazy idea to add to the pot.
You’ll notice I try to deal in fact not opinions, hence the links I posted earlier.
You’ll also notice I try to address the point s raised in your posts, something you lot seem to have difficulty doing.
now you tell a little truth lem and oo you want to offend and make enemies
thanks it is now easy to see what you are doing and why.
so now in my mind your behavior makes you either in cahoots with the Daily mail brigade or you are in fear of proper regulation of the criminal black market
so why does anyone give you morons any time your spite and venom is not something i recognize as being a part of the cannabis community in your tone and manner you are exactly the kind of people that have caused the problems in the past with the cannabis campaign
you are why it failed time after time. This is not your private drug ,this is not your private campaign, and when you pull your heads out of each others arses you will be surprised that millions of other people who use cannabis have a different view to life than your nasty troll mindset could allow.
with your constant whingeing and bitching you have now decided to declare everyone who supports clear is your enemy, Not the prohibitionists but other cannabis campaigners wow what strange logic so is that how you will win for cannabis users is that how you and your hate filled troll friends are going to win credibility? you will only damage yourself so go on then,
i look forward to the day cannabis is available to get from a licensed provider that has been grown in proper conditions and that has no criminal involvement so do most of the clear members so what kind of person or group see those people as the enemy ? well you must be frightened for some reason oh i know just troll some more
sorry posted that comment twice by mistake well i read the post from lem and i need to repeat i am not P,R not that it matters because i do support what he has done with clear
but you are so far wrong about who i am so what else are you wrong about?
why are you so concerned with my identity i have not accused you of being Peter Hitchens even you do sound as rabid as he does so why is my identity so important to you? why dont you imagine me as a big Irish Celtic comment warrior that works for me
Jack herer i agree with every thing you have said and i think you have summed up these trolls perfectly
“Venom and spit is pretty much all that ever pours, or has poured from the mouth of Peter Reynolds.”
Lem – I know you are a liar. Pretty much everything I have heard from Peter Reynolds is positive. It’s why I am defending him here against goons like you.
I’m no idiot. I see this for what it is. I see Peter for what he is. Everyone is quickly beginning to see you for what you are.
Everything I have ever heard from you has been “vemon and shit” ironically Lem. The proof is here on this very article with your comments.
You need to sort yourself out and stop it Lem.
Otherwise, what colour is the sky in your world?
I’m Spartacus!
If, for a moment, you think I’m Peter Reynolds, then you are seriously mistaken.
A quiet man – come the revolution we will share a long smoke.
jack i was just thinking the same my self lol and i hope peter is enjoying a night free from these guys i think he deserves a break from troll wars let us distract them for a change lol
Where exactly is the “venom and shit” from me, please do quote some.
I did compare Dan the yellow jerseyed warrior to Boxer the Horse, which some might say was a bit harsh, but it certainly wasn’t venomous.
If people dislike this much for doing no more than telling the truth, enough to warn me, “You are making real enemies of real people.”, I shall carry on telling the truth, and I shall sure as fuck carry on making enemies.
Good day to you: you emperor with no clothes; leader with no mandate; con man who needs to find a new con.; etc etc.
Lem – you are pitifully nuts. I never normally stay up this late – I really am a busy man. However I finished a pain in the arse document today and so unusually, like Cinderella, I stayed up late as way of reward.
Am I glad I did as well. I now know from looking at UK420 that you genuinely think I’m Peter Reynolds. Brilliant. OO thinks I’m some dude I’ve never even heard of. What are those things you say here on the internet – ROTFLMFO or something like that. Well worth staying up for.
Your head must be spinning at about 4000 RPM wondering who I am. Who am I? I’m give you a clue – follow the lizard man trail from David Icke.
Where exactly is the “venom and shit” from me, please do quote some.
If people dislike this much for doing no more than telling the truth, enough to warn me, “You are making real enemies of real people.”, I shall carry on telling the truth, and I shall sure as fuck carry on making enemies.
Please note the lack of ad hominem attacks.
My mind is perfectly calm, as a pond on a cold winter’s day.
