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In the Summer of 2003, Louis P. Burns aka Lugh from Upstate Renegade Productions was invited to film at an undisclosed medical cannabis / marijuana farm in the U.K. Our host, who wishes to remain known as Vel due to current British legislation, took us step by step through the growing stages of medical marijuana, from cutting shed to fully mature plants ready for harvesting.
Like Vel, Lugh lives with physical disabilities that limit his mobility and cause him constant and severe pain. He was inspired to produce the HEALING HERBS film in defense of disabled people's right to alleviate their discomfort with marijuana shortly after watching a video recorded episode of the; Mark Thomas Comedy Product entitled; The Genetically Modified Mark Thomas Comedy Product (Vera Productions, 1998). This show gave an opportunity for disabled people who used medical marijuana to confront the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw.
Well, the tax-payer's money wasting, war-mongering clueless idiots within the British/UK government are now considering the reclassification of cannabis back up to a class-B drug from a class-C substance, placing it into the same framework of hard drugs like amphetamines (speed) and barbituates, potentially carrying the same prison sentences for possession. Their reason (they claim) is that there are newer, super-strength breeds of the plant being cultivated that they say are causing mental health problems. Absolute nonsense! I challenge the UK government to properly research and compare the mental health damage done to people on prescribed (and expensive) NHS drugs like anti-depressants against various strains of cannabis and to tell the public the truth. Remember folks that there have been several BBC Panorama documentaries on the very real dangers (including criminality, suicide and violent psychosis) while people adapt to the chemicals prescribed in the UK via the NHS and fully approved of/endorsed by the British / UK government. Likewise with many chemicals being prescribed for pain relief.
It's the same old waffle we've heard for years and more to do with them not getting their cut of money from the legal distribution/sale of the plant through taxes because people can easily cultivate their own cannabis. And it is very important to remember always that it is just a herbal plant like parsley or sage. Of course there will always be people out there who want to dabble with creating stronger versions of the plant. Much the same way many people enjoy lots of garlic or parsley in their meals. So, do the British/UK government penalise everyone using cannabis because of the preferences of a few or the unscrupulous activities of a small group of dealers - who incidently wouldn't exist in the first place if the plant was legal?
It has recently been revealed that UK prisons are over-crowded. Do the British/UK government plan to lock up even more people? Do they intend to now make a fool of every decent police man or woman who has (and I'm speaking from experience) told members of the public they have come across using cannabis (for pain relief) that 'what they do in the privacy of their own homes is their business and that they are more concerned with catching real criminals?' Will they put forward the motion that Prince Harry should be arrested for mass murder of Afghans recently (if as they claim - cannabis causes psychosis)? After all, he was caught using cannabis, not penalised through the courts, but instead given a gun, military training and uniform, then went off and shot thirty kids defending their own land against invading British/UK government paid terrorists (soldiers). If the British/UK government are going to reintroduce this class-B status for cannabis, they had better implement and enforce it equally across the board, arrest and prosecute him. Otherwise, they could be looking at absolute anarchy on their streets and a taking back of power by the people...
I will of course continue to use cannabis for pain relief. The UK government are more than welcome to waste court and police resources and time prosecuting me, but if that happens I will sue them for breaches of my civil and human rights to self-medicate due to major concerns about the presence of highly toxic chemicals in the crap they allow the NHS to experimentally prescribe. I would also advise everyone in a similar situation as me to do the same.
Will those members of the British/UK government who admitted they too used cannabis and who are at present advocating the reclassification of cannabis back up to a class-B drug resign (without pension) in the interests of their voting public who don't want a government run my potentially mentally ill representatives?
What the British/UK government are doing here has more to do with those few ruling elite maintaining power than anything to do with care of the voting public (who keep them in employment) and they should be sued into the ground, trampled on by the European courts and eventually resigned to a shameful history.
FACT: While using the government approved chemicals I became a redundant, over-emotional trembling wreck and I am sure if I asked my colleagues and friends within media they will verify this and that they were more than a little bit concerned for my emotional and physical wellbeing.
So, will the British/UK government be enforcing legislation that creates a situation wherein all that has been achieved by me (while using cannabis for pain relief) goes by the wayside? Will they accept that they are denying people like me a right to create and maintain a career and vocation (albeit limited due to disabilities) and possibly my health/potential recovery/wellbeing? Will they pay me for loss of potential earnings through advertising and maintaining this site and promoting HEALING HERBS+ all of the other good work I have done on here and elsewhere to promote the arts?
It would be irresponsible of me to not point out that the use of cannabis in tandem with tobacco (in joints / spliffs) can do serious damage to user's hearts and lungs. Although, that begs the question - why aren't the British/UK government doing more to remove the toxic damages brought about by tobacco? Money through the taxes gained on the sale of tobacco springs immediately to mind...
It has just been announced on the news that the British/UK government have gone ahead and reclassified cannabis back up to a class-B drug. This despite the opinions of experts and scientists who concluded that there wasn't much danger from the herb. So in effect the British/UK government have spent tax-payer's money on research by experts and scientists and are now deciding they know better. Will they now refund the British/UK tax-payer for wasting their money; given that their minds were made up prior to ever consulting with experts and scientists? My thinking on this is 'no'...
I just got this link from one of the wonderful clandestine researchers on the Healing Herbs film that Diarmuid and I produced:
Duncan Campbell for The Guardian wrote:A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored.
The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.
There are, according to the report, now more than 160 million users of the drug worldwide. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," according to the report. "Historically, there have only been two deaths worldwide attributed to cannabis, whereas alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone."
My standing on cannabis legislation. The stuff has been used for centuries by other cultures to control pain, enhance the human experience, resolve conflict (native Americans - peace pipe), and even as part of certain religious practices.
The British governments (whichever one is in power at any given time), and all war-making governments fear the reality of the plant in that; when injested there is a very real potential for the user to open their mind's eye and perception to all the wonder of being alive. This does not sit well with these 'powers that be' when they are hellbent on getting as many young people as possible tooled up for war and bunged into uniforms. Britain makes a vast fortune from the sale of arms to poorer regions which they then exploit further by sending in troops to kill / control. A bit of cannabis/pot allows people to feel a gut reaction that tells them war is inherently wrong...
I could wax lyrical about this all day. All week in fact, but I wont...
Decriminalise cannabis and the dealers are removed, or have to switch to selling hard drugs which do indeed do harm. Decriminalise cannabis and Tax payer's money which gets absorbed in pointless court cases and policing staff hours can be used to either work towards even more efficient NHS provision of services (Britain), or research into cures/treatments for cancer and other life threatening conditions (worldwide)...
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