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Cannabis grown by the state
Rashid Razaq24.11.08
HOLLAND is pioneering cannabis plantations to supply the drug to coffee shops in a bid to cut out criminal gangs.
Dozens of Dutch mayors voted for the scheme at a "weed summit" to discuss how to enforce their relaxed drug laws.
Cannabis can be legally sold at licensed shops and people can carry up to five grams without prosecution. But cultivation and dealing is outlawed, which has created an illicit two billion Euro (£1.7bn) annual trade. The plantations would supply cannabis legally.
Amsterdam is to close one in five of coffee shops because they are within 250 metres of schools.
Reader views (3)
I am a medical user of cannabis facing trial and punishment for daring to grow my own *safe* plants, in private, to allow me to avoid gangsters and their dangerous contaminated cannabis. I am disabled, so I really fear the gangsters and I want to feel safe.
Explaining my problem to my specialist, he prescribed me cannabinoid-based tablets (Nabilone), but my medical problem is related to mal-absorption, so I couldn't absorb this pharmaceutical very well at all, so it is largely ineffective. Instead, the most effective way for me to take the cannabinoid medicine I need is to smoke it.
When is the government going to face the reality that for thousands of people cannabis is good medicine? When will they stop forcing me into being a criminal? If they were wise enough to allow me to grow my safe medicine in private, involving nobody else, the government would be doing their societal duty by:
- protecting the vulnerable from exposure to criminals,
- protecting the vulnerable from dangerously adulterated black-market cannabis
- protecting the vulnerable from prosecution,
- and because I'd be making my own medicine in private using my own resources, the taxpayer wouldn't have to pay £800 per month on pharmaceuticals like Nabilone.
It is a no-brainer, so it makes me think this government isn't in possession of a particularly good brain.
- Ed, London UK
Every single expert to comment on the reclassification has indicated this action will be a massive mistake. Cannabis user figures are down by 25% according to governemnt's own figures, and if ever the saying "If it ain't broke don't try to fix it" applied, it applies now.
Legislate, Cultivate, Educate, and then tax it to "high" heaven.
Bill Stone
The Cannabis Lobby
- Bill Stone, Cardiff, South Wales, UK
Trust the good commonsense of the Dutch. Cultivate it, regulate it and tax it. Other governments please take note.
- Stephen Curtis, London, UK