I really couldn’t care less who you are, you all employ the same posting style, relying on personal attacks and never even attempting to deal with facts: you all blur into one. Sadly that image, that hideous image, of little pete peeking desperately out of that stained dressing gown has become my mental avatar for you.
That is the one thing about this debacle I would change, some things cannot be unseen.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/02/corporation_aims_to_co-opt_medical_marijuana_make.php
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/100-000-new-well-paying-jobs-created-through-compassionate-medical-marijuana-legislation.282086/
@ lem
You asked
“Where exactly is the “venom and shit” from me, please do quote some.”
Then wrote
“that hideous image, of little pete peeking desperately out of that stained dressing gown”
Counts as “venom and shit” – it might be acceptable on UK420, it isn’t here. Cut it out.
Regards those links you posted (it seems my spam filter catches two links) are you seriously making a case based on stuff like that? Move on down the bus please…
Jack Herer – “Pull yourself together and stop acting like a complete gimp”
Derek – “Lem in particular – proves my point I think. These are seriously sad people who need to get a life.”
Jack Herer – “Lem – I know you are a liar” proof? ah yeah, you don’t need that
Jack Herer – “Lem – you are pitifully nuts”
I refered to the fact that seeing the picture of little tiny petey, that Peter Reynolds posted willing onto the internet, caused me great trauma (it did) and I get warned. lol
Oh Del. What are youy like eh?
Jack Herer – “Stop it therefore. You are making real enemies of real people.”
How did I forget that gem?
To be fair Derek, you started off one hell of a s***storm when you briefly returned to UK420 before Xmas with a massively patronising update on your last several months and CLEAR. Did you ever expect that to go down well? Did you really expect people to praise you and repent to anything said previously. All this seems to really have started again (after the BCMR period) and continued ever since then.
Why on earth do you make such a post and then vanish? As you mentioned Peter did give people ammunition, you provided the spark with your post.
“Over time however it became a place dominated by arguments and insults and bickering.”
Is what everyone seems to say about every website after they’ve been there for a years.
I’m not defending some of the UK420 actions, some do seem over-obsessed with Peter Reynolds and CLEAR and it’s a shame the effort they put into their campaigning against it isn’t just put directly into something new and different. However, you are hardly much different; you seem to want to almost have the last word.
I used to respect you and follow you with interest through reading you on UK420 and thought you seemed an easy targer unfairly. After the post at Xmas time that I’m referring to and the disaster that’s ensued I’ve lost all respect unfortunately.
Peters response to a direct question on his links to Jim Alekson.
“The US company trying to bring transdermal cannabis patches to the UK is not a pharmaceutical company but even if it was, so what? It deserves encouragement if it can help to end prohibition.”
Can we take this as an acceptance of the accusations? So what? Is he serious?
“Before I respond one way or the other, I need to know (i) why the interest; (ii) who wants to know; and (iii) for what purpose?”
This was allegedly Jim Alekson’s reply, when asked if he had business links with Peter Reynolds.
Something to hide perchance?
Also, please look up the word “holistic”, before you further missuse it. Clue: it isn’t a synonym for organic/herbal/natural.
“Minds are like parachutes, they only operate when open”
00 dead link heaven
I have had this theory whereby if you shoot joints at soldiers (both sides) there may be in fact less dissonance with regards to real bullets, apply the same idea to slander campaigners- shoot joints into their mouths, give them 10-40 minutes of thinking time and then see if it had any effect.
To comment on something that you have no actual experience with is just plain strange, Ghandi had to give up sugar before he tell someone else to give up sugar, so take up cannabis before you can tell other’s not to take it, and furthermore before you have slander. Small minds talk about people.
@ Thomas
Re UK420 – I hadn’t been there for ages before Christmas, when I went back I saw the same old crowd saying the same old guff, nothing had moved on, nothing had changed. The reaction I got was instant and aggressive, as usual.
UK420 is not *the* cannabis community, it doesn’t represent anyone or anything other than the people who post there. Not only that but the people involved there do not represent the views and aims of everyone involved in fighting prohibition, many of who do not consider themselves a part of this “cannabis community”.
