Polling Day Greens

We asked a Green Party member about thier views on Cannabis

Leeds Cannabis March

Organised by the Students at Leeds Uni.

Vienna 2008

A short montage of a recent Drugs Conference, held in Vienna, March 2008

The Need For Weed-Ivor

Letter To A.C.M.D.

dear sir,
i am writing to you to add my complaint about the canabis review
meeting scheduled for the 5th of february 2008 and the fact that you
will not be allowing anyone for the pro side even speak during the
meeting only allowing the oportunity to contibute (how patronising do
you want to get?)in the open forum a pathetic 45mins at the end of the
session at the end of the meeting even though you will be allowing three
speakers from the oppostion to speak for twenty minutes each.
i dare to say that you will not be making this public knowledge as i
would suggest that the whole meeting will be downplayed by the media and
any reports will be carefully doctored to suit your needs as will the
final conclusion reached and the government will surely do what they
like at the end of the day anyway.
how on earth do you expect anyone to take you seriously as an
advisory council when you schedule events that are so obviously biased
as to prove to anyone with a brain that it is simply a chance for the
antidrugs lobbies to get together and sharpen their knives.
for my part i call you a bunch of biased charlatans and suggest that
you are simply a puppet organisation performing to a government that has
already made the decisions and is only using this event as a debate that
it can and will turn to its own advantage and as such would like to
express my disapointment and say that quite unequivocalably i have no
confidence in the outcome of your farcical little debate or in this
governments drug policy, amongst other things.
this manipulation is oh so true of a government that shows it is as
hypocritical, deaf and stupid as it ever was and is now adding
beligerency to its list of talents making me glad to be an ex-pat

yours sincerly

michael r harper
c/valencia 608bis
barcelona
08026

i have nothing to hide or be ashamed of can the ACMD say the same

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Pt. 1

Cannabis Campaigners Fuming Over Advisory Council Review Agenda

Members of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance campaigning group (LCA) are fuming over the refusal of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of drugs
(ACMD) to give them a slot for a speaker at the forthcoming Review on cannabis classification. The Review is due to be held on February 5th at the London Excel, Platinum Suite.

Alun Buffry, a spokesperson for the LCA, said: “We received invites to the Review along with the Agenda, but upon looking through it we saw no representation from the cannabis-using community itself.”

“Bearing in mind that anti-cannabis campaigners such as Debra Bell (from TAC) , Marjorie Wallace (from SANE) and Paul Corry (from RETHINK) have each been given a 20-minute slot, it is clearly going to be an outrageously biased review.

“So I wrote to the ACMD offering a speaker from the LCA – somebody who has had experience with illegal cannabis; The LCA contains many self-confessed cannabis users, whether it be for medical, religious or recreational reasons”

“The ACMD refused an opportunity telling us: “yourself, and your colleagues from the LCA who are attending the review, will be welcome to contribute during the open forum”, which means during just 45 minutes allocated to the floor, right at the end”

“How can this review reflect the “wide range of evidence” that the ACMD seems to be looking for, when not one cannabis users is being given an equal opportunity to those who seek upgrading.”

Notes for editors:

1) Letter sent to ACMD January 23

Looking through the list of speakers - also noticing a few tbc's, I was disappointed to see that there is no representative from ANY cannabis community or pro-legalisation group.

Considering that the agenda is all about cannabis, one has to wonder how many of the speakers have admitted to having used cannabis.

In the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA), we have a wide representation of cannabis users including many who openly admit to having used cannabis for over 35 years. It includes people of all ages, a range or political and religious beliefs, backgrounds, education and occupation.
It includes people who use cannabis predominantly (or totally) for "medical" reasons, for religious reasons, and / or for so-called recreational reasons.

Although The LCA cannot claim to represent all cannabis users, we are the largest of the UK campaigning groups with over 3000 endorsements: from 1999 to 2006, LCA was registered as a political party and contested over 70 elections, gaining as many as 8% of the vote - and in an "all-up" council election in Great Yarmouth the candidates received a vote from over 16% of the voters!

