Cannabis laws cut criminals’ profits and keep therapists busy
Hey, potheads. News is that you’re violent bunch of criminals. Yeah, you, the ones loafing in front of the telly and barking with laughter at the salamanders dancing in the embers of your ambition. The Sun says legalising cannabis in the UK “will fuel violent conflict in our towns and turn a new generation of people on to hard drugs”. Hard drugs like vodka and opioids? The BBC says “there are increasing problems with opioid painkiller addiction and abuse in other leading economies – including the UK.” That stuff is legal. The government makes money on sales of super-strong booze.
The paper cites “British drug counsellor Seven* Graham” [*not a typo]. He says: “If you think knife crime is bad now, it could get worse if marijuana is legalised.” It could, And then again, it might not. “Legal cannabis does not get rid of the dealers,” he warns, “it normalises drug use and makes the problem worse. In America, the black market in weed has boomed. Soon they want new, cheaper and more potent varieties that are not available from licensed sellers, and competition to supply it is still fierce. Legalisation has done nothing to solve gang violence. You would have to be mad to legalise cannabis in Britain.”
Cannabis is California, where we’re told the Sun’s ‘expert’ lives, is controlled. There’s a whole list of caveats to the drug’s legality. You must be 21 or older to possess, purchase or use recreational cannabis. This includes smoking, vaping and eating cannabis-infused products. Hey, kids – you’re still criminals. Weed is still cool. Way to go! It is also illegal to consume, smoke, eat or vape cannabis in public. It is illegal to open a package containing cannabis or any cannabis products in public. And the kicker: only state licensed establishments may sell retail cannabis products. If your man can undercut the State’s price and sell you the weed, he will. And if you’re under 21 and not flush with cash, that’s who you’re going to get it from.
Right now in the UK, you’re all criminals unless you’ve one of the handful of Britons who scored a hard-to-get doctor’s note. Apparently it will be worse for society if less of you are criminals. Got it?
Tottenham MP Lammy goes on the record. “I want the market legalised, regulated and taken away from crime gangs. For young people not to be criminalised by use and properly educated. I want to see the strength of the stuff reduced, labelled and properly organised.” Sensible stuff. But who sets the price? There will always be a black market for anything regulated. The idea of giving tokers choice as to the strength of their weed is right. Skunk is mind rot. But it’s all the dealer has. And it’s in demand. The Sun says 79 per cent of users in Canada, where the drug is legal, go to illegal dealers for stronger, cheaper skunk. Why? Is it because it’s all they know and given the high prices of weed, you want the biggest bang for your buck?
The Sun does not mention that 90% of cannabis sales were on the blackmarket in the quarter prior to the 79% figure. And: “Statistics Canada has carried out an anonymous online survey on Canadian cannabis prices, and found the average cost is $10.91C ($8.13) per gram when buying an eighth of an ounce (3.5 grams), the most commonly purchased amount, through government-licensed retailers. That’s more than 40% higher than what the same amount fetches on the black market.”
Conclusion: the State is greedier and less reliable than your local dealer.
In some parts of the country, only government-run shops are authorized to sell cannabis. In other provinces, it costs thousands of dollars in licensing and regulatory fees to set up shop.
“Drug takers are thrill seekers, and once their tolerance for one drug goes up they will start looking around for a new thrill, like cocaine,” says Graham. “Cocaine use is one of the biggest causes of knife crime in the UK.”
At which point you wonder who Seven Graham is why his views are amplified in the Sun? A quick search on the web finds this blurb on Facebook: “Seven Graham Solutions: uses holistic wellness coaching, education, training, kundalini technologies, creativity, media and communications to empower humans to overcome self limiting beliefs and behaviors; to achieve our full human potential.” Another result for ‘Seven Graham’ directs us to the IMDB page, on which we learn: “Seven Graham is an English producer/director/writer/actor and stand-up comedian Executive Producer of Ponyboi, Seven raised most of the capital to finance the film in the UK from Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson; who came on board as co-producers. Seven is an intersex, non-binary person, who uses the pronouns They/Their/Them.” He may, of course, be another Seven Graham. But if it is, he appears to be less than prolific.
The Sun cites another ‘expert’: ‘Eytan Alexander, managing director of addiction treatment firm UKAT, says: “We are already treating people hooked on cannabis and legitimising its use could create a new generation of addicts. We don’t know what the long-term effects of smoking potent marijuana will be.”’
UKAT caught the eye of the Sun’s sister paper The Sunday Times, which reported in 2018: “‘Parasites’ sell addicts to clinics for £20,000 — aided by Google – Referral centres and the ‘unethical’ search giant earn millions by exploiting the desperately ill.” UKAT denied all and any wrongdoing.
It’s all more than little confusing. Reporting on cannabis invites the questions: which industry is booming faster – weed or therapy? And which should we be more concerned about?
Posted: 4th, August 2019 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
