Group condemns ‘cannabis cards’

8:50am Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

A CAMPAIGN group to reform cannabis laws has condemned a Crimestoppers campaign.

NORML UK has attacked the Crimestoppers Scratch And Sniff campaign – which includes distributing cards to replicate the smell of cannabis and alert the public to commercial cannabis farms – for “wasting money and potentially victimising sick people who use cannabis as a medicine”.

Greg de Hoedt, a spokesman for the group, said: “Patients who use cannabis as a medicine are more likely to grow their own or get it from someone that grows rather than use the black market.

“This is hardly funding organised crime – it is the complete opposite and removes funds that would be going towards them.”

The cards are being distributed by police and Crimestoppers across areas including York and North and East Yorkshire.

A spokesman for Crimestoppers said commercial cannabis farms were associated with gang crime and other violent crimes involving firearms.

Comments(20)

Woody G Mellor says...
8:56am Thu 21 Mar 13

Legalise it and tax it.

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CHISSY1 says...
9:49am Thu 21 Mar 13

"And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".

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Woody G Mellor says...
10:01am Thu 21 Mar 13

CHISSY1 wrote:
"And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".
In English please Einstein.

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dafta duck says...
10:01am Thu 21 Mar 13

I'm not sure you can tax cannabis as it's a natural grown herb.. but the paraphernalia around it you can...unless of course Monsanto get their grubby hands on it and patent a variation of the DNA strain.

as for the statement "A spokesman for Crimestoppers said commercial cannabis farms were associated with gang crime and other violent crimes involving firearms." < prove it.. just saying it doesn't make this true. Just a propaganda fear tool.

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Podlet says...
10:02am Thu 21 Mar 13

CHISSY1 in the comments - how long until this one gets closed to comments today?

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Podlet says...
10:04am Thu 21 Mar 13

dafta duck wrote:
I'm not sure you can tax cannabis as it's a natural grown herb.. but the paraphernalia around it you can...unless of course Monsanto get their grubby hands on it and patent a variation of the DNA strain.

as for the statement &quot;A spokesman for Crimestoppers said commercial cannabis farms were associated with gang crime and other violent crimes involving firearms." &lt; prove it.. just saying it doesn't make this true. Just a propaganda fear tool.
Hang on - they tax tobacco don't they?

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dafta duck says...
10:14am Thu 21 Mar 13

Podlet wrote:
dafta duck wrote:
I'm not sure you can tax cannabis as it's a natural grown herb.. but the paraphernalia around it you can...unless of course Monsanto get their grubby hands on it and patent a variation of the DNA strain.

as for the statement &quot;A spokesman for Crimestoppers said commercial cannabis farms were associated with gang crime and other violent crimes involving firearms." &lt; prove it.. just saying it doesn't make this true. Just a propaganda fear tool.
Hang on - they tax tobacco don't they?
NOTE: Tobacco not Cannabis;
I am not too sure on the raw leaf.. you do pay tax on tobacco products that you make from unprocessed tobacco which you have purchased.. but

..Depending on the exact nature of the tobacco you are selling, it may be liable to tobacco products duty.

source: 210/212 http://customs.hmrc.
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alWebApp.portal?_nfp
b=true&_pageLabel=pa
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&id=HMCE_CL_000268&p
ropertyType=document
#P125_15538

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Woody G Mellor says...
10:26am Thu 21 Mar 13

I'm sure if the government would tax it they'd find a way.

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Buzz Light-year says...
10:33am Thu 21 Mar 13

CHISSY1 wrote:
&quot;And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".
Incomprehensible trolling.
Farm near Pickering.

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malcolmkyle16 says...
11:21am Thu 21 Mar 13

Every single day, hundreds of thousands of people are just one harvest away from retirement.

Due to prohibition, cheap growing equipment, and a few seeds from friends (or ordered over the internet), it's now possible to grow a whole retirement fund in just 12 weeks. Why are we wasting our precious resources on a futile attempt at trying to prevent the impossible? Who gains? Everywhere I go, I come across people discussing their latest growing techniques or swapping recipes for pest control. I get shown more indoor marijuana gardens than holiday photos. So why are there still so many people buying into the dangerous and failed farce of Prohibition?

It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons but prohibitionists wish to continue wasting trillions more in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets —what are they actually smoking?