LCA contains people with a vast experience and knowledge about cannabis - real cannabis! - what it has been like to live under prohibition - the appearance of various forms of cannabis and cannabis resin on our streets for many years, more recently including ground glass having been added to wet cannabis bud.

LCA contains people who have bought cannabis illegally, grown cannabis illegally and even sold cannabis illegally - people who have been through the courts and people who have not.

Considering the inclusion of speakers such as Debra Bell, whom, despite living through what she sees as cannabis-caused tragedies, has no experience of cannabis at all - and no academic qualification to count this makes the Review's presentation seem extremely one-sided.

I therefore would like to apply for a slot for a speakers from the LCA and would be happy to speak under Sessions 1, 3 or 4.

regards

Alun Buffry
LCA Treasurer and Spokesperson

2) Response from ACMD, January 24

Dear Alun,

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) review of Cannabis has been requested over concerns over the mental health effects of cannabis with particular regard to stronger forms of the drug.

The ACMD will consider a wide range of evidence during the two day meeting in February. This meeting will include the presentation of expert evidence on mental and physical health effects of cannabis, its use and social harms. In addition, the ACMD will consider the responses to the Home Office Drugs Strategy Consultation and the results of polling data (undertaken by the ACMD) to understand public perceptions
regarding cannabis, which will inform the Council's advice to Government.

The agenda for the 5th February has now been set and there will be no further places available for presenters. The tbc's you refer to relate to the title of the presentation - all the speakers are confirmed.
However, yourself, and your colleagues from the LCA who are attending the review, will be welcome to contribute during the open forum.

Will

Will Reynolds
Secretary to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
3rd Floor (SW) Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Internet Censorship In The U.K.

On the 27th of December 2007 the Canna Zine was accepted as an
accredited Google News source.

Frankly I was shocked and stunned as previously we had published our
press via a network of online PR sites, so it was no secret where we
were coming from with regard to our material. But, be that as it may,
our first article, syndicated via Google News in our own right, went out
on December 27th.

On December 31, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith passed a new techology
measure which was called "Cleanfeed".

Essentially, Cleanfeed is a means of censoring websites the government
don't like, and after the material we have published, about the lies
this Labour government have told regarding cannabis and the laws
surrounding it, its fair to say the government don't like the Canna
Zine. Not one little bit.

Since the start of January we have suffered a catalogue of problems with
regard to getting our material published. Services which I pay for, but
which over a period of time, I no longer received.

British Telecom

It started when my broadband connection was all of a sudden cut off.
Phone lines too.

After two days of British Telecom tech support telling me "the fault is
a mystery", I decided to do some of my own detective work.

I'm currently staying with my girlfriend whilst I wait for a new house
in Cardiff, and we're smack bang in the middle of a South Wales housing
estate. The only service provider in the area, is British Telecom.

So I checked with the neighbours either side and lo and behold their
phone service had been unaffected throughout the entire period, which
eventually ran to almost 5 full days. To this day BT have been unable to
give a reason for the break in service. They still took their payment
all the same!

Web Hosting

Then on the 14th of January I started receiving e-mails from my
web-hosting company, which is a British company who's name I won't
mention right now as I'm still in communications with them on the subject.

I operate a reseller account. What that means is I am not only able to
offer hosting to third parties, but I am also able to operate unlimited
domains, hosting unlimited domain names.

The e-mails stated, "as part of a service improvement scheme, my web
files were being moved to a new, faster server."

Regular visitors to the Canna Zine will know the service has always been
very good. The website always operated very quickly.

But on the 14th January my service levels dropped to a crawl. People sat
staring at a blank screen waiting sometimes 2 or 3 full minutes for the
page to load. A situation which has remained to date.

Google News UK
On the 20th of January I released an article and that was to be the last
article I would release through the Canna Zine as Google News UK pulled
the plug.

Why?