Lem – your own actions are making you pitifully nuts, not me pointing it out. If you don’t want to be thought of as pitifully nuts, then stop acting pitifully nuts. Don’t shoot the messenger simply for pointing out the obvious.
It looks like you couldn’t wait to get back up and at em on the hate trail. Was it straight out of bed and on here? Were hateful thoughts immediately and incessantly spinning through your head and you had to start frothing and acting unpleasant without any delay? Crikey your life sounds like fun. Do you get many party invites? Do your hosts immediately regret that decision when you show up and start with the hate?
In some people’s opinion Lem, if certain individual’s are purposefully unpleasant then they deserve to get laughed at – it’s light retribution if you will – the justification is that if they can’t take it then they really shouldn’t give it.
Lots of people who do not even know you are obviously laughing at you for what you are doing. That’s because it underlines the sad sorry existence that you must undoubtedly have because of the way you are behaving. It’s ironic that you act in the personally vindictive and shameful way you do, when your own life on display would no doubt be easy pickings for ridicule. That’s if the constant hateful way you act is an indicator.
People who know you are probably laughing at you too by now. Members of your own clique are probably even laughing at how ridiculous your life has got – day after day – the same hate agenda, working actively against cannabis change, working actively against the cannabis community.
What have normal smokers done to you that you are harming their well being? Why do you have no shame?
Why not pop out to the shops Lem? Or the park? What you are doing really isn’t healthy – any idiot and his dog can see that.
Mine is friendly advice incidentally Lem. Clearly no-one else is telling you the truth. Cliques don’t generally do that to be honest.
Someone need to tell you the truth though. You are making a major fool of yourself. You are acting in a strange way. Spending all day, every day, doing what you are doing is a recipe for disaster. You are acting like a care in the community patient.
I don’t mean this to be offensive, but are you a care in the community patient? If so please tell your contact, or whatever it is your NHS person who sees you is called, what it is you are doing here every day – don’t cover it up, be honest, it will be worse in the long run if you don’t. They will be concerned but they genuinely want to help you. We all do.
Hehe, you do make me smile.
I was up at about 8, I took my dog for a lovely walk, I had some breakfast and a cup of tea, answered some emails and made a post at 11:14.
You’re right obsessive doesn’t even cut it. Thanks ever so much for your concern. I knew you’d have to use my illness to attack me with, if I dropped it there for you, you can’t resist. You truly never disappoint.
I think you’ll find my total web output pales into utter insignificance when compared to Peter Reynolds’, and his many aliases. Maybe you should have a word.
He did write a blog post on the dangers of Facebook: he should have took his own advice. lol
http://thurmanhubbard.com/?p=7975
blimey, just got back from work thought i would check my e mails, just penis enlargement ones as usual (insert own crappy joke) and this is still going on. Imagine if this was a conversation (argument) in the street or down the pub, it would look ludicrous, imagine playing this out in front of your mum!. What did everyone do with their anger and hate before the internet. please just stop it, get on with your lives, go and preach to people whose opinion you may change, that would seem more sensible and effective.
So Reynolds has been emailing people and threatening them with Police investigations.What that makes him is a blackmailing creep.The sooner him and his alter ego Dr.Carla Margam are banished from the UK legalisation movement the better.No one legitimate impersonates a Doctor so the guy is a fraudster.He’s got form for it too
“go and preach to people whose opinion you may change, that would seem more sensible and effective.”
What like the comment warrior campaign?
What a misguided joke. As if anybody who reads the comments block on a national newspaper is going to say “Oh look, that man, who looks a bit like a canary, is telling me that the future is MURKY – my mind has changed – how wrong I have always been.”
The people who you need to engage are the journalists and editors: attacking them, as is Pedro’s style is suicide.
If he ever, and I do mean ever, gains any national recognition he will be crucified by the tabloids. If you can’t see that and think blindly supporting Peter is the way forward be my guest, I won’t stand in your way. Just don’t expect me, or anybody else, to stop alerting other people to the failures of this man.
