government should look at this

[firky]

And the French.

[ResetTheAtari]

Perhaps if more folk in the UK had voted Lib Dems we might see legalisation or at least declassicifaction again, with the Tories in never gonna happen.

[j_one]

Would have taken an impossible number to vote under the current voting system.

[feral witchchild]

and decriminalised means legalise, that's why i was confused

Not really, it just means you won't be arrested for it - doesn't mean they can't fine you for possession or lock you up for intent to distribute and all that.

[DRTY]

or make alcohol illegal

Alcohol should be illegal imo. Fucks you up more than most drugs do.

[magma]

We need a massive "happening" to spark interest.... I've always liked the idea of a massive flashmob style joint-smoke in one of the London parks (or maybe coordinated in a few places across the country) with lots of cameras and no trouble whatsoever... but it'd only work if you got hundreds (minimum) involved.

Who's this 'we'? I smoke weed but I don't want to see it legalised and I don't want to be identified with those who do want it to be legalised. I see the real car crashes of the humble herb, the families literally torn about because someone was murdered for weed or just too stoned to drive and had a bad RTA.

As for "flashmobs", don't need them. There's hundreds of people blazing in London's parks everytime the sun is out, in the beer gardens of pubs where and at many of the free little festivals that are held outside over the summer. The less attention that receives the better, there's still places where the police turn a blind eye and you can skin up and blaze in public in this country, personally I think it's better not to make a big deal out of it.

(I know of a dozern pubs up and down the country which are more like amsterdam's coffee shops than pubs, I'd rather keep them out of hte eye of the public and media )

Well, the 'we' I was talking about was people who agreed with that point of view... if you don't, then clearly the 'we' doesn't include you. I didn't say 'everybody', I said 'we'.

I agree that weed has the ability to wreck lives. I am also aware that alcohol wrecks lives. I don't see a problem with either being legally available for recreational use.

Yes, there are lots of people smoking in the parks and pubs, but the point of a PR exercise is to get people to take photographs, write articles, take videos... make the news. The idea isn't to get more people to smoke weed, it's to spark a debate in society about its legal status.

I realise you disagree with 'us' (again, this is a relative term that in this instance can't include yourself in case you're confused), but even in the wildest of my fantasies of a referendum you'll still get more than adequate opportunity to disagree and to vote against. The problem at the moment, it seems, is that yours is the only point of view being heard by the masses - or more importantly, the politicians.

(And perhaps if society took a little more grown up attitude to the drugs humans consume, those places wouldn't have to worry about media coverage... in fact, they might quite appreciate the marketing opportunities it offered... what an awful world I dream of.)

[honey-d]

Ah California, where the weed is just getting cheaper and higher grade

[nowaysj]

higher grade

It is getting too out of balance.

[AxeD]

It is legal... Ahh you never thought about that now, did you?

[hayze99]

me too, doesn't that article suggest the legal medical weed is running the illegal dealers out of business or am i being stupid, maybe i should read it again

It is.
That's why I'd rather it was decriminalized than legalized.
With legalization it's just going to be like cigarettes and everything's going to be full of chemicals and shit. Which I'd rather not have with my weed.

And then a market will grow for organic weed.

You got dollas in your pocket and the great big capitalist hand will deliver.

[AxeD]

Down here it's legal and there are a lot of shops around. Rarely any problems with it though.
Although one shop needed to close down coz there was an elementary school right across the street. The owner changed the name from Alem Coffeeshop to Alem Teashop and it's al good now.

[honey-d]

higher grade

It is getting too out of balance.

eh? You mean the high grade is getting too strong or the mids are disappearing?

I only go to dispensaries for weed and I'm in socal so I don't really deal with mendicino or humbolt's outdoor grown strains much.

[nowaysj]

The chemical composition of the weed it getting all out of whack. No offense to the growers, but this stuff has been modified to increase profitability, to the detriment of the full complex blend of chemicals. I don't pretend to understand this, but I know that weed is very different than it was a while ago, and it's not that it's more "potent".

[parson]

petty laws are retarded

[parson]

the law should be: don't be an asshole.

[kay]

It's all a major case of a poor workman blaming his tools. It's time people stopped blaming "tools" like drugs, tv, computer games and the like, and started looking at the root causes of society's ills. Which is in fact the structure of society itself and lack of self control amongst a proportion of the populace.

[the acid never lies]

lack of self control amongst a proportion of the populace.

You mean the proles?

[pets bud]

The government needs reasons to throw your ass in jail. They make money off people that way. They use tax payer money to militarize as much as possible. The more cops there are the safer the rich cats feel. Jails are a business. They are good for the government. They keep people employed and ignorant people thinking they are safe. They want to put minorities in there to tear each other apart. It's part of population control.

[kay]

lack of self control amongst a proportion of the populace.

You mean the proles?

Not really, just idiots.

[POND LIFE]

don't make the mistake of confusing the schizophrenia etc for bullshit. it's really not.
i'm up for decriminalisation - after all, what the hell's the point in it being illegal when everyone who wants to smoke it has access to it. but, imo it can easily fuck up lives and minds. yes, there is a lot of bullshit and propaganda to wade through and the truth can be hard to deduce. but you really can't argue that skunk has a serious negative impact on a pretty large proportion of its users' lives.