I would be guessing if I answered, but you only have to read through my
material, which is still on Google News, to see why the government,
Gordon Brown, and Jacqui Smith specifically, may want to take the Canna
Zine "off the air".

According to Frank Fisher on The Guardian website;
The technology behind Cleanfeed is simple enough, based on a system
devised by BT and known as Cleanfeed. A list of IP addresses is drawn up
by the industry watchdog, the Internet Watch Foundation, supplied to and
then augmented by the Home Office, and then handed to ISPs with the
simple instruction "block traffic to and from these addresses". The
problems are twofold.

First, the government, in the person of Home Office minister Vernon
Coaker, (who has appeared a number of times on the Canna Zine as an ex
toker himself - use the Canna Zine SEARCH for more) simply demanded that
all UK ISPs "voluntarily" sign up for the system - there is no
legislative backing for this at all. And second, no doubt only because
no open discussion took place, no parliamentary debate occurred, and
therefore no real examination of the dangers of such a process were
exposed, no one except the Home Office knows what's on that final list.
We're led to believe that it's purely a list of child pornography sites.
But no one outside government knows. Not even the ISPs. They block; they
don't look.

As of December 31 last year, all UK ISPs duly agreed to adopt the system.

You're now viewing a state-mandated subset of the internet. How do you
feel about that?

Like to vote against it? You can't.

Like your MP to sit on a committee to oversee implementation? He can't.

Like to know if the Google results you're seeing are a full
representation of Google's actual results? You can't.

Censorship at this level - above even ISPs, is all but invisible to the
end user. It's a secret that they're keeping these secrets from you,
(and me).

Now, this isn't China you might say, we trust our government to only
censor material that needs censoring. Sure?

This is the same government that has leaned on ISPs inside the UK, and
outside, not with the intention of blocking illegal or obscene material,
but simply sites that irritated, embarrassed, or offended the government.

Not using legal methods either - a court order, say - but bullying and
threats.

And this is the same government that was only beaten by one vote in the
House of Lords, on their 2006 proposal to force UK ISPs to drop sites on
the say-so of a single police officer.

This is, remember, that same government that's constantly telling us,
with regard to ID cards, that if you have nothing to hide, you have
nothing to fear. Why then, do they hide this list?

Now, OK, most will feel with regard to child pornography a bit of
overkill may be justified, but with "extremism" we start a whole new
ball game. It's a truism that one man's terrorist is another's freedom
fighter, what should also be understood is that what is inflammatory and
incendiary material to one, is the simple truth to others.

Can we really accept that a few pen pushers in the Home Office should
have absolute veto over our online browsing habits?

If the government is determined to pursue this path - and I'd stress I'd
really rather they didn't (the best answer to poisonous speech is
non-poisonous speech) - then the very least they must do is introduce
transparency. There is no reason why the list supplied to ISPs should
not be reviewed and questioned by a parliamentary committee at the very
least and, unlike child porn, there's no reason why that shouldn't be in
open session.

Better would be a wider consultation, perhaps along the lines of the
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, where government could put
its case to interested parties, including representatives of ISPs, civil
liberties groups, and the public.
You bet I'd volunteer. We cannot allow a power like this to operate,
unchecked and unobserved, even if it is currently used benignly. Can
those who'd say they would trust this government to act proportionately,
really say they'd trust all future governments also? Future Spycatcher
episodes will invariably happen online and in the UK, if the government
of the day chose to act, we'd know nothing about it. We may even be in
that situation right now.

The manner in which the government has grasped this power, the way in
which they are already wielding it, and their resistance to introducing
transparency to the process, suggests they think imposing invisible and
opaque censorship, with no legal process, is a proper way for the state
to behave.

I reckon the Chinese government feels that way too. Censors generally
feel their censorship is in a good cause too. It makes no difference.

We need a proper legal footing for these measures, proper oversight, and
a proper understanding that free speech is not a trivial principle the
government can simply ignore, but a cornerstone of any state that claims
to be democratic. If they're going to slice off chunks of the internet,
then the rest of us need to be damn sure that what's going is going for
a good reason, and that Jacqui Smith isn't both judge and jury, in the
hanging, drawing, and quartering of the world wide web.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/frank_fisher

http://cannazine.co.uk/content/view/3501/1585/

Letter From An Activist

dear friends and fellow campaigners, please look up Andre Fursts new address on the ENCOD thread and write to him. Once you have read his letter you will understand why he needs post.


Freiburg 27.10.07
dear Ingo

Thank you for your amiable words, this is a sunshine in my solitary confinement cell and there is strenght for me.
Excuse me for my english, I write normally in german and french. Excuse also for the long time before my response, I had to organise one translation book before writing.
Now I will also continue one's education to learning english language as a meaning waiting period ( he means to bridge his waiting period).
I am in Switzerland prison, for Farm Hemp and as a natural resource activist I received the highest penalty, more than all indoor dealers, but I only make preventative infos.
The Swiss Parliament propose a new law were THC and all active ingredients are legal, at the same time the Hemp plant banned.
The popular initiative for legalise Hemp, www.PJgD.ch has now been achived, but is still surpressed from the politicians and in the media, they become not platform.( he means that they cannot achieve a platform and news about initiatives are surpressed).
International percetive ( perception) and consideration is really helpfull, maybe you write over that initiative a description on the internet.

The fight go on with freedom to farm
Hempi greetings
yours
Andre

PS: Initiative may be on www.projugendshutz.ch




And now for the bit.

I very much hope that many more, who read of the strenght a simple letter can provide in solitary confinement, will take a pen to paper and write a little simple written letter, the more Andre reads, the stronger he will be and his englis will improve as of natural.
I will send him a picture of my Oak tree, something nice to look at

Ingo

NORML Nominates Dutch Drug Policy For Nobel Prize

New Drug Policy Reform Project: Netherlands for Nobel Peace Prize

January 4, 2008

Dear NORML Supporters and Allies:

Netherlands For Nobel

Inspired by the recent success of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in
awakening the world to the dangers of global warming by receiving the
Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy work, the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is beginning the New Year by
coordinating the nomination of the Netherlands for a Nobel Prize for its
achievements in minimizing drug use in its citizens, while at the same
time restricting imprisonment.

With few peers at the international level and despite tremendous
pressure from the United States, the Dutch government and its people
have proven for more than 30 years that it is more cost effective,
humane, and practical to be "smart on drugs" rather than "tough on drugs."

The following quotes from physician Stephen H. Frye’s forthcoming book
Twenty-five Reasons to Legalize Drugs - We Really Lost This War!
document the validity and appropriateness of this nomination:

"The drug war, not the drugs, kills people.

"This is now a real war. Although it started out as political rhetoric,
it’s become a genuinely deadly conflict...It has caused hundreds of
thousands of unnecessary deaths and untold misery, especially to our
children, teens, women, and minorities. And like all wars, it’s been
hugely expensive and wasteful; to date, it has cost more than a trillion
dollars. And this is just in the United States; the international
devastation is incomprehensible. Furthermore, like many wars, it’s based
on lies.

"The few deaths that are caused by the drugs are due to impurities,
dosages that are not standardized, and reluctance to call 911 when
someone overdoses out of fear of being arrested. Replacing prohibition
with sensible health-oriented alternatives, including legalizing
currently illicit drugs, can eliminate these drug-related deaths.

"The Dutch should be recognized for their remarkable human rights
achievement of regulating and decriminalizing drugs and equally
important, offering comprehensive treatment to its affected citizens.
The number of lives they have saved, as well as assaults, robberies,
rapes, child abuse, and other prohibition-related criminal activities
that they’ve prevented, is a major humanitarian and public health
accomplishment. Their success in minimizing the catastrophic effects of
the War on Drugs cannot be overstated. For example, the U.S. has six
times as many people in prisons as the Netherlands per capita, and still
we have four times their murder rate. Compared to ours, the Dutch prison
population is negligible and they actually provide education and
rehabilitation for their inmates. Furthermore, their incidence of AIDS
and hepatitis is a fraction of ours.

"Taken together, these groundbreaking medical, human rights and
humanitarian accomplishments are of unprecedented magnitude. They not
only serve as an inspiration to the rest of the world, they also demand
emulation. Because of this, it is recommended that Louk Hulsman,
Professor Emeritus of Criminal Law at the University of Rotterdam, who
was originally responsible for crafting the forward-thinking drug policy
in the Netherlands and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports,
who administer their very successful current drug policies, be nominated
for a Nobel Peace Prize."

The world owes a great debt of gratitude to them, along with many
thousands of activists, academics, and religious and business leaders,
for demonstrating that a scientifically-crafted harm reduction drug
policy based on researched public health models, not an unyielding
prohibition, prison oriented model, results in a healthier, safer, and
less imprisoned population—that also uses fewer drugs.

The deadline for submission is February 1, 2008, and according to the
Nobel Prize webpage, people from every country can nominate, but it is
limited to members of national assemblies, governments, and
international courts of law; university chancellors, professors of
social science, history, philosophy, law and theology; leaders of peace
research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs; Nobel Peace Prize
Laureates of previous years; board members of organizations that have
received the Nobel Peace Prize; present and past members of the
Norwegian Nobel Committee; and former advisors of the Nobel Institute.

Nobel Nomination Process Information

All that is necessary is for a qualified nominator, as listed above, to
send a letter to Geir Lundestad, Ph.D., Director, Norwegian Nobel
Institute, Henrik Ibsens gate 51, NO-0255, Oslo, Norway, indicating the
names of those nominated and the reason for the nomination, and it must
be received by February 1, 2008.

Dr. Frye has also documented that not only is this very real War on
Drugs far more devastating and deadly than the drugs themselves, but
prison is also much more destructive, catastrophic and even more deadly
than the drugs.

The Dutch have shown us the path to peace and now is the time to
recognize their achievement.

While NORML is a cannabis-only reform organization, by nominating and
educating the world about the success of the Netherlands’s drug policy,
we are committed to using this public campaign as the first high impact
project for worldwide drug policy reform in this New Year. This e-mail
is being sent to U.S. and international drug policy organizations,
seeking the names and contacts of qualified Nobel Prize nominators. The
email is also being sent to organizations for children, teens, women,
minorities, and the environment, as all these people and the environment
are severely harmed and actually killed by the drug war.

It is time to stimulate this crucially important worldwide conversation,
and this is a project all drug policy reform and civic-minded groups,
regardless of their mission statements, can support. The webpage and
other promotional campaigns in support of this nomination have been
launched, but gathering qualified nominators needs to be the first step
as there is a short deadline. Please ask nominators to send their
letters directly to the Nobel Institute, and also notify NORML at
nobel@norml.org as we are coordinating and
tracking this campaign.

Also, please feel free to forward this email notice to all relevant
organizations and anyone you feel can assist this ‘Netherlands For
Nobel’ movement—especially qualified Nobel Peace Prize nominators.

It is truly time to end the drug war and start the peace process. Thank
you in advance and best wishes for an exciting 2008 pursuing the Nobel
Peace Prize for this most noble cause.

Aspire Higher in 08,

Allen St. Pierre

Executive Director
NORML/NORML Foundation
Washington, DC
director@norml.org
http://www.norml.org
http://www.Netherlands4Nobel.org

The L.C.A. Responds To Parliament And The Police

After a meeting called 'Cannabis And Children' followed by the recent call by ACPO, an L.C.A. spokesperson, Mark Palmer, gives his opinion

A Second Fatal Casualty In The Drug War

By The Associated Press
MISSOULA - A Missoula woman who was an outspoken advocate for the medical use of marijuana has committed suicide.

Robin Prosser, who went on a 60-day hunger strike in 2002 to raise awareness of the issue and campaigned for Montana's medical marijuana law in 2004, died Oct. 18, said Tom Daubert with Patients and Families United, a support group for patients who use medical marijuana.

The Montana Medical Marijuana Act, passed in November 2004, allows patients to use marijuana if they suffer from diseases like cancer, glaucoma and HIV, or if they have chronic pain. Those who are prescribed medical marijuana can grow their own or designate a caregiver to grow or obtain marijuana for them.

In late March, a package containing less than an ounce of marijuana that a caregiver shipped to Prosser by UPS was seized by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, even though the agency verified that Prosser and her caregiver were registered.
*
Prosser said marijuana was the only thing that eased the pain caused by a lupus-related autoimmune disorder.

In July, The Billings Gazette ran a guest opinion written by Prosser. "I feel immensely let down. I have no safety, no protection, no help to survive in a little less pain," she wrote.

"Maybe the next campaign ought to be for assisted-suicide laws in our state. If they will not allow me to live in peace, and a little less pain, would they help me die humanely?"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WuxHvCDdNzc

Latest Hero Killed In The Drug War

EURODRUG - INFORMATION LIST OF THE EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE
DRUG POLICIES


Dear friends,

This message came today from Enrico Fletzer from Italy:

Perugia-Italy 12-23 October 2007

.............



On Friday 12th of October Aldo Bianzino, a 44 years old man living
with his companion Roberta in Umbria, in the center of Italy, got
arrested because of a small cannabis plantation. According to the
report of Emanuele Giordana and Tiziana Guerrisi of /Lettera 22/ , an
Italian association of free journalists, they are taken to Perugia and
then to the prison.


On Saturday the lawyer on charge meets Aldo at 2.00 pm and tells
Roberta that Bianzino is well and he’s worried about her. But on the
next morning, Daniela a friend, is told to hurry to the jail. ”There
is a problem “ they tell her. The problem is that Aldo does not
breathe anymore and Roberta, visibly under shock, can not even see the
body. The clinical studies (ongoing) begin to confirm, some days
later, what everybody in the small community of friends of Aldo and
Roberta already fear.



According to the rumours there are massive brain and belly injuries,
maybe a couple of broken ribs , even though the body did not show
blood signs and bruises . “there is enough to last the first hasty
lecture of the death, caused by a heart trouble. The story of Aldo
Bianzino has contours that are obscure, to say it mildly, and the
attorney of Perugia has decided to open an inquiry entrusted to the
judge Giuseppe Petrazzini, responsible of the investigation that led
to the arrest of Aldo and Roberta.


Everything has started ten days ago.Aldo and Roberta are at Capanne,
a hamlet of Pietralunga, not far from Città di Castello (Perugia), as
the mobile squad arrests himand takes him to jail in Perugia with the
accusation of illegal detention of drugs. Heavy allegations : they
talk about 110 small plants and 15 envelops containing grass.
Revelations that leave incredulous every single person who knew Aldo
since a long time and _don’t believe that Aldo would cultivate hashish
to then resell it_ (sic!). Bianzino would have to meet the judge that
makes the inquiry on the next Monday 15 october for the confirmation
of the arrest. But at the appointment with the judge he does not come.
And it is not clear if in the cell he was alone or with another
convict.” Officially he was alone-says lawyer Massimo Zaganelli-
because the procedure requires isolation before the meeting with the
gip ( judge)”. On the health of the two investigated persons at the
moment of arrest Mr.Zaganelli has no doubt:” They were taken to the
jail in perfect health and during the trip no hair was torn to them”.
The doubts start later:” According to what we know death is to be
attributed to a not accidental trauma.” The lawyer continues to be
cautious:” It is not good in these case to make two plus two is four -
we are fully confident in the work of the magistrates.”

L.C.A. Response To Recent Reports In The Press

Whether the government acts on polls and petitions is not the issue, the issue is that the government becomes aware of how many people object to the idea of prohibition, and criminalising large numbers of the population, under the lies they call Harm Reduction.