Saturday, June 30, 2012 - Graham Smith

The Difference Is CLEAR

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Campaigners -v- Shampaigners

An Opinion Piece From CLEAR Member Graham Smith

By Graham Smith

The demise of the rather fanciful and much vaunted “cannabis community” has been long overdue and its death knell has been well and truly sounded with the recent formation of NORML UK.

Cannabis users in the UK have been flocking to the internet for information about the unjust and politically motivated witch hunt against anything and everything cannabis related and their appetite for change has inevitably drawn them to the CLEAR website.

CLEAR has given voice to the huge numbers of medical and recreational cannabis users in the UK who have hitherto remained silent. Newspaper editors who would once upon a time casually throw the word cannabis into any headline about anything and everything are now having to moderate their behaviour or face contradiction, ridicule, complaints to the ineffective Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and have their journalistic integrity called into question. Police forces up and down the country are frantically backpedalling from their ridiculous and misleading stances concerning cannabis.

Even more significantly the voices and views of this hitherto silent mass of cannabis users are being heard in the corridors of power. The current HASC enquiry has been assailed with an enormous mountain of science based and well presented arguments against the present legislation, not only for cannabis related issues but drug, alcohol and tobacco related issues as well. A huge amount of these submissions made use of the CLEAR library and website to make their point and this is a credit to the hard work and diligence which went into the compilation of such a mountain of evidence.

At its inception CLEAR was formed out of a longstanding loosely formed group of people who campaigned under the title of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance which developed into a kind of social club for cannabis users who would meet regularly and operated under a kind of committee structure. When the decision was made to rename itself as Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) and become a political party with an informative and regularly updated website the fortunes of the movement improved dramatically.

As progress was made with the PCC and the excellent “Comment Warriors” campaign” differences began to appear amongst some of the original LCA members and supporters and the leader they overwhelmingly elected. In a series of hissy fits and toys out the pram moments many of the original members felt that they could not support the party line or the leader that they themselves had elected. After a series of more hissy fits, ejections and resignations these malcontents, notwithstanding that they had voted for a leader, rounded upon him and attacked him. I strongly suspect jealousy was at the root of these disagreements. That and the undisciplined nature of the people involved led to the CLEAR website, which was by now providing campaigners all over the UK with the tools of protest, being hijacked and coming under cyberattacks which closed it down for weeks. None of the unhappy malcontents claimed any knowledge or responsibility for this so it can only be described as an “act of god”. Having miserably failed to oust the man they had elected as leader and failed to destroy the website they formerly supported these people went on to form NORML UK, leasing the name from the real NORML in Washington.

NORML is a slick, professional lobbying group which has had much success stateside and has been established for years and I think that the NORML UK founders thought that they could gain some credence from using the NORML name here in the UK. Their newly formed website is a shambles. Major news events about cannabis laws largely go unmentioned but if somebody manages to get a couple of ounces of skunk into a joint it makes front page news. The “Welcome to NORML UK” post on the real NORML site had to be taken down within hours of being posted because of childish and abusive comments and complaints.

If you join this organisation for £45 you get a glass jar with a cork top and very little else apart from knowing your money will be sent to America (If anybody remembers to send it). NORML UK is forming itself into a platform for the hurt feelings of its founding members who have given themselves the most pompous sounding titles and believe that they are somehow the “Real Voice” of an imaginary cannabis community which has never in truth existed. They are virtually uncontactable by phone or email. What they say is wholly dependant on who you speak to and how stoned they are at the time. Their website is more or less a dead zone with few relevant links or comments and excuses like “been offline for a while” and endless demands for gullible people to buy their £45 pound stash jars under the guise of membership. There is no transparent accountability and it will be amazing if they last two years. When criticised their only response is to attack the character of the man who they elected and whose abilities they rode on the back of.

So there we have it.

In the green corner fighting out of scientific based fact – CLEAR

In the other green corner NORML UK fighting out of hurt feelings and malice.

You cant knock out what is already unconscious so it’s “no contest”!

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steviepevie

Having recently decided to take a stand and be proactive in my support for the cannabis movement I came across your website.

I dont know anything about the history between CLEAR or the other group you refer to in the article.

However I think the tone of this article is arrogant, childish and in my opinion seriously undermined yours your credibility.
Focusonpeace

They display their address if you want to write to them, and there is a contact page now, but I wonder why they dont display other contact details like an email address or phone number…even though on the ‘join’ page it says ‘Please provide proof of eligibility either by email or regular mail’.
Even though i could write to them, Its much easier to email or phone up. In my opinion there should be many many more sites dedicated to end this unjust prohibition.
http://twitter.com/forwardresent Forster

Agreed with above, this is an arrogant and childish attempt to undermine another group and make them look bad because they’re being noticed. How very mature. This is pathetic, and a disgrace of an article. Why lower yourselves to the sort of behaviour that NORML UK engages in?
http://www.facebook.com/charley.downey Charley Downey

Wow…..so unbiased journalism,eh? What an utter nonsense. This is one of those articles which says a great deal more about the author than their subject. I’m surprised CLEAR thought it a good idea to publish this, as it just looks like petty back-biting and sour grapes, which reflects far worse on CLEAR than anything they could say about anyone else. What exactly was the purpose of this article? It doesn’t inform, educate, share or develop ideas – it just has a dig at a rival, which is really quite silly and childish.
Patrick May

Hah hah hah hah, who the **** is “Graham Smith”? Oh SHIT, I’m so baked right now. But anyway, why don’t you focus on arguing for law reform and etc instead of bickering with a rival organization? Leave the shit slinging to the idiots at NORML UK. Peace dude
http://www.peter-reynolds.co.uk Peter Reynolds

I can confirm that CLEAR will work with anyone and any organisation to end the prohibition of cannabis. NORML has a long record of achievement in the US.

The article is an opinion piece from an angry CLEAR member. Many members are furious at the emails they have received and the personal attacks they have been subjected to from those associated with NORML UK. This article is representative of the way that they feel.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maharg-Smith/831904195 Maharg Smith

Let me say that when I wrote this article it wasnt my intention to discourage anybody from campaigning nor was it to create any sort of a rift in any effective efforts to reform the bad laws which we all despise.When the clear website came under attack I was subjected to a barrage of anonymous threatening and spuriously vile e-mails from addresses such as “ghostoflca@hushmail.com” and other hushmail accounts.I had to remove my stepson (who suffers from downs syndrome) from my friends list in order to protect him from these malicious intrusions.There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this hateful behaviour emanated from some of the people who are now rabid supporters of normluk.Not everybody who uses cannabis is a good person and I felt that it would be a good thing to distance myself and my beliefs from people who would behave in such a cowardly and unprincipled manner.These individuals are Shampaigners not Campaigners
steviepevie

If your grievance with them is based on vile emails then you should keep it to that and share your proof with the police and let them deal with it.

However as your article doesn’t address that issue at all it seems like a strange point to use to justify your article?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maharg-Smith/831904195 Maharg Smith

steviepevie I hold no grievances with anybody.What I cannot allow to go unchallenged is false claims to be campaigners and to be representing the views of a “cannabis community” by a cabal of unprincipled people who are a liability to law reform
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002918286629 Andy Haigh

norml are not all squeaky clean themselfs,so as they say people in glass houses should n t throw stones :p
http://www.facebook.com/elle.sweetman Elspliff Rolls Sweetman

Come the fuck on CLEAR, I thought you’ze guys were cool. I’m starting to feel like this has been some in depth anti cannabis plot from the start.
Guest

I think the police have been told,by lots of peeple.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JRAZPLSRL2LSAWFQLRR4H2ZMAI Emperor

I understand the motivation and the passion behind this article but it isn’t really helpful to anyone, yes its good to let off some steam but please remember that an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind, I wish those at Norml-uk the very best campaign wise, all this talk of police investigations etc is off putting and detracts from the goal, people felt hurt, excluded, irrelevant and above all were simply jealous and it was because of those feelings they launched a highly negative campaign against clear, It is all online to people to read, the depths they sank to actually pushed me to becoming a member of clear, so for myself they did you and me a favour, I cant say I have any respect for those involved especially at uk420. but any campaign group in the faces of the prohibitionist has to be seen as a good thing, those involved in the campaign to derail clear have a