Subj: UK: Opinion: The Cannabis Row 2 - By Golly, It's Good



Source: The Guardian, UK



Pubdate: February 9, 2000





The Cannabis Row 2 - By Golly, It's Good

Simon Regan



The debate on the decriminalisation of cannabis has been a long time

coming. In 1965 a friend of mine was caught with an eighth of on ounce on

him and got five years in Maidstone jail. Only last week another friend of

mine was found with a similar amount and was let off with a caution. If, as

recent statistics reveal, some 40% of the population has or is experiencing

soft drugs on a regular basis, I imagine that the work load would deter the

police from prosecuting those found with small amounts.



I simply do not know anyone who has not "experimented" with cannabis and I

am now nearing 60 and by no means mixing in teenage circles. Yet I was in

on the beginning of the near-hysteria which greeted the cannabis scene in

the 60s. I was a zealous reporter on the newly formed investigation

department at the News of the World which got very busy exposing the whole

drug scene. The late Mike Gabbert was features editor, brought in to create

exposure journalism for the "new look" NoW.



One of his first coups was a series called "Pop Stars and Drugs"; it

involved almost every important act of the day - the Beatles, the Rolling

Stones, Jimi Hendrix et al. I was a leading undercover reporter on all

this, but I was found the scene so attractive myself that I begged to come

off such stories.





In I967 I was a regular smoker of cannabis, and despite the paranoia we had

ourselves helped to generate, could get it whenever I wanted it; smoking it

was routine. All I can remember of those days is a great deal of collective

giggling between otherwise mainly intelligent people.



That year I baked a large Christmas cake containing a full ounce of

"golden" Lebanese grass and cut it into 16 slices to give away as Christmas

presents. I gave a slice to Gabbert, telling him exactly what it was. In

the New Year he called me into his office and asked me if I could cook him

a full cake for himself. "I have never had such great sex," he explained.

"It'll be on expenses, of course."



Stafford Sommerfield, the editor, had vociferously and personally

instigated all the drug exposures. Yet a week after I had given Gabbert the

cake, he rather sheepishly asked me if I could cook another one "for

Stafford". Apparently Gabbert had given a couple of slices to the editor,

who had taken them home; he had got completely stoned. Now I was

technically a dealer myself. I supplied about one cake a month to Gabbert

and had no idea what happened to it. But the drugs exposures did

dramatically cease.

When Rupert Murdoch took over the NoW, the expenses dried up and Stafford

was subsequently eased out.



By the 70s foreign assignments had taken me completely away from the drugs

scene and I did not smoke again until 1997 when I found a new partner who

could hardly get up in the morning without a joint. I decided to join her.

In the 90s I became seriously infirm due to a muscle withering disease. The

disability made me fall over quite a lot and I added to my woes with a

multiple hip fracture, which in turn caused mild panic attacks in a crowd.

I was drinking far too much, found it difficult to perform in bed, and I

had an eating disorder. Frankly, I was in a bit of a mess.



By golly, the cannabis helped. I did not smoke a serious amount, but began

taking a few puffs about three times a day. The first effects were far

greater relaxation, followed by the return of my appetite, and of feeling

deeply sexy again. I have almost stopped having panic attacks. My drinking

has become far more moderate.



In the 60s, I took cannabis largely because it induced mild mind expansion.

Such things as music became more enchanting and fascinating. In the 90s my

intake is (almost) all medicinal. On millennium eve, I cooked another cake

and gave a slice to my octogenarian mother (who is severely arthritic) and

a crusty old retired colonel from the Guards.



Both have since asked me for the recipe.