UK Legalisation of Cannabis (Medicinal Purposes) Bill 2017-19 - Sensationalist Headlines

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, there hasn't been any sort of news article about this yet which is because I assume it hasn't reached the second stage of readings. [quote] There was a court case in which an elderly man in a wheelchair moved a jury to tears with his account of his use of medicinal cannabis. The jury said, “We don’t want to find this man guilty; we disagree with this law.” They asked the judge whether they could change it and find the man not guilty, but the judge said, “No. You don’t make the law, I as a judge don’t make the law; only Parliament can change this.” So the ball is very much in our court today. Who supports the Bill? The Multiple Sclerosis Society has given me a statement saying that it wants to see this Bill passed. It says: “We believe the law on cannabis should be changed (like it’s changing in Ireland, Canada and Germany), so that someone with MS can access cannabis for medicinal use”. I would also have had the support of Queen Victoria, although I had difficulty contacting her, as she used the substance every month of her life. Cannabis was used as a medicine in this country until 1973. There is a host of people who are now Elizabeth Brices outside. One of them wrote me a very moving letter in which he said that two people in his family are using medicinal cannabis. A medical professional reported to the police that those people were using medicinal cannabis, albeit in a way that was not harming anyone—it was a completely victimless crime; they were growing it themselves. That man writes that he could easily get a criminal record and his family would be in all kinds of trouble as a result. [/quote] [url]https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/legalisationofcannabismedicinalpurposes.html[/url] and the speech is here [url]https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-10-10/debates/DD48FD3C-C652-4ABB-BE9E-ADDECA878E27/LegalisationOfCannabis(MedicinalPurposes)[/url] I assume a lot more about this will be out in the future as I caught it pretty early. I feel its a great step towards the right direction though. The fight for legalization is on.

I wonder if medical will make weed "soft legal" in the UK like it has in California. Here you can literally get a recommendation via a "video consultation" that takes maybe 25 seconds, just put down some vague symptom like anxiety or back pain, then get the actual cannabis delivered by car. Takes maybe 45 minute to get any rando weed legally.

It's not legal at all in the UK, despite 90% of police forces not really caring about it's consumption. They only really go after the growers. We're smart here, the current government hired a drugs policy advisor, he suggested legalising it and they said "sorry that's not in line with our policy" and gave them the boot. Our drugs policy is idiotic and won't change because of conservative party ideals. Nothing to do with facts or scientific research.

[QUOTE=Harbie;52840985]Is medical "soft legal" in the UK like it is in California? Here you can literally get a recommendation via a "video consultation" that takes maybe 25 seconds, just put down some vague symptom like anxiety or back pain, then get the actual cannabis delivered by car. Takes maybe 45 minute to get any rando weed legally.[/QUOTE] I witnessed this when I was in California. I assume the UK will do the same as this and restrict the same age restrictions for smoking. As for dispensaries? maybe even coffee shops? I'm highly optimistic this will happen in the near future. It will probably be distributed through 'legal' cannabis suppliers which are essentially apart of the NHS as its medical. My theory anyway. [editline]31st October 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Instant Mix;52840990]It's not legal at all in the UK, despite 90% of police forces not really caring about it's consumption. They only really go after the growers. We're smart here, the current government hired a drugs policy advisor, he suggested legalising it and they said "sorry that's not in line with our policy" and gave them the boot. Our drugs policy is idiotic and won't change because of conservative party ideals. Nothing to do with facts or scientific research.[/QUOTE] I believe that right now this could be the best chance we have in regards to legalization because of the huge labor power currently in parliament. As well as that, according to rumor ( but I don't have any sources so skeptical ) the conservative party might be agreeing with this too. Theresa May needs the support right now from the people. Legalizing Cannabis could potentially work in her favor.

[QUOTE=Instant Mix;52840990]It's not legal at all in the UK, despite 90% of police forces not really caring about it's consumption. They only really go after the growers. We're smart here, the current government hired a drugs policy advisor, he suggested legalising it and they said "sorry that's not in line with our policy" and gave them the boot. Our drugs policy is idiotic and won't change because of conservative party ideals. Nothing to do with facts or scientific research.[/QUOTE] Not only did they give Nutt the boot, iirc they actually upgraded the drugs he said should be downgraded to a more severe class. Paraphrasing here but I do recall while she was home secretary Theresa May basically saying that as long as she held any kind of power she would do everything she could to stop any kind of softening on drugs laws regardless of what the people wanted. I would say she is unlikely to bend on this issue because she's quite an extremist in that regard I think due to her religion. Meanwhile under her reign in the home office and as PM drug deaths have hit the highest levels since the early 90s and she has continuously shown that she is committed to ignoring all evidence that suggests a hard line approach to drug policing just makes it worse.

wouldn't their overly vague psychoactive substance ban supercede this?

It's funny, you say they go after the growers. Rumour has it that South Wales Police are so under-resourced that they have called ahead to known drug growers and told them to move the grow so they don't have to waste their time going after the small guys.

[QUOTE=Cushie;52841033]Not only did they give Nutt the boot, iirc they actually upgraded the drugs he said should be downgraded to a more severe class. Paraphrasing here but I do recall while she was home secretary Theresa May basically saying that as long as she held any kind of power she would do everything she could to stop any kind of softening on drugs laws regardless of what the people wanted. I would say she is unlikely to bend on this issue because she's quite an extremist in that regard I think due to her religion. Meanwhile under her reign in the home office and as PM drug deaths have hit the highest levels since the early 90s and she has continuously shown that she is committed to ignoring all evidence that suggests a hard line approach to drug policing just makes it worse.[/QUOTE] Yep, I think it went from class C to class B due to May, and they basically said "we believe that our policy is more important than the evidence" or something like that.

[QUOTE=Harbie;52840985]I wonder if medical will make weed "soft legal" in the UK like it has in California. Here you can literally get a recommendation via a "video consultation" that takes maybe 25 seconds, just put down some vague symptom like anxiety or back pain, then get the actual cannabis delivered by car. Takes maybe 45 minute to get any rando weed legally.[/QUOTE] The site I went to had a literal checklist of symptoms, then a fat bearded dude in a T-shirt video called me to notify me that my rec letter would be in my email in ~15min and I could use it immediately.