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CHISSY1 says...
11:44am Thu 21 Mar 13

Buzz Light-year wrote:
CHISSY1 wrote:
&quot;And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".
Incomprehensible trolling.
Farm near Pickering.
"I take you and some other people on this site would like all drugs legalized."

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Jeff_li says...
11:48am Thu 21 Mar 13

Futile propaganda generated by those who don't know, to make those who know less more fearful. Daily Mailesque.

Only one person here seems to be buying it.

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HM Drug Pusher says...
12:07pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I don't think much or NormlUK's statement but good they are complaining. Wasting money, the sick - these are flimsy arguments! So if it could be done cheaply do Norml think that would be OK, what about the not sick (ie 99% of users)? Come on Norml you are wasting words, get to the point. In my view this is more like a 'psy op' against ALL of us. Everyone knows that weed smells and its almost impossible to have a smoke anywhere without thinking who is going to be downwind of this toke. What this horrible scratch and sniff card is about is about increasing anxiety and creating insecurity thus spoiling the pleasure of users. Once you think even the neighbours are worded up about the evil linked to the smell, the effect is to isolate the user by his own feelings as well as increase the contempt of others. It's about causing harm to the mental health welfare of users so they can point to this as a reason for their actions. It is in my view one of the most insidious developments yet, I am sick of hearing about the progress that is being made, when in fact things are going backwards at a pace. The real weapon is drug testing currently being extended to car users as a road-safety ploy to screen more people, next its benefits, later many jobs and NHS services. They are stepping up the anti and its going to get worse even if some progress appears on the horizon for 'medical' users.

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Buzz Light-year says...
1:10pm Thu 21 Mar 13

CHISSY1 wrote:
Buzz Light-year wrote:
CHISSY1 wrote: &quot;And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".
Incomprehensible trolling. Farm near Pickering.
"I take you and some other people on this site would like all drugs legalized."
http://www.flickr.co
m/photos/asands/2876
881946/

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Buzz Light-year says...
1:22pm Thu 21 Mar 13

As for the idea that it's a psy-op to isolate users and make them feel more persecuted and unsafe to smoke - I don't think so.

The scratch n sniff is supposed to mimic the smell of a grow-op which, whilst being unmistakably cannabis, is different to the smell of the smoke.
I don't think users are as worried as they used to be, I smell weed quite often when I'm out and about and it's not always easy to spot who has one on the go.

No, I think this campaign is just more of the same. The same demonisation and misleading propaganda that the public have been fed for years.
The difference is, as evidenced by the multiple responses here and on the web in general, people are a bit more clued up these days and can see through the spin and lies.

If they stopped wasting money on a futile "war" on a plant product and tried to get revenue from it, some sort of economic miracle could happen.

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Podlet says...
1:27pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Buzz Light-year wrote:
CHISSY1 wrote:
Buzz Light-year wrote:
CHISSY1 wrote: &quot;And this group says that unless you have a serious medical condition that requires the use of cannabis should be flogged".
Incomprehensible trolling. Farm near Pickering.
"I take you and some other people on this site would like all drugs legalized."
http://www.flickr.co

m/photos/asands/2876

881946/
Tee hee!

http://www.flickr.co
m/photos/sheepies/36
53245871/

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MarkyMarkMark says...
4:09pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Hey, where do some of you people live?
If there's that much blatant law-breaking going on, how come you know about it and the law enforcement agencies don't?
And does it not bother you that you know someone is law-breaking and you're not doing anything about it?

Even if you think its a stupid law, surely the approach is to educate and lobby to get the law changed, not to encourage people to break it (or break it yourself)?

FWIW, I agree cannabis isn't the active agent linked with cancer etc as per tobacco, but it is implicated in a lot of cases of mental illness nowadays. I'm not sure whether that's a straight causal link, but it does make me wonder if we'd be a bit short sighted to legalise it. There was a reason (evidence and statistics) as to why it was moved back to being a Category B drug.

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chickpea says...
4:14pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I can't believe that anyone who lives on my estate isn't already familiar with the smell of cannabis.

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Podlet says...
4:27pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Sorry, Mark^3 but I believe the "There was a reason (evidence and statistics) as to why it was moved back to being a Category B drug" was political.

None of the main groups think that being seen as "soft on crime" in any way will further their political agenda.

I think it is astounding how a survey "should canabis be legalised?" gets - "70% say yes" yet "would you vote for a party that would legalise canabis?" gets "70% say no".

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Podlet says...
4:29pm Thu 21 Mar 13

yeah yeah - I missed the n's

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