Thursday, July 5, 2012 -

    HASC Announces International Conference On Drug Policy

    The Home Affairs select committee is to hold a half-day conference on drug policy in the Houses of Parliament on 10th September 2012.  Peter Reynolds has been invited to represent CLEAR.

    The conference will consider the challenges faced by countries which are directly affected by UK drug policy decisions.  The outcomes will also feed into the current HASC drugs inquiry.

    Topics which are likely to be discussed include:

    • · The importance of a global drug policy;
    • · If the assistance currently provided to source and transit countries meets their needs;
    • · Whether international aid could be used to improve infrastructure and combat the corruption associated with the drug trade;
    • · Whether there ought to be a global debate on the decriminalisation of drug use;
    • · The value of drug education in preventing drugs misuse; and
    • · The changing nature of drugs misuse by young people and whether services are able to cope with the differing demands of the various generations of addicts.

    This is an excellent opportunity for me to represent CLEAR and influence policy.

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    Related news:

    1. Students For Sensible Drug Policy
    2. Press Conference – “Taxing The UK Cannabis Market”
    3. CLEAR 2012 Conference – First Call For Papers
    4. CLEAR 2012 Conference
    5. HASC Drugs Inquiry. Cannabis Is Not the Same As Heroin!
    • Focusonpeace

      cant wait

    • steve a

      An invitation from HMG to put our point.  This is progress.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Malcolm-Kyle/100001700224506 Malcolm Kyle

      An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

      Most of us know that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high – no matter what, so why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Even if we could afford to put Narcs on every single corner, at least half of them would soon become dealers themselves. Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future.  

      Why do you wish to continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of our once so proud & free nation? Even if you cannot bear the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and trillions of dollars on this dangerous farce; Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. Do you actually believe you may personally have something to lose If we were to begin basing our drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?  

      Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard or a local/national politician. Possibly you’re scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks? 

      Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem. 

      Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Maharg-Smith/831904195 Maharg Smith

      one of the points says…..
       ”Whether there ought to be a global debate on the decriminalisation of drug use;”….
      There is no debate.The prohibitionists have lost hands down.No one who has decriminalised would go back to prohibition nor do they want to.More debate means more wasted money.Decriminalise cannabis possession. Save further useless strain on the public purse FFS decriminalise

    • Focusonpeace

      I think most people think legalization means easily obtainable. Which is false because it cannot get any easier than it is now, risky yes, but physically difficult? Far from it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/A-Quiet-Man/100003657259148 A Quiet Man

      moving it up a gear good luck peter

    • maxwood

      “The value of drugs education in preventing drugs misuse”–

      This is where to inject the Toke Pure and Pipe Safe issue!  As applicable to cannabis, “drugs education” means eliminating the 500-mg carbon monoxide joint (which in UK may contain tobacco) and teaching the art of VAPORISING with a 25-mg-per-serving single toke utensil (“one-hitter”, calumet, chillum, kiseru, midwakh, sebsi etc.) which transforms the substance itself from a (hot burning overdose) drug into a nutri-supplement.   Legalising cannabis de facto legalises needed Dosage Regulation equipment and eliminates the “drug effects” now caused by overdose Rauchenroll ($igarette papers) whose only virtue is being easier to hide from the cops.

      While I believe the above should be vigorously promoted and debated, please also go to wikiHow.com/Make-Smoke-Pipes-from-Everyday-Objects, sign in with a user-name, review, revise and improve the article, add anything you think is missing (jpg photos, diagrams, etc.) and LEAVE A TRAIL OF LINKS to that article and related ones (How to Sift Herbs for Smoking Use, How to make a 1/4″ Screen for a Single Toke Utensil etc.).  

