Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and the UK

The UK started to establish the empire in India in the 1600s through its East India Company. When the British became acquainted with India, they found that cannabis was an integral part of India's social, cultural, recreational, spiritual, industrial and medicinal fabric. Its use was so pervasive and effective that it led leading British physicians to start prescribing it for the British until it became one of the most important medicines in the Victorian medicine cabinet. Then the British addiction with opium, tobacco and alcohol increased, alongside its overarching aim of maintaining global domination, funded through milking its colonies for their wealth till the blood came out. Gradually measures were taken to protect opium, tobacco and alcohol and the taxation of these more expensive drugs, and to make life increasingly difficult for the very inexpensive cannabis and its users in India, and possibly in all the British colonies. British goals of global domination have not receded at all since the 1600s and India is its favorite colony. There are many globally devastating actions that the British have performed, including taking a bunch of Europeans and planting them in the middle of Arab lands, as well as splitting India into two along communal lines, both actions which have created conflagration points that can ignite at any time setting the whole world on fire. But the action that takes the cake, for me, is to prohibit cannabis in India, where it was the succor of hundreds of millions of the poorest people, and replacing it with western alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical drugs.

In 1894, the British instituted the world's oldest known cannabis study, and possibly the largest, called the Indian Hemp Commission Report of 1894.The motives behind the report were, far from being supportive of cannabis or getting an unbiased perspective, highly biased against it, as the initial resolution constituting the committee in 1893 clearly shows. The resolution dated 3rd July 1893 states "In the despatch recited in the preamble, Her Majesty's Secretary of State informed the Government of India that, in answer to a question put in the House of Commons, he had expressed his willingness to request the Government of India to appoint a Commission to enquire into the cultivation of the hemp plant in Bengal, the preparation of drugs from it, the trade in those drugs, the effect of their consumption upon the social and moral condition of the people, and the desirability of prohibiting the growth of the plant and the sale of ganja and allied drugs." The Report (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Hemp_Drugs_Commission) was however an overwhelming thumbs up for the plant shown by the evidence of hundreds of witnesses, so-called experts from the judicial, medical and ruling classes. The evidence clearly stated that cannabis should not be prohibited since it was such an integral part of Indian social, religious and medical life. It was clearly shown that vast numbers of the Indian working classes and mendicants across all religions considered cannabis as a vital part of their lives. These classes constituted the majority of India's population. The expert witnesses repeatedly stated that prohibition of cannabis would lead to people taking up much more dangerous and expensive alternatives, such as alcohol and opium. But this must have sounded like music to the ears of the British government looking to increase tax revenues, as well as promote British alcohol and tobacco. Burma, or today's Myanmar, is possibly the first country in the world where cannabis was banned by the British rulers of the country in the 1870s followed by India, Trinidad and Egypt.

In the 19th century, the new found love of the Indian elite classes for British alcohol, tobacco and the traditional, but more expensive opium, as well as the scorn of the elites for the laboring classes, lower castes and religious mendicants and the urge to please their Colonial masters, enabled the push through of cannabis prohibition, with the majority of the Indian and Burmese population being gradually suffocated and weaned off cannabis. This opposition to cannabis was transposed, through the British empire, to the new world colonies, especially the US and Canada, where the colonial British urge to amass wealth and fortune and gain world dominion at the cost of everything else, especially if it meant tyrannical suppression of the vast majority of natives and colored races with their associated culture and social traditions, found favor, given that it boosted the emerging pharmaceutical industry, especially opioids, besides the paper industry, petrochemicals, arms industry, tobacco and alcohol.

As we stand today, the International Narcotics Control Board reports that in 2018, the UK was the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of licit heroin. It was also the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of codeine. It was the world's largest manufacturer, exporter and importer of morphine. It was the main manufacturer of cocaine. And guess what, it was the world's largest producer, stockholder and exporter of cannabis. In 2021, the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's vaccine Covishield is India's vaccine of choice against Covid. India has placed orders and already purchased millions of doses of this so-called vaccine, with the Indian government borrowing money to pay the British company and then shipping the vaccine to other countries for free as a demonstration of ill-founded largesse when its people, especially the poorest, have been crippled by the brutal lock down imposed by the government. India's Serum Institute, the world's largest vaccine producing facility is churning out billions of doses of the medicine for the UK and the Indian taxpayer is footing the bill.