Having a desire to see cannabis legislation changes and calling for Peter to step down are not mutually exclusive. I can, and will, continue to do both.
Derek – There appear two unrelated issue here: there is the , bickering about policy or messaging, internal politics, egos and bitchyness within LCA/CLEAR and the wider cannabis movement (if there really is such a thing). This is probably all par for the course and any organisation or grouping has similar challenges. The second issue is Peter’s conduct, both before and after becoming CLEARs leader.
The two have issues have unfortunately become intertwined; the rather unattractive internal politics becoming intensified, as well as very public. However, leaving aside the more wild/contentious accusations, Peter is unquestionably guilty of very poor conduct that has to bring his position into question – to deny this is quite extrordinary and doesnt sit easily with you history as one of the more level headed and reasonable cannabis activists.
Some offence may be inevitable in the cut and thrust of politics, but specifically:
– he has made comments that most people would consider racist (‘swamped’, ‘to many of them’, ‘I want my country back’ etc). Simply claiming to be ‘not a racist’ and apologising for causing offence is quite different from demonstrating an understanding of why the comments might be offensive, or suggesting that he had changed or is making efforts to address his offensive views. Saying they were ‘provocative’ and ‘used illjudged language’ is a woefully inadequate excuse – embarassingly so.
– He has made comments that were *unquestionably* homophobic (no mention from you btw)- and when called on this, defended the comments to the hilt, digging in, even making additional offensive comments.
These comments on race and homosexuals alone would almost certainly have led to dismissal from any major political party, certainly as leader, and most corporate or public employment. That said, arguably, if at this early point if he had apologised, shown some contrition, and shown action to change his views, and again – an understanding of why his language and sentiments were offensive and wrong, he might have been able, eventually, to continue effectively in a public role.
This didn’t happen. His tone was defensive, strident and aggressive. People who made criticisms (lets ignore the illegitimate personal attacks on Peter’s private life for now – its important not to confuse them) were themselves attacked. No matter what critics were saying – Peter’s public ad hominem attacks and legal threats were utterly inappropriate and again would have been grounds for dismissal in the vast majority of public roles.
His attack on Sarah McCulloch was disgusting (its important to be clear that what she said about him in this context is irrelevant), and he has subsequently gone on publicly insult Levent from SSDP and even bitch about Release and other campaign groups. Remember that Sarah and Levent – both active in LGBT activism as well as drug policy reform – only upset Peter because they felt it neccasssary to respond to his offensive blog posts in the first place. They were nothing to do with any of the internal politics or more grandiose conspiracies. There is absolutely no excuse for this aspect of Peter’s public conduct. None – and your defense of it is bizarre and dissapointing.
You are quite right that we shouldn’t dwell on people – but no one is to blame for making this about Peter, except Peter himself. Promoting himself as the public face of the organisation isnt the issue – but if you put yourself in a public role you have accept and manage the inevitable critics responsibly. Not only has he handed his potential critics ammunition but he has dealt with the ensuing salvo (justified and unjustified) like a child, demonstrating a complete lack of political awareness – actively aggrevating the situation, creating and provoking new enemies, and then being suprised when attacked further.
The important thing to remember is that reform movement didnt know about Peter two years ago, its never been about him, its not now, and we dont care if he dissapears. What we care about is the cause – not these pathetic, self absorbed dramas.
Your contention that there is no such thing as bad publicity is horribly deluded; regardless of whatever progress Peter might have made for LCA/CLEAR, this whole sorry episode has, on balance done the organisation/cause enormous damage – If you cant see that, really, I despair. Facebook followers are not the measure of a man. Take a step back, try and look objectively at the wreckage, and then think about stepping away for a while.
@ Billy Gartside: “So Reynolds has been emailing people and threatening them with Police investigations.What that makes him is a blackmailing creep”.
Er, not it doesn’t. You don’t blackmail someone by threatening to sue them whilst using your own name. Blackmail is a bit different to that.
You’d be well advised not to make accusations about him impersonating anyone without really solid proof as well, because that would be libel. Just saying like…
What like the comment warrior campaign?
What a misguided joke.
here we go again, now that billy has shown up the insults start again from the troll warriors
lem if you surround yourself with shit and do nothing but spread shit dont be surprised if everyone tells you you stink .
if you guys really think that by trolling Clear you are defending the cannabis community you are truly deluded you are turning your backs on the very people that do support change and you have declared us your enemy. with trolls like billy and oo you have set yourself up one look at the crap you guys post over and over tells me everything i need to know to make a judgement on your reliability and credibility.
thing is its the same crap every day. we have all heard the song and we want to change the record . you guys are like the nightmare neighbor that plays the same record over and over, in your list its more important to damage clear than change the law for cannabis users. so what are you people?
Once more the only reply is personal abuse and that we are all Trolls?
Aye everyone’s trolls but all we see is the CLEAR executive calling people nutters and threatening them?
Oh the Irony!
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Good for you Lem – I hope you lit up every person’s life that you met this morning. Unfortunately though, inside, I bet every moment of your morning was actually filled with festering hate filled thoughts. You certainly couldn’t wait to put your hate hat on pretty sharpish.
I had no idea that you had a genuine illness – I am sorry if I have offended you accordingly. I have absolutely no idea who you are, or anything about you apart from what you post – and even then it’s only very recently and even then very limited. Literally, for all I know, you could be the Premier of China or the CEO of Apple. I genuinely have no idea who you are.
If you were to pin me down as to the cause of your bitterness, just from what I’ve read, then I would have actually said you were a gay man in denial. You post in a slightly theatrical, look at me, no don’t look at me, effeminate style – the kind of way gay men seem to act before they come out not after somehow. My experience there is very limited though, and I would hate to offend anybody by assigning any kind of stereotypes with my very limited experience. Someone looking at things with just a pin prick of info though, could easily jump to the conclusion that it’s your repressed sexual feelings that are manifesting themselves as pure hatred.
Why not just embrace your sexuality? There is literally nothing wrong with being gay. The gay community is up there with the communities we should be proudest of most in our modern history. In years gone by the they fought so fiercely and bravely against bigotry that they were actually fighting against the same bigotry that affected all of us – gay or straight.
They also gave us disco, and from a personal perspective therefore, acid house. Man they should be shouting that from the rooftops. Disco showed the world how to have a good time – it still does now – proper disco, from the start, togetherness and belonging, not the grotesquely deformed beast it became with Studio 54 and the like. We owe the gay community big time – we’ve had shared ideals, beliefs and a common fight against ignorance for years now.
You will feel liberated and less bitter if you were to just accept what you are Lem. If are gay already, then apologies again – I know nothing about you so what was obvious to everyone else already wasn’t obvious to me.
Like I said though, I actually don’t know anything about you, so that is obviously pure conjecture – apologies again for any offence. I don’t even know if you are a woman come to think about it. All my theories come crashing down easily like that – that’s why I generally keep them to myself.
Clearly if I was close to the bone with the care in the community thing though, then you really do need to tell your carers. Genuinely. No joke whatsoever.
If you think our campaign is ineffective then fine, no problem, leave us to it and we will waste our time getting on with it.
You can spend your time campaigning in the ways that you think are effective. I wish you every success in your campaign.
Please do not simply spoil our campaign though. It really isn’t fair on the millions of cannabis users out there who are desperate for change. You are selfishly stopping their lives being far better. Don’t carry on what you have been doing therefore unless you deliberately want to be their enemy; an enemy to cannabis users.
I am not a CLEAR executive btw if you are referring to me calling people nutters.
My goodness, where do all you people come from with the same bitterness and hatred. You must be one hell of a party crowd.
Do you not care, holding yourselves up as sworn enemies of the cannabis community?
It’s really weird. How far do you want to take this battle? You do realise there are millions of us?
i am not on the clear executive either but no good telling that to those guys, they think its only a wee small group on clear like it was a year or 2 ago with the lca, sorry guys but you are up against regular cannabis supporters just like you used to claim to be. oh and who will you say i am today i wonder?