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Here's the Dope
by Marcus Bachler

The British Home Secretary has announced that cannabis will be reclassified from a class B to a class C drug from July 2003 onwards.

In practical terms this means that anyone possessing cannabis products for their own personal consumption will not be arrested, but merely given a warning.

This half-way hell house, where you can't buy or sell cannabis legally but will generally not be prosecuted for possession just underscores the hypocrisy and insanity of Government-imposed drug laws in the first place. Some drugs that are harmful, addictive and lead to dangerous behaviour, such as alcohol and nicotine, are and have nearly always been legal. Others, such as derivatives of the cannabis and coca plant, for bizarre, irrational and highly emotional reasons still remain illegal and are considered by a majority of the public to be taboo.

The amount of screaming apron-string holders that have surfaced to take issue with this new "liberal" legislation is astounding! One man in a debate on the subject talked about his deceased son Johnny, who had got into cocaine and heroin via cannabis. "You’re just encouraging kids to take harder drugs" he pleaded. "The problem is bad enough as it is!"

There was not one voice of reason in the debate to combat this tripe! Not one person to point out that with or without the drugs law little Johnny still needed to take responsibility for his own life!

The debate could have gone like this:

Question: Did little Johnny still manage to end his life through the abuse of drugs despite the law?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So how do the laws against drugs help someone like Johnny?

Answer: Duhhh?

Until the Johnnies of this world and their parents decide to engage their brains, assume responsibility for their own lives and start making choices that are beneficial, all the laws in Communist China are not going to save them from themselves! No one in the media or general public in the UK seems to be able to either formulate or understand this basic point.

The only hope I have left for the UK public at large is that maybe, just maybe, a little bit of freedom with regards to cannabis may make them realise that they can take control of their own lives. Then it will be time for the last of irrational, damaging and archaic drug laws that still exist today to finally be abolished. That would be worth celebrating with the substance of your own choice.

For me, it would be a glass of red wine and nice cigar. Cheers!

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