The British were, most likely, key supporters of the US, in the world wide push for cannabis prohibition, through the UN, and the bringing about of tremendous pressure on nations that resisted the ban, especially the traditional cannabis consuming nations, like India and the Caribbean. Roll the cameras to the present day and we see a US, plagued by heroin addiction and opioid deaths now, legalizing cannabis state by state, while the federal government still resistant to correcting its wrong decisions. The UK has possibly paid an even greater price to heroin, opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, methamphetamine, cocaine, Xanax and all the other novel psychotropic substances and pharmaceutical concoctions that have replaced cannabis. While hundreds of thousands of Americans can now avail of the medicinal and recreational benefits of cannabis, the UK continues to maintain its regressive policies and prohibit cannabis use. In the meantime, the natural cannabis that used to be available some time ago in the UK has been nearly bred out of existence in cannabis grow farms using 24 hour lighting, to produce high potency cannabis with huge levels of THC, making it more potent than what the average human being would care to ingest, making it a go to drug for only adventure and thrill seekers.

Recently, the plight of a young patient suffering from debilitating epilepsy who was denied cannabis made the news forcing the health department to say that cannabis could be prescribed for certain medical conditions provided that all other options for treatment had been exhausted. With debilitating diseases, exhausting all other options may not even be an option since the patient is likely to be dead much before that happens. In addition, the UK has said that it will allow such patients to import cannabis from other places like the Netherlands by paying exorbitant sums of money. That was, however, before Brexit.

Add to this, the fact that British based GW Pharmaceuticals that has ties with British politicians has manufactured Epidiolex, an antiepilepsy drug, the only cannabis based drug to the approved by the US FDA to be sold in the US market. The UN has done its part in making changes to global cannabis laws so as to pave the way for pharma drugs such as Epidiolex to be sold world wide while retaining the natural cannabis plant under international control thus depriving the majority of global cannabis users access to the plant. As per the latest report published by the International Narcotics Control Board, the UK was the leading producer, stockholder and exporter of cannabis in 2018. This is possibly mainly for its pharmaceutical industry, specifically GW Pharmaceuticals, with the common man having almost no access.

The worldwide push for cannabis prohibition which the UK has embarked on with its eternal war time ally reeks of selfish interests aimed at protecting petrochemical, pharmaceutical, mining, construction, tobacco, alcohol, paper and military industries that regularly line the pockets of British and American politicians. This appears on a broader scale to include all the world war actors France, Germany, Japan, Russia, who boast of global industries opposed to cannabis ,besides post world war military and economic superpower aspirants China, India and Israel and the petrochemical and heroin countries. The people who are suffering through this reefer madness are no longer just the natives of America, Africa and Asia but also the British and American people, not to forget the small matter of global unsustainable development and climate change that these steps have aggravated. While the US, through the force of grassroots level changes brought about by people's activism, is starting to correct its actions, the UK with its monarchy, elitist politicians and spoon fed citizens may take much longer to get out of its fatal addictions if at all. An autocratic leader in the form of Boris Johnson, who is in the same mould as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Vladmir Putin, etc. makes it appear that course correction in the UK will take much longer.

In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does however still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws.

The huge number of deaths that have been attributed to Covid in 2020, but in fact which are a result of the British obsession with synthetic legal and illegal pharmaceutical drugs, is the first visible sign that the UK may have taken one hit too many.

Can the UK legalize cannabis for recreational use and save itself in the near future? For the UK to correct the wrongs of the past, it needs to take a stand in support of adult recreational cannabis legalization. not just within itself, but also worldwide. But that may mean taking a stance against the very industries that it and its war time buddies have nurtured over the past 150 years to further their global economic domination, leading to the precarious state of the world today. Maybe understanding how cannabis is helping the elderly in many US states will help. Maybe remembering that its greatest writers and musicians such as William Shakespeare and the Beatles were lovers of the herb might help. Maybe remembering the potential economic and healthcare benefits of cannabis to its people will help. Most surveys indicate that the majority of the British people are for cannabis legalization but are the lawmakers listening and do they have the will power to choose the peaceful green herb instead of the war machine, the moolah and white powder this time around?

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.

'There is only one kind of help possible - the abolition of that terrible cone of violence which enables the person or persons who succeed in seizing the apex to have power over all the rest, and to hold that power the more firmly the more cruel and inhuman they are, as we see, by the cases of the Napoleons, Nicholas I, Bismarck, Chamberlain, Rhodes, and our Russian Dictators who rule the people in the Tsar's name.

There is only one way to destroy the binding together of this cone - it is by shaking off the hypnotism of patriotism.

Understand that you yourselves cause all the evils from which you suffer, by yielding to the suggestions by which emperors, kings, members of Parliament, governors, officers, capitalists, priests, authors, artists, and all who need this fraud of patriotism in order to live upon your labour, deceive you!

Whoever you may be - Frenchman, Russian, Pole, Englishman, Irishman, or Bohemian - understand that all your real human interests, whatever they may be - agricultural, industrial, commercial, artistic, or scientific - as well as your pleasures and joys, in no way run counter to the interests of other peoples or States, and that you are united with the folk of other lands by mutual co-operation, by interchange of services, by the joy of wide brotherly intercourse, and by the interchange not merely of goods but also of thoughts and feelings.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'" And the best thing possible for the education of the denizens of the heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs that now litter Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park ... would be for them to stop blocking the traffic and buy a copy of Charles’s magnificent book so that they can learn about a true feminist, green revolutionary who changed the world for the better.”'
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-hemp-smelling-crusties-extinction-rebellion_uk_5d9b9a99e4b03b475f9e51cd?guccounter=1

'The response was stepped up when official figures confirmed 1187 people in Scotland died from drugs in a year, putting the country among the worst in the developed world.

The NHS and Glasgow City Council have called for safe consumption rooms in the city. The facilities would be supervised, with experts saying it will also help reduce the risk of infection.'
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-set-back-decriminalisation-drugs-20533500

'Most of the clandestine methamphetamine manufacture in the Near and Middle East/South-West Asia has traditionally been in the Islamic Republic of Iran, being manufactured both for the local market and for export to countries in East and South-East Asia (including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) as well as for export to Central Asia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tajikistan) and to Europe (including Bulgaria, France, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Kingdom). However, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not the main source of the methamphetamine found in other countries in the Near and Middle East/SouthWest Asia (with the exception of Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic). The main source countries for other countries in this subregion seem to continue to be countries in East and South-East Asia. The extent of clandestine methamphetamine manufacture in the Islamic Republic of Iran actually appears to be declining, while manufacturing is rapidly increasing in neighbouring Afghanistan.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'England and Wales and Australia are examples of places where cocaine and amphetamines have competed for their share of the stimulant market over the past 20 years. Germany and the United States are examples of places where cocaine and amphetamines have together led the changes in the stimulant market

Within the stimulant markets, there are also examples of substitution effects in the “ecstasy” market. In England and Wales, for example, trend data on the use of “ecstasy”, mephedrone and NPS in the period 2005–2019 suggest that first mephedrone and later NPS filled the market space left by the decreasing supply of “ecstasy”, mainly due to a supply shortage, until 2012. Once “ecstasy” started to regain its previous share, the other substances declined sharply' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'“I believe that it is important for me to be clear from the outset that the UK government has no plans to change the law to allow the establishment of such facilities in the UK,” he said in a letter to the Holyrood public health minister, Joe FitzPatrick, according to the Scotsman. “There are, however, many areas where we can work productively together.”'
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/07/britains-minister-responsible-for-drug-policy-replaced-victoria-atkins

'Remembering his brush with death, Knox concluded that he would have died were it not for the anti-nausea effects of a certain South Asian antidote —cannabis. “At length we learned an Antidote and Counter-Poyson against the filthy venemous water, which so operated by the blessing of God, that after the use thereof we had no more Sickness", Knox would recall. “It is only a dry leaf: they call it in Portugueze Banga…and this we eat Morning and Evening upon an empty Stomach. It intoxicates the Brain, and makes one giddy”. After Knox reached London safely in September 1680, he retained a taste for this intoxicating “Counter-Poyson” and found a source able to procure it back home. We know this because, on November 7, 1689,

Robert Hooke met with Knox at a London coffee house to obtain a sample of what Hooke called the “intoxicating leaf and seed, by the Moors called Ganges, in Portug[uese] Banga, in Chingales Consa”. Hooke added in his diary that the drug was reported to him as being “wholesome, though for a time it takes away the memory and understanding”.
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/how-the-english-found-cannabis

Cocaine too?

'The main manufacturing country was the United Kingdom (122.8 kg, or 79.8 per cent of global manufacture), followed by the United States (31.1 kg, or 20.2 per cent). The main exporting country in 2018 was Peru (330 kg, or 77.4 per cent of global exports), followed by the United Kingdom (71.5 kg, or 16.8 per cent) and the Netherlands (16.4 kg, or 3.8 per cent). Switzerland, Germany and the United States each exported cocaine in quantities of more than 1 kg. The United Kingdom was the main importing country in 2018 (330.3 kg), accounting for 77.7 per cent of global imports of cocaine; it was followed by the Netherlands (40.3 kg, or 9.5 per cent), Canada (15.2 kg, or 3.6 per cent), Belgium (9.5 kg, or 2.2 per cent), Germany (6.1 kg, or 1.4 per cent) and Australia (5.0 kg, or 1.2 per cent).'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

The UK banned cannabis in India, Burma, Egypt and Trinidad in the 19th century and is now the leading producer, exporter and stock holder of cannabis in 2018. How's that for a transformation? Millions in these countries and hundreds of millions globally suffer terribly due to the cannabis ban and the related harsh laws..

'Most cannabis stocks were held by the United Kingdom (189.3 tons, or 92.2 per cent of global stocks), followed by North Macedonia (3.5 tons, or 1.7 per cent), the Netherlands (3.2 tons, or 1.6 per cent), Israel (2.4 tons, or 1.2 per cent) and Chile (2.3 tons, or 1.1 per cent).'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

How about that? I didn't see this coming..talk about the size of the pharmaceutical companies from UK...

'The United Kingdom continued to be the main exporter of cannabis (19.7 tons, or 77.8 per cent of global exports), mainly in the form of cannabis extracts or pharmaceutical preparations containing cannabis extracts; it was followed by the Netherlands (3.0 tons, or 11.9 per cent), Canada (1.8 tons, or 6.9 per cent) and Austria and Germany (each with 0.4 ton, or 1.4 per cent).'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

Surprise..surprise...after banning cannabis in India in the 19th century..

'In 2018, the United Kingdom was the main producer of cannabis, reporting the production of 289.5 tons (or 75.0 per cent of global production) of pharmaceutical preparations containing cannabis extracts; it was followed by Lesotho (30.7 tons, or 10.6 per cent of global production), Israel (20.8 tons, or 7.2 per cent) and the Netherlands (10.2 tons, or 3.5 per cent). Other countries produced less than 5 tons each. Those countries were, in descending order by the amount produced, North Macedonia, Spain, Australia, Colombia, Austria, the United States, Switzerland, New Zealand and Czechia'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'In 2018, a total of 1,342.3 kg of [licit] heroin was manufactured, mostly by the United Kingdom (924.8 kg, or 68.9 per cent of global manufacture), Switzerland (374.9 kg, or 27.9 per cent) and Spain (42.6 kg, or 3.2 per cent). The two main countries exporting heroin were the United Kingdom (313.0 kg, or 71.3 per cent of global exports) and Switzerland (118.3 kg, or 26.9 per cent). In 2018, the main importing country was the Netherlands (167 kg, or 38.4 per cent of global imports), followed by Switzerland (121.8 kg, or 28.0 per cent), Germany (54.4 kg, or 12.5 per cent), Denmark (39.3 kg, or 9.1 per cent), the United Kingdom (28.3 kg, or 6.5 per cent), Canada (16.5 kg, or 3.8 per cent) and Luxembourg (7.3 kg, or 1.7 per cent)'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'In 2018, world exports of codeine increased to 158.8 tons, compared with 139.2 tons in 2017, almost reaching the peak of 176.5 tons recorded in 2012 (see figure 16), and the United Kingdom became, for the first time, the main country exporting codeine (accounting for 35.2 tons, or 22.2 per cent of the global exports). It was followed by France (30.5 tons, or 19.2 per cent), Australia (29.5 tons, or 18.6 per cent), Norway (15.8 tons, or 9.9 per cent), the Islamic Republic of Iran (10.4 tons, or 6.6 per cent), Spain (6.6 tons, or 4.2 per cent), Italy (6.6 tons, or 4.1 per cent), Switzerland (5.9 tons, or 3.7 per cent), Slovakia (4.4 tons, or 2.8 per cent) and Hungary (3.9 tons, or 2.5 per cent).'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'The main countries manufacturing codeine were the United Kingdom (accounting for 68.3 tons, or 22.2 per cent of global manufacture), France (60.0 tons, or 19.5 per cent), Australia (40.7 tons, or 13.2 per cent), the Islamic Republic of Iran (22.2 tons, or 7.2 per cent) and the United States (21.9 tons, or 7.1 per cent)'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'The main importing countries [of morphine] in 2018 were the United Kingdom (5.0 tons, or 19.6 per cent), Germany (4.5 tons, or 17.6 per cent), Austria (2.5 tons, or 9.9 per cent), Hungary (2.1 tons, or 8.3 per cent), Canada (1.7 tons, or 6.8 per cent), Australia (1.6 tons, or 6.1 per cent) and Switzerland (1.3 tons, or 5.2 per cent). Other countries imported less than 1 ton of morphine.'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'Morphine exports decreased to 23.4 tons in 2016, before increasing again, to 28.1 tons, in 2017 and then decreasing again, to 24.7 tons, in 2018. The main exporting countries in 2018 were the United Kingdom (31.6 per cent), France (15.4 per cent), Switzerland (9.8 per cent), Germany (9.4 per cent), Australia (7.9 per cent), Italy (6.9 per cent) and the United States (6.6 per cent). Other countries accounted for less than 2 per cent of total exports of morphine.'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'As in previous years, the United Kingdom (34 %) and Germany (13 %) together account for around half of the EU total number of drug-related deaths in 2017. This relates partly to the size of the at-risk populations in these countries, but also to under-reporting in certain other countries. Following the United Kingdom and Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy and Norway report the largest numbers of deaths.

There are also differences within countries, with some regions and cities much more affected than others.'
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/topic-overviews/content/faq-drug-overdose-deaths-in-europe_en#question3

'Patients have begun receiving medical cannabis through the post, as the coronavirus pandemic has left them unable to access the drug any other way.'
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52198187

'As it is, people are constantly hypnotized from childhood in one and the same direction by all possible means: school books, Church services, sermons, speeches, books, newspapers, poems, and monuments. Some thousands of people are brought together, forcibly or by bribery, and when they have been joined by the loafers who are always glad to see any spectacle, they begin to shout what is shouted before them to the accompaniment of cannon and bands and glitter and brilliance of all kinds, and we are told that this is the expression of the feelings of the whole nation. But in the first place these thousands or tens of thousands, who shout at such celebrations, form but a tiny ten-thousandth part of the whole population. And in the second place, of these tens of thousands of shouting and hand waving people, the greater part, if not assembled by force as is done among us in Russia, have been artfully lured there by some bait or other. Thirdly, among all those thousands there are scarcely a few dozen who know what it is all about: they would shout and wave their hats in just the same way if the very opposite of what is happening were taking place. And fourthly, the police are present who promptly silence and remove all who shout anything the government does not wish or demand - as was strenuously done during the Franco-Russian celebrations.

In France they acclaimed with similar enthusiasm Napoleon the First's war with Russia, Alexander I, against whom that war was fought, then Napoleon again, then again the allies, the Bourbons, the Orleans, the Republic, Napoleon III, and Boulanger; while in Russia they acclaim with equal enthusiasm today Peter, tomorrow Catherine, afterwards Paul, Alexander, Constantine, Nicholas, The Duke of Leuchtenberg, our brother-Slavs, the King of Prussia, the French sailors, and anyone whom the authorities wish welcomed. And the same thing takes place in England, America, Germany and Italy.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

How about legalizing the natural plant? GW Pharma has been maximizing its monopoly this far at the cost of global public health...

'“By placing Epidyolex in Schedule 5 to the 2001 Regulations, it is no longer subject to the prohibition on importation, exportation and possession under the 1971 Act,” according to the government’s circular announcing the change.

“This will reduce administrative processes for companies wanting to supply Epidyolex to patients with severe epilepsy.”

Epidyolex is the trade name in Europe for Epidiolex.

London-based GW Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Epidyolex, said the move exempts the medicine from most controlled-drug requirements.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/uk-down-schedules-epidyolex-to-lowest-level-for-controlled-drugs/

'In Western and Central Europe, the prevalence of past-year cannabis use has fluctuated over the past decade from 6 to 7 per cent among the population aged 15–64. However, some countries in the subregion, in particular countries with large populations such as Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (England and Wales), have reported an increase in cannabis use in recent drug use surveys.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'Wealthier families and those who can successfully raise funds pay about £2,000 a month to access full-leaf cannabis medicines via private prescription for children with rare forms of treatment-resistant epilepsy, while poorer parents are unable to afford the prescriptions.

Experts say that, despite the drug’s legality, rigid prescribing guidelines for doctors set by the British Paediatric Neurological Association – which cite a lack of clinical research and reference disputed theories about the mental health effects of cannabis – make getting hold of the medicine on the NHS difficult in practice.'
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/01/anger-at-nhs-failure-to-prescribe-cannabis-oil-medicines

'Earlier the same month, and again through press releases, Recovery (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy) delivered widely accepted verdicts on two other treatments. It revealed that dexamethasone, a cheap steroid, reduced deaths by one-third in patients on a ventilator and showed that hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug controversially touted for COVID-19, did not benefit hospitalized patients. A run on dexamethasone ensued as physicians in the United Kingdom and elsewhere quickly made it part of their standard of care for the sickest patients, whereas many other studies of hydroxychloroquine now looked futile and were halted.'
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/one-uk-trial-transforming-covid-19-treatment-why-haven-t-others-delivered-more-results

'There is evidence that the number of polydrug users has increased in the United States and in the United Kingdom because in both countries the ratio of the aggregated number of users of individual drugs compared with the total number of drug users has followed an upward trend. It is still difficult, however, to assess the actual impact of this trend in terms of health consequences.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'As in previous years, the United Kingdom (34 %) and Germany (13 %) together account for around half of the EU total number of drug-related deaths in 2017. This relates partly to the size of the at-risk populations in these countries, but also to under-reporting in certain other countries. Following the United Kingdom and Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy and Norway report the largest numbers of deaths.

There are also differences within countries, with some regions and cities much more affected than others.'
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/topic-overviews/content/faq-drug-overdose-deaths-in-europe_en#question3

The UK banned cannabis in India in the 19th century and is now the leading producer, exporter and stock holder of cannabis in 2018. How's that for a transformation?

'Most cannabis stocks were held by the United Kingdom (189.3 tons, or 92.2 per cent of global stocks), followed by North Macedonia (3.5 tons, or 1.7 per cent), the Netherlands (3.2 tons, or 1.6 per cent), Israel (2.4 tons, or 1.2 per cent) and Chile (2.3 tons, or 1.1 per cent).'
https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/Technical-Publications/2019/Narcotic_Drugs_Technical_Publication_2019_web.pdf

'In the 17th century, English travelers, merchants, and physicians were first introduced to cannabis, particularly in the form of bhang, an intoxicating edible which had been getting Indians high for millennia. Benjamin Breen charts the course of the drug from the streets of Machilipatnam to the scientific circles of London.'
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/how-the-english-found-cannabis/

'A two-year-old girl with severe epilepsy is believed to have become the first child in the UK to be prescribed medical cannabis.

For Jorja Emerson the treatment is "the difference between her living and dying", according to her father.'
https://www.itv.com/news/2018-12-04/two-year-old-girl-first-child-to-be-prescribed-medical-cannabis-in-uk/

'"You've got to ask what are they doing this for, is it reprisal for not paying your drugs bill?" he asked of the cause of the multiple stabbings.

But when Piers pointed out that research shows a glut of cocaine in London appears to be fuelling the murder rate, Lord Sugar doubled down.

"You're right, my opinion has changed since I've been listening to the commentary on this. My idea would be, one element of it, if it [marijuana] was legalised it would do away with a lot of gang culture, very similar to Prohibition in America in the 1930s, when alcohol was legalised again it just wiped out the crime and corruption," he argued.'
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/lord-sugar-calls-drugs-legalised-13576818

'Luke Graham, the Scottish Conservative, highlighted the boost to tax revenues and falling violent crime in American states where cannabis has been legalised, as he suggested a fresh look at the classification of recreational substances'
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/737058/tory-mp-calls-on-uk-ministers-to-review-the-law-amid-war-on-drugs-failings/

'Lord Falconer argued that recent disclosures concerning the way in which thousands of children were being exploited to deal drugs by so-called county-lines gangs – urban dealers who swamp rural communities with drugs – was further evidence that the current laws were not working.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6199639/Former-Labour-Justice-Secretary-calls-UK-legalise-drugs-including-cocaine-heroin.html

'The first bulk batch of medical cannabis imported into the U.K. since it was legalized for prescription last year has arrived from the Netherlands.

The shipment, exported by the Office of Medical Cannabis, will be sent directly to pharmacies to provide to patients under prescription for treating conditions including chronic pain and multiple sclerosis, according to a statement from British startup Grow Biotech. The company said it worked with investor European Cannabis Holdings and pharmaceutical importer IPS Specials to facilitate the delivery.'
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-15/the-u-k-just-got-its-first-bulk-shipment-of-medical-cannabis

'The plant was first given its taxonomic identification by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and thoroughly described to Westerners in the 1800s, when the medical doctor William O'Shaughnessy gave a report to the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta in India in 1839.

The doctor described its effects on people and did a few case reports on "gunjah," the Indian name for the drug.

"Almost invariably the inebriation is of the most cheerful kind, causing the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish, and to see aphrodisiac enjoyments," O'Shaughnessy wrote in his paper, "On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah."'
https://www.livescience.com/24559-marijuana-facts-cannabis.html

'British pharmaceutical company GW Pharma and its American subsidiary Greenwich BioSciences are quietly moving proprietary CBD bills through at least two U.S. state legislatures, and could have plans for similar bills in other states.

The proposed measures, both taken from the same template, would effectively give GW/Greenwich a temporary monopoly on legal CBD products in South Dakota and Nebraska.

The pharmaceutical company’s lobbyists are moving in anticipation of the FDA’s expected approval of Epidiolex, a CBD-based drug that’s currently in Phase III clinical trials. Epidiolex has been developed by GW/Greenwich for the treatment of several rare childhood-onset epilepsy disorders. The company has been developing the drug for years, and FDA approval could come as early as this summer.'
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/leafly-exclusive-gw-pharma-moving-cbd-bills-low

'GW Pharmaceuticals is setting out to sell $300 million worth of U.S. depository shares. The London-based company’s announcement comes on the heels of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s move to take some cannabidiol products off the most restrictive class of controlled substances.

That change will allow Epidiolex – a CBD drug manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals to treat rare types of epilepsy – to be distributed through traditional pharmaceutical channels via doctors’ prescriptions rather than medical marijuana dispensaries.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/cbd-drugmaker-gw-pharmaceuticals-poised-to-raise-300-million-with-stock-offering/

Now, could this be a reason why the US government is stalling on making cannabis federally legal? I wonder how many other governments around the world have quietly approved pharma patents on the ganja plant.

'American cannabis growers, medical patients, and dispensary owners continue to risk arrest and imprisonment for conducting the same kind of work that investors are rewarding GW Pharma for today. The British company has yet to enforce any of its patents against American purveyors of botanical medicine. But it is now armed with patents backed by the full faith, credit, and power of the U.S. government. And if cannabis turns federally legal, the day of patent enforcement may arrive.'
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/how-gw-pharma-could-use-us-patents-to-shape-the-future-of-medical

'Avery said foreign companies such as Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals and Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical had filed patents to produce medical marijuana and although their applications have not been approved, they have also not been rejected. Avery said the two companies had “already established themselves in North America and Europe and now they’re making their move in Thailand.”'
https://apnews.com/3c6d9f152f3f48289db28543bc6cce75

'However the concentration in cannabidiol (CBD) in high-potency cannabis is almost entirely absent. Due to its antipsychotic activity, CBD may potentially moderate some of the effects of THC.

Changes in the source of cannabis plants used for resin has led to a drop in CBD content: in 2005 and 2008, the ratio of THC to CBD was 1:1, whereas in 2016 the ratio was 3:1. These changes are what have increased the potency of cannabis in the UK.'
http://volteface.me/young-peoples-brains-durably-damaged-high-potency-cannabis-becomes-overwhelmingly-available/

'The UK is the latest front line, with public controversy leading to a review of strict prohibition, and the likelihood that the country will join the list of those allowing the medical use of cannabis in some form. Whether that is a good idea is hard to call, not least because the term “medical cannabis” covers a multitude of possibilities.'
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2174448-medical-cannabis-what-you-really-need-to-know/

'Illegal drugs should be decriminalised, delegates at the Plaid Cymru conference have said. Party members called the war on drugs an "unmitigated failure" and said criminalising those with an addiction does "nothing to help them turn their lives around".'
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-45757969

'If we can buy alcohol, painkillers and any number of risky things that make us euphoric, why not cannabis? Let us make an informed choice in the UK.'
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/mike-donachie/676839/mike-donachie-high-time-we-had-proper-debate-over-cannabis-in-uk/

'I cut out a section of my speech today on drugs policy reform because the minister has to recuse herself. I was going to seek assurances that synthetic cannabis was not going to be rescheduled. Why send a minister to a drugs debate who can’t talk about cannabis?'
https://twitter.com/ronniecowan/status/1054757717880070146

'The general public is almost twice as likely to support the legalisation of cannabis in the UK than they are to oppose. 59% strongly support or tend to support the legalisation of cannabis, compared to 31% who strongly oppose or tend to oppose.'
http://volteface.me/key-findings-voltefaces-cannabis-poll/

'Doctors will be able to prescribe cannabis products to patients in the UK from today following the landmark move by the Government.

The Home Secretary announced last month that cannabis could be prescribed from November 1 for medicinal use in England, Scotland and Wales.

These products will only be prescribed on a case-by-case basis by specialist doctors - not GPs - after all other treatment options have been exhausted'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6340471/Medical-cannabis-products-available-prescription-UK.html

'Here in the UK taking a softer line on cannabis has widespread public support. Close to four in ten Brits (38%) think the sale and possession of the drug should be legalised entirely; a further 22% want to see it decriminalised. Only three in ten (30%) believe that it should remain a criminal offense to sell or possess cannabis.'
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2018/11/20/would-making-cannabis-lawful-be-gateway-legalisati

'Patients in Jersey will be able to get medical cannabis from all doctors after politicians voted to change the law.

Deputy Montfort Tadier, who proposed the move, said GPs should be allowed to prescribe pre-approved products to patients.

In the UK only specialist doctors are allowed to issue similar treatments.

Consultant neurologist Prof Mike Barnes said the mainland should follow the changes, as cannabis expertise was "rare" among medical professionals.'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-46118093

'The top expert brought in on the case was Professor R D Teare, the professor of forensic medicine at the University of London. He ridiculed the theory that cannabis contributed to the collapse the actor suffered on May 10 or to his death on July 20. He said cannabis had been taken in various forms for centuries, and deemed it pure coincidence that shortly before the onset of Lee's collapse in May and his death he had taken cannabis. "It would be irresponsible and irrational to ascribe the causes of death to cannabis sensitivity, if over the years there had been no previous record of such a happening," the professor stated. Professor Teare said that his opinion was that the cause of death was acute cerebral edema (brain swelling) due to hypersensitvity to either meprobamate or aspirin, or possibly the combination of the two, contained in the drug Equagesic.' - The Legend of Bruce Lee by Alex Ben Block, 1974

Legalizing for recreational use across the nation will create the necessary trial base and evidence for cannabis's medicinal properties...keeping the plant illegal and then looking for evidence about its usefulness looks very unfairly biased against the plant...it probably buys time for pharma companies already in the field though but not for the large numbers of people who want to use it recreationally and medically...hundreds of thousands of ready volunteers for trials who are not being given access..

'As the first part of a wider inquiry into the impact of drugs policy on public health, the Committee is seeking evidence on the usage of medicinal cannabis products.'
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-and-social-care-committee/news/drugs-policy-medicinal-cannabis-launch-17-19/

The margin was not very great. The Labour Party abstained. Politicians need to recognise that the importance of this spans across political parties and ideologies and should not use it as a tool for gaining power...

'The proposal to “legalise the possession and consumption of cannabis” and to “provide for the regulation of the production, distribution and sale of cannabis” was rejected by a vote of 66 to 52.

Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat MP, put the idea before the House of Commons under a so-called “ten minute rule motion” through which lawmakers conducted a brief debate before deciding whether to allow the proposal to advance to the next stage of the legislative process.

“It is total hypocrisy that the most dangerous drug of all, in terms of harm to yourself and others, alcohol, is consumed in large quantities right here in our national Parliament, whilst we criminalise others for using a less dangerous drug – with many using it for the relief of pain,” Lamb said in response to the result.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/uk-lawmakers-reject-marijuana-legalization-in-house-of-commons-vote/

'There is a “serious cultural block within the NHS around medical cannabis”, according to MPs.

The criticism comes after it emerged that the family of the first child to be prescribed medical cannabis after its legalisation must pay almost £10,000 a year to access the privately prescribed medicine as they follow a bureaucratic “assault course”.

The all-party parliamentary group for medical cannabis condemned the workings of the current licensing regime, saying it cannot have been what the government envisaged when they legalised medical cannabis in November.'
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/07/mps-nhs-failure-to-prescribe-medical-cannabis

Legalizing recreational use is promoting universal healthcare...doctors are too tightly meshed into the system of careers and pharmaceutical drugs...natural strains of the plant with balanced constituents made available to patients and their caregivers will enable them to try the plant and accept or reject it depending on its effectiveness...that will also reduce the burden on the healthcare system and save doctors from the fear of making decisions...

'“The big barrier to prescription will be the doctors really,” Professor Mike Barnes, a neurologist and consultant on medicinal cannabis who helped secure Alfie Dingley’s prescription. At the minute it’s a blanket ‘no’ where families have applied. One said ‘it’s a passing fad’ but others have said we’re not doing it because there’s no evidence from double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials [used for licensing other drugs].”'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/medical-cannabis-uk-marijuana-weed-nhs-doctor-law-change-treatment-alfie-dingley-billy-caldwell-a8609126.html

'‘It would be beneficial to those who would use it and would otherwise get a criminal record.

‘Most people on the island would not use cannabis if it were legalised. I myself would be in that category, but for those that do, if established properly, then why not?’ '
https://guernseypress.com/news/2019/03/22/majority-would-not-be-bothered-if-the-use-of-cannabis-is-legalised--deputy/

'the UK “has become increasingly isolated in its approach to drugs policy” says Peter Reynolds, president of CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform. “We are unique among modern democracies in maintaining an approach based on nothing but prohibition. In fact, we now stand closer to countries such as Russia, China, Indonesia, and Singapore. The only thing that separates us from countries with such medieval policies is our lack of the death penalty for drug offences,” he says.'
http://www.theweek.co.uk/59417/should-cannabis-be-legalised-the-pros-and-cons-of-decriminalising-drugs

'The working people are too much taken up with the task of earning a living for themselves and their families to be able to interest themselves in the political questions that figure as the chief motives of patriotism. The question of Russia's influence in the East, the unification of Germany, the return of France's lost provinces, of the cession of this or that part of one State to another, and so on, does not interest them - not only because they hardly ever know the conditions under which these questions arise, but because the interests of their life are quite apart from national and political interests.

To a man of the people it is always a matter of complete indifference where a frontier is drawn, to whom Constantinople may belong, whether Saxony or Brunswick shall, or shall not, be a member of the German Union, whether Australia or Matabeleland shall belong to England - or even to what government he has to pay his taxes and into which army he must send his sons. The important thing for him is to know how much tax he will have to pay, whether the army service will be a long one, whether he will have to pay for the land over many years, and whether he will get much for his work - all questions quite apart from national and political interests. That is why - despite the intensive efforts made by governments to instill a patriotism into people that is not innate in them, and to suppress the ideas of socialism that are developing in them - socialism is penetrating more and more into the masses of the people, while patriotism, with which they are so carefully inoculated by the government, not only fails to spread, but is disappearing more and more and is only maintained by the upper classes to whom it is profitable.'
- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html

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Friday 3 May 2019

Cannabis and the UK

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