Reefer Madness

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Title – Reefer Madness
Source – The Independent
Date – 7th May 2008

It’s true what they say ‘that everything is politics’ in other words everything we do in our lives is linked to politics, what should not be true is that ‘politics should be everything’.

The situation with the reclassification of cannabis as a class B drug seems now to have been decided, it will not happen until 2009, but everyone knows it will happen. But what it will achieve is another question. It does seem that this is more a political decision than a morally guided one.

I am not suggesting that cannabis should be anything but a controlled substance, but if you have an established system of control then use it effectively don’t manipulate it simply to grab the headlines. The classification system has always been based on scientific fact and the harm that each drug causes, not what fad the government feels would be ‘popular’.

The problem with the scaremongering that is going on at the moment with the message effectively being ‘if you smoke cannabis you will get schizophrenia’ is that cannabis users are being treated as if they are idiots. Most know this is not the case and they know that cannabis is not cocaine, crack or heroin; so what do they do, they ignore the message altogether.

But why exaggerate; there are facts out there that should be simply communicated. Gordon Brown is hardly going to get ‘in touch’ with the disaffected youth by saying ‘skunk is a variety of cannabis of a lethal quality’, it just sounds ridiculous. No cannabis user believes cannabis can kill you, so why say something so flippant? Why pretend that ‘skunk’ is 30 or 40 times stronger than herbal cannabis was 10 years ago when in reality 2 or 3 times is probably closer to the mark. This exaggeration from someone who claims never to have smoked cannabis is hardly going to convince regular users. Surely just the fact that it may be 3 times as strong sends out strong and fundamentally, a believable message. Show a balanced scientific view of the potential for psychotic problems later in life and people will actually sit up and listen.

So if the experts are to be ignored and the classification system skewed in favour of political points scoring, what value is there is the classification system? Unfortunately not too much, but maybe that has more to do with the perception we have been given of the system itself. Ask the average person on the street what a class C drug classification means and you will regularly hear misconceptions; it is barely harmful; there is no penalty for possession; it is legal; it is decriminalised. What you will rarely hear is, ‘it is for controlled (illegal) drugs’ and that it carries a potential 2 year prison term for possession…

So maybe politicians should stop trying to make headlines rather concentrate on the facts about cannabis being an illegal drug with sanctions against those who use it and deal it. Maybe they should concentrate on the proof and conclusions of the scientific community which are scary enough without having to exaggerate them to the point where people (already sceptical of every word that comes out of politicians mouths) simply ignore them.

It seems to me that all the headlines have achieved so far in to confuse people further and if cannabis was a brand (and the ‘cannabis leaf’ may as well be) it has been given a lot of free publicity!

The danger of cannabis use is something that people need to be educated about. Both users and those that work with people who may be under the influence of illegal drugs. At Beyond The Blue we run bespoke awareness courses for organisations which examine any particular problems they may have with illegal drug use, as well as courses for the licensed retail sector and security industry including; the National Certificate for Licensees - Drugs Awareness (NCLDA), the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS) and our In-House Security Induction courses (IHSI). We examine the classification of drug during all of these courses and keep candidates right up-to-date with any changes that occur for what ever reason that may be… Our interest is not in headlines, it is in the facts.


Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk