Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - Peter Reynolds

HASC Drugs Inquiry – Russell And The Three Stooges

Russell Brand entered dressed somewhere between a cowboy, a pirate and a clown.

He is a man of fine intellect but his eccentricity is what brings the press flocking to him. It is the reason that Keith Vaz called him (even if towards the end he found it difficult to disguise his distaste).

I can only admire Brand’s ability to exploit to his advantage every circumstance he finds himself in. He is fine entertainment and talks some very good sense but always with a bizarre twist.

Mary Brett could not be a greater contrast. A straightlaced school mistress to the conservative side of prudish would be a generous verdict. She is of another age, another dimension and another version of what is “truth”. Her perfomance as a witness was embarrassing. You only have to look at her website Cannabis Skunk Sense to see how sadly misguided she is. In many ways she is a fine advocate for our cause because she personifies how ridiculous and inept is our opposition.

Kathy Gyngell is, I am afraid, a different kettle of fish. She has no integrity. Her apparently meausred contribution is a contrivance. She always descends, in the end, to hysteria, to moralising, to prejudice. She did indeed utter the tripe: “skunk causes psychosis” that no scientist, not even our most fervent opponents will confirm.

Peter Hitchens was Peter Hitchens. At least he is consistent, rational and coherent. It is no secret that I rather like Peter, even if we disagree fundamentally on this issue. I spoke to him and wished him good luck yesterday evening and proposed that we should get together for a custard pie fight. He told me he couldn’t trust what I might put in the custard.

In summary, I think the ProHos put on a very poor show. If I am given the opportunity to put our case, I know I can demolish their arguments completely – although whether the committee would listen is entirely another question.

Transform has been invited to give evidence on 1st May which is good news . I know that whoever speaks will give a good account from our side, although sadly, they will never advance the unique and beneficial aspects of cannabis. The lack of any evidence at all so far about medicinal cannabis is a glaring omission which Vaz must do something about. If not, it will come back to haunt him.

So, where we go from here remains to be seen. Members of the committee dropped hints today about it being a “long inquiry”. There may be much more to come, or not. Why Vaz doesn’t publish some sort of methodology or process is of most concern. The inquiry is part of our democratic process and I believe we have a right to see it being exercised responsibly, effectively and fairly. At present it seems to fall well short of that.

PDF

http://www.facebook.com/people/Vio-Lent-Vomit/100002885906238 Vio Lent Vomit

I hope they call a non-nuisance/problem drug user. Most of us are.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maharg-Smith/831904195 Maharg Smith

i thought that hitchens and co were abysmal…hitchens himself couldnt even listen to the questions properly…the usual diatribes which he routinely fires out in these situations looked shaky….he actually looked shaky his whole demeanor not what it once was … giving history lessons fiddling with his cheap pen and his glasses….not the former composed and sanguine bigot we are used to seeing…..gyngell when challenged about her prison drugs/corrupt officer figures very quickly ended up on the pointy end of the “statistics dont prove anything and ive got figures to prove it” argument…she then went on to diminish her own credibility even further by declaring her own children had trouble with her views on cannabis…the brett woman (who claims to know exactly how the children of britain think) looked a bit like hichens and gyngells senile mother muddled and fuddled and looking forward to lunch
russel brand acquitted himself quite well …he came to ruthlessly promote his book and his favourite charity and was remorseless in so doing….he also exposed himself as a wilfully disrespectful glib emptyhead with very little to add to any debate…the absolute best thing about his performance was his casual puncturing of the chairmans sense of his own self importance….there have been people like vaz around forever the earliest example being an apple vendor living in a tree in the garden of eden…despite his pompous reptilian manner he is the official ringmaster of this circus …he has been so mired in political scandals and dishonesty so many times i can only guess what the motives were in selecting him for this task but i suspect that his hunger for high office makes him easy to control…he lacks the likeable factor
and now to the overall impression of the committees views….if these people carry out the task they were recruited to do there will be no legalisation of drugs in general but there will be a movement on cannabis all the questions asked about it were leading ones as if the questions were an end to justify cannabis as a special circumstance…the government needs to do this as quickly and quietly as possible in order to pursue its pledge to GW to provide a friendly environment in which to exploit the benefits of cannabis on a commercial level…ITS CHANGE JIM BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT (or would like it)
MR_Bimble

The mail are already off on the attack – I posted this reply to gyngell’s rant in the daily fail, let’s see if it gets through the sensors.

To make drugs unprofitable for criminals you have to intercept 95% we are intercepting less than 20% can we afford to spend 500% more on prohibition in the hope it’ll work? Even in countries where drug dealing carries the death penalty they still have a drugs problem – what does the DM want “hanging for dealing”? Education is the key, factual evidence based education is the only way to reduce demand & breaking the links between soft drugs and hard drugs as they have done in several European countries. The DM should know better “skunk” is a made up term for “street weed” produced by criminals for a quick profit (or GW pharmaceuticals for sativex). Cannabis when grown correctly is a powerful medication for MS and countless other illnesses and people growing cannabis for medical reasons should not be treated like criminals. Expect my complaint to reach the PCC within a week.
marc dixon

I would like to point out the part where Kathy Gyngell basically said that kids are stabbing each other because they are suffering from psychosis caused by “skunk”.
This woman is pure poison and should never be allowed to give evidence on cannabis use ever. These kids are stabbing each other because they think gang warfare is cool, which is a direct problem of prohibition, which she supports.
Focusonpeace

The worst part was when Peter Hitchens tried to claim cannabis is effectively decriminalized and has been for many years…that made me laugh like an old joke that’s not funny any more.
He goes on to say Great Britain’s ‘system of decriminalization’ is even better than Holland or Portugal… How is this the case when for possession of what was probably a small amount of Skunk still gets people thrown in prison?
sykesbenson

Heheh Im by no means a fan of RB but I couldn’t help but laugh a few times at Him takin’ the piss using long words ( like Chris Eubanks:-) which I (nor Keith) knew the meaning of, an when He said the ol’ boy brought a bit of variety like “Dads Army” ! Lolz:-)

Did You clock Him flirtin’ with the blonde bird behind Chip Somers?:-)
psmith67

The sort of policies that Hitchins would like to see initiated would double the criminal justice bill! Putting people in Prison for first time possession – he is seriously delusional

HASC Drugs Inquiry – Russell And The Three Stooges

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