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Game Of Politics: Do you believe we have to play the game of politics to acquire legalisation? Or are there other ways around it?

The High Community

Wednesday 18 Jun 2014

I don’t like favouring any political party with the debate about cannabis. But as reform is only possible through a change in legislation, it has to be acknowledged that if a political party, directly or indirectly, has its politicians wanting to put cannabis on the political agenda, then that means we get a better hearing. It’s a game of politics!

Peter Lilley, previously the former Conservative Party deputy leader, has released a pamphlet for discussion, about legalising cannabis. Although he says that has never tried it, he defends the freedom of choice, given that cannabis is on par with alcohol and tobacco and there is no “direct pathway from its usage to harder drugs”.

The medical journal, The Lancet, concluded that on the medical evidence available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill effect in health.

Mike Goodman, director of Release, says that, “the law on cannabis is long overdue for reform.” He also states that “Cannabis should be down-rated from a class B to class C drug”, adding that more debate was needed on whether it should be decriminalised or legalised. “We need to start thinking about how we can change the law. We need to start addressing issues such as quality control, consumer protection and how we can protect children from it.”

We want this debate out in the open. We want the freedom of choice and particularly welcome controls on quality, as inevitably the legalisation will bring it into the forum of consumerism, and market forces will dictate price and quality. The government will also gain with the benefit from taxation, like it does with tobacco and alcohol.

The political debate about cannabis arising now may well be motivated as a vote-catcher for the next general election, but at least it gives the cannabis community the opportunity to discuss openly, without criticism, the benefits of decriminalising cannabis.

So the point here is, what are the key points that we need to promote to get cannabis legalised or downgraded to C rating? Do we want the latter? Would that be an acceptance that cannabis was a drug that needed to be controlled and that prosecuted the user? If we went for all-out legalisation, to promote freedom of choice and self-responsibility, how could we convince the voting public to back us and how would we convince the politician’s to change the law?

Seems to me that plenty of MPs have ‘tried’ it in ‘their youth’ and odd that they all seemed to ‘not like it’, and never ‘done it again’… Do they mean cannabis, sex or rock ‘n roll?

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http://www.thehighcommunity.co.uk/game-politics/

 

 

 

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