Ex-head of MI5 calls on government to decriminalise and regulate cannabis

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Thursday November 17 2011 22.32 GMT

The former head of MI5 believes the "war on drugs" has proved fruitless and it is time to consider decriminalising the possession and use of small quantities of cannabis.

Eliza Manningham-Buller has backed calls for the government to set up a commission to examine how to tackle the UK's drug culture and consider the highly controversial move of relaxing the law.

She was speaking at a meeting held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform on Thursday where senior government representatives met experts from across the world to consider ways of combating the issue.

=snip=

Manningham-Buller said there was too much of a knee-jerk opposition to changing drug policy but it is an issue that needs to be at the forefront of national debate.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/17/cannabis-drugs-decriminalise-mi5

[haikugal]

1. Regulate? As in make a profit from?

[MaineDeadHead]

2. No...

... more like - "reduce the levels of THC in the legal product" so it looks like they are responding to changing public opinion while still ensuring that a healthy black market remains which can be played from both sides.

[haikugal]

4. Hmmm I should be able to grow a plant without needing a permit.

Or 'regulation'...Thanks for your input..I hadn't thought of that angle.

[Prophet 451]

5. More like...

...the way we regulate beer: If it's offered for commercial sale, we regulate it for reasons of public health but if you're homebrewing for yourself and a few friends, that's your business.

[haikugal]

7. Do you think that they will actually recognize our right to grow our own?

I have my doubts...it's much to profitable to both prohibit, incarcerate and demonize on the one hand and on the other I can see it being just as profitable to use regulation to jack the prices and taxes.

[Prophet 451]

9. I honestly don't know

We don't have a for-profit prison system here so that removes some of the pressure but, given the financial interests in keeping it prohibited, I doubt it will be legalised here in any form for some years. Doesn't help that the Labour government reversed the downgrade to Class C and we now have Tories in charge.

That said, you could argue that it's in the alcohol industries interest to ban/regulate-to-death homebrewing too and the alcohol industry is very powerful here. But it's still completely legal as long as you don't offer it for sale.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. It should be legal, regulated, TAXED and available for consenting adult use.

I mean, Jesus fucking Christ on a Rocket Sled. Enough already.

[Prophet 451]

6. Seconded

Treat it exactly the same as booze.

[24601]

8. Not really in the MI5 lane of the road. They are a Security Service

specializing in Counter-Intel & Counter-Terror. It doesn't really map cleanly to our FBI or DEA. Now, if it was a statement by the former head of Torchwood (outside the Government - beyond the police) that would be something.

[RainDog]

10. GB seems to spend a lot of time on this false claim of psychosis

they link it to soapbar, esp. But soapbar, from what I've read, is a problem because it is not really cannabis much at all and is instead all sorts of weird things mixed together.

The link to schizophrenics has not demonstrated any sort of causation. Instead, studies find that schizophrenics are more likely to use a variety of drugs, including cannabis.

Roger Pertwee, the biggest name in Pharmacology in the UK, issued a statement last year that said there is no causation between cannabis and "psychosis" or, more to the point, schizophrenia. He supports legalization because he finds cannabis is only potentially harmful for a small subset of the general population that is already at risk of schizo-affective disorders.

Pertwee said cannabis is not a mental health threat to the general population.

Manningham-Buller mentioned the Senate study - but our Senate has certainly not called for more sensible drug policies. The study, however, did demonstrate that prohibition has created the same sort of climate of violence in Mexico now that it created surrounding alcohol in Chicago in the 1920s.

What's also interesting to learn is that the big profiteers in the war on drugs are the same ones that benefit from other wars: Dyna-corp was at the top of this list, followed by other military contractors. Halliburton gets in on the action too.

I am glad to see people who have influence among policy-makers speak out.