    • rojon

      Brilliant !!! Our voice must be heard

    • freespeechoneeach

       It’s very good news that you’ll be able to contribute on our behalf, Peter.
       I’d like you to challenge those present who support prohibition to defend the status quo. Forty years into this vastly expensive experiment, (which no British person has ever voted for,) we have yet to hear the first word justifying its continuation.
      What usually happens is that prohibitionists simply present their own fantastical account of how awful things would be if we reformers had our way. Look at last night’s “Question Time”  for evidence of this.
       Louise Mensch MP admitted on the show that prohibition had failed her personally, when she came to harm after using contraband class A drugs. Yet despite her own personal experience of its complete failure, she insists the War on Drugs must be continued for ever. No logical inconsistency could be more blindingly obvious.
       Unless prohibitionists can tell us why and how prohibition is right now making the world a better place, there is no excuse for them resisting any and all proposals for change.
       

    • Christopher Ford

      A global enquiry into ending Prohibition is required… that way the committee don’t have to fear being black sheep by being the first western country to end a very failed Prohibition campaign… The country that leads to the ending of the costly failure of the prohibition campaign WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS A WINNER!

    • UniversalMan

      This is your opportunity Peter. Let nothing slip past you. Make it so obvious they cannot ignore you. Do not let them get away with nonsense that they posited to Nutt. Calmly, politely but firmly put them in their place when they ask questions like “isn’t it irresponsible”, “so you want everyone to have lung cancer instead of liver cancer”? Make sure they do not leave there ignorant. Make it so blatant that they’ll be blistered by their own inadequate philosophies. 

    • ChristopherSawtell

      Will this be broadcast via the WWW?

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/CZS3TA5SEISTSMICF7VHMPWUTY AMANDA

      Sorry if this is a long and off topic post but I’m new on here. My question is this.

      Will Clear attempt
      to discuss the issue of disparity in UK law with regards to prescription of
      medical cannabis between the UK and those countries where it’s now approved for
      medical use?.
      As things stand anyone who’s been prescribed it in their own
      country and if they have the correct paperwork can now come here with cannabis and
      use it here lawfully while UK citizens can’t!.
      The UK Government has even granted GW
      Pharmaceuticals a licence to grow,  process
      and produce a cannabis based spray marketed under the brand name Sativex here for
      global export to countries where medical cannabis use is now lawful
      But right now it will
      only allow it to be prescribed to anyone other than MS sufferers here so far, yet Sativex is
      known and used globally for the control on neuropathic pain so anyone such as
      myself who has chronic neuropathic pain faces the threat of a criminal record
      if they use cannabis as a medicine.

    • steve a

      The subject may well come up and if it does then Clear has an agreed position on this and PR will put our point as strongly as he can but as this conference is about all drugs it not likely to be a major item for discussion.

      There are a lot of people who want to talk about designer drugs in the context of how we deal with them, cannabis does not have a voice in this argument.  A lot of people will want to talk about matters surrounding the criminality associated with addiction, another area where the pro cannabis lobby has no strong feelings.  There is a whole long list of drug related matters to talk about and so the chances of any one topic of particular interest to us being handled in depth is slim.

      The important point is that they are talking.  By doing what they are doing now they are putting drugs policy and the effects of it on our society on the table and once there it will never go away.  It is a sign that things are changing but not a sign that everything we want changed will be overnight.

      Much more important than the conference itself is the reaction to it after and this is where we can do so very very much to point out the stupidity of laws that permit a Taliban terrorist or Banker of European origin having a toke alongside me in the park and me being the one getting arrested for being the danger to society.  After the event is where we can do our best work.

    • JaniceWells

      Great a chance to be heard!

    • http://paper.li/LegaliseRealise/1328308684 Mark Baker

      Is this going to be open to the public or is it invite only? I foolishly didn’t submit anything to the inquiry so haven’t been invited but would love to go down and show my support.

    • http://www.peter-reynolds.co.uk Peter Reynolds

      It’s invite only Mark

    • http://paper.li/LegaliseRealise/1328308684 Mark Baker

      Damn, oh well, my own stupid fault for never submitting anything.

      Many thanks Peter – I’m sure you won’t let us down anyway… give it to ‘em straight and be prepared for the ‘Don’t you think it’s irresponsible..’ bullshit!