poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol, so why is it illegal?
It’s six years this month since cannabis was reclassified as a Class B drug. Student James Palmer from Nottingham city centre says it’s time to decriminalise it.
From an act as silly as smoking a joint in a semi-obvious place, my friends and I gained a criminal record.
We were taken home to our angry and disappointed parents in the back of a police van. Several days later I was ‘invited’ to the station to get our DNA, pictures and statement taken.
It was one of the worst experiences of my life, being forced to say on tape in front of a family member, “I, James Palmer, was caught on this date with the class B substance known as cannabis,” or something similar.
This was traumatic to a mostly law-abiding 17-year-old, and led to a very down time in my life.
But it happens every day; we are wasting thousands of hours of police time and taxpayers’ money fighting a never-ending battle to stop a drug that is used daily by thousands of people, to little detriment to themselves and others, where the only outcome is a record that is never wiped.
I was processed by the law after admitting to having a grinder in my pocket, and deemed to be in possession from having a tiny speck of cannabis. The problem is the officers who arrest you for something like this will be the ones more likely for promotion, and the genuine officers who have empathy and are in touch with their community will not. Not that I’m arguing that the police should not do their job, only that a degree of professional discretion should be used and encouraged.
The fact that cannabis is illegal sends young people scattering into the more deprived parts of society, out of the eyes of the law, which can lead them to be in vulnerable situations. I used to go to the house of an alcoholic 20 years my senior during one winter as there was simply nowhere else to go; while he was a very nice person, on reflection I really should not have known him.
I consider myself a moral person, and the fact that I have a note by my name that says “arrested for drug possession” is a horrible thought.
The fact that smoking kills 100,000 a year doesn’t stop people smoking, and the fact drugs are illegal doesn’t stop anyone who wants it.
For five years cannabis was a Class C drug, before being reclassified as a Class B drug six years ago. At the end of the day, if some people relax by smoking a doobie, instead of drinking alcohol – a much more medically harmful drug – then let them, and end a horrible system that turns moral people like me into criminals.
I hope one day we will realise the benefits of cannabis, one of the most useful plants on the planet, from building materials to alternative to fossil fuels, plastics, fuels, pesticides, to relieving pain; and just a good way to relax.
http://www.nottinghampost.com/James...ohol-illegal/story-25817417-detail/story.html
It’s six years this month since cannabis was reclassified as a Class B drug. Student James Palmer from Nottingham city centre says it’s time to decriminalise it.
From an act as silly as smoking a joint in a semi-obvious place, my friends and I gained a criminal record.
We were taken home to our angry and disappointed parents in the back of a police van. Several days later I was ‘invited’ to the station to get our DNA, pictures and statement taken.
It was one of the worst experiences of my life, being forced to say on tape in front of a family member, “I, James Palmer, was caught on this date with the class B substance known as cannabis,” or something similar.
This was traumatic to a mostly law-abiding 17-year-old, and led to a very down time in my life.
But it happens every day; we are wasting thousands of hours of police time and taxpayers’ money fighting a never-ending battle to stop a drug that is used daily by thousands of people, to little detriment to themselves and others, where the only outcome is a record that is never wiped.
I was processed by the law after admitting to having a grinder in my pocket, and deemed to be in possession from having a tiny speck of cannabis. The problem is the officers who arrest you for something like this will be the ones more likely for promotion, and the genuine officers who have empathy and are in touch with their community will not. Not that I’m arguing that the police should not do their job, only that a degree of professional discretion should be used and encouraged.
The fact that cannabis is illegal sends young people scattering into the more deprived parts of society, out of the eyes of the law, which can lead them to be in vulnerable situations. I used to go to the house of an alcoholic 20 years my senior during one winter as there was simply nowhere else to go; while he was a very nice person, on reflection I really should not have known him.
I consider myself a moral person, and the fact that I have a note by my name that says “arrested for drug possession” is a horrible thought.
The fact that smoking kills 100,000 a year doesn’t stop people smoking, and the fact drugs are illegal doesn’t stop anyone who wants it.
For five years cannabis was a Class C drug, before being reclassified as a Class B drug six years ago. At the end of the day, if some people relax by smoking a doobie, instead of drinking alcohol – a much more medically harmful drug – then let them, and end a horrible system that turns moral people like me into criminals.
I hope one day we will realise the benefits of cannabis, one of the most useful plants on the planet, from building materials to alternative to fossil fuels, plastics, fuels, pesticides, to relieving pain; and just a good way to relax.
http://www.nottinghampost.com/James...ohol-illegal/story-25817417-detail/story.html
Last edited:
