What IS he smoking?
/Brown will upgrade cannabis to class B substance despite advice of drugs experts
Firstly, how many people will stop smoking dope because its a class B drug rather than a class C? Answer - none, of course! Most of the people that I have known over the years who smoked the stuff couldn't have told you whether it was class B or C and couldn't have cared less anyway. And where are you going to put all the people you are going to be banging up for possession, given that at any one time there seems to be only about 14 spare prison spaces available?
Look at the sums. There was a time, in my memory, when the total number of heroin 'addicts' in the entire UK numbered under 200. Again, in my lifetime, there was a time when mention of the word 'coke' referred only to a dark, sickly, carbonated sugary drink. Since that time, about 40 years ago, the use of both drugs has rocketed and the fact that they were not class C or B but A, carrying a possible maximum life sentence for possession, did absolutely nothing to slow this process down. Not to mention the huge takeup of Es, the spread of crack and the beginnings of a market in crystal meth.
I don't know what reason Brown has for ignoring the advice of the Council, who would care to speculate exactly what goes on in that deeply disturbed mind of his? But I know one thing, it will make absolutely no difference to the levels of drug use or cultivation, apart from the fate of an unfortunate few who get caught with a bit of weed on them. Oh, and it might put the price up a touch. But then most dealers would welcome a bit of relief from what has been an extended period of somewhat tight margins.
Gordon Brown is preparing to override the views of his own expert advisers and tighten the law on cannabis. Downing Street made it clear yesterday that the Prime Minister is determined to upgrade cannabis from a class C to a class B substance with a maximum jail sentence of five years for possession. But opposition parties claimed the Government's drugs policy was in chaos after it emerged that Mr Brown would ignore the conclusion of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs that cannabis should remain a class C substance. It will be the first time for 30 years that a prime minister has disregarded the recommendations of the body set up to advise ministers on drugs legislation.Let's leave aside the obvious question of the point of having advisory expert bodies if they are going to be ignored just because this one-eyed, Hibernian miserabalist has a contradictory feeling in his bowels and look at the consequences of Brown's proposals.
Firstly, how many people will stop smoking dope because its a class B drug rather than a class C? Answer - none, of course! Most of the people that I have known over the years who smoked the stuff couldn't have told you whether it was class B or C and couldn't have cared less anyway. And where are you going to put all the people you are going to be banging up for possession, given that at any one time there seems to be only about 14 spare prison spaces available?
Look at the sums. There was a time, in my memory, when the total number of heroin 'addicts' in the entire UK numbered under 200. Again, in my lifetime, there was a time when mention of the word 'coke' referred only to a dark, sickly, carbonated sugary drink. Since that time, about 40 years ago, the use of both drugs has rocketed and the fact that they were not class C or B but A, carrying a possible maximum life sentence for possession, did absolutely nothing to slow this process down. Not to mention the huge takeup of Es, the spread of crack and the beginnings of a market in crystal meth.
I don't know what reason Brown has for ignoring the advice of the Council, who would care to speculate exactly what goes on in that deeply disturbed mind of his? But I know one thing, it will make absolutely no difference to the levels of drug use or cultivation, apart from the fate of an unfortunate few who get caught with a bit of weed on them. Oh, and it might put the price up a touch. But then most dealers would welcome a bit of relief from what has been an extended period of somewhat tight margins.
