Disillusioned Discordian

The past couple of days have seen a renewed interest in the examination of the UK’s Drug Laws. This has been precipitated in part, because the government has ordered the advisory council on the misuse of drugs (ACMD) to report on the issue. As with most independent reports, the government has already publicly stated it’s intentions before the report has been published. To re-grade Cannabis to a class B, only a few years after they down graded it to class C. New evidence that supposedly links the drug to mental health problems is cited as one of the reasons (see my previous post). However since cannabis has been re-classed as class C it’s use has continued to decline,  with just 21% of  16-24 year olds using it compared to 28% a decade ago. As such it could well be argued that down grading the drug has been a success because of the overall fall in people using it. Of course there could well be other factors, but the point is that it has risen, so down grading the drug is unlikely to have resulted in a rise of it’s use.

The other reason is the notion that Cannabis is a lot stronger these days. It is true that certain hybridized strains are more potent. However due to the illegality of the trade there is no authority to enforce the strength of the drug. If the cannabis trade was decimalized in this country it might allow people to grow weaker strains of the drug at home rather than relying on their dealer who will be supplying stronger strains. These stronger strains produce a higher yield of THC which makes growing them more profitable for the illegal dealers. Decriminalization and regulation of the drug trade is something that is needed now more than ever. Unfortunately the government seems to be taking a step backwards in pursuing the already failed method of prohibition. I wonder if it ever occurs to them that it’s prohabition that can lead to strong and dangerous drugs being produced and alduterated supplies that cam kill people.

Spot on with it’s timing the BBC aired a Horizon on Tuesday night, in which a group of experts had set about grading twenty of the most popular drugs in their scales of harm. Perhaps unsurprising for those with experience in taking drugs, knowing drug users or working in rehab, many of the illegal drugs were lower on the scale of harm than the legal ones. What the program highlighted was how out of date our drugs law’s are in the UK. These laws have often developed in previous reactionary periods, where a fear over the cultural and political movements associated with drug use has lead to a moral panic amongst the conservative aspects of society. Again I get the feeling that the current climate of fear and the desire for a sense of security will allow these conservative forces to once again try and renew their efforts of prohibition.

Tom Hickey & Co’s plan to boycott Israeli academics has been stopped dead in its tracks by the UCU’s lawyers. They have thankfully ruled that such a boycott would be unlawful. This boycott was a pointless piece of political grandstanding that sought to discriminate against Israeli scholars because of the actions of their state (see earlier post). There are countless states throughout the world that commit Human Rights violations and grave atrocities against people. The British and American governments have themselves been complicit in such atrocities such as those committed in Iraq and Camp X-ray. Iran also indulges in a good ole public flogging for such heinous crimes as adultery. All possible candidates for a Hickey boycott you might think…

 Within academia however people come together to research in areas of mutual interest. International conferences are a rich exchange of idea and understanding. This boycott if successful would have seen the UCU trying to prevent Israeli academics attending conferences in Peace Studies or Conflict Resolution.  An extreme example granted, but it goes to show how many individuals who perform excellent research that benefits mankind would have found them cut off British academia.  It wasn’t born out of any attempt to seek peace, but rather a myopic RESPECT  vision of politics in which black and white are the only colours.

This is a crushing defeat for Tom the ‘Brighton Icon’; a defeat that brings me immense personal gratification.  Right now I can picture him blaming the UCU lawyers for being implicit in a ‘Zionist Conspiracy’ amongst a barrage of excuses and claims that he merely sought to ‘encourage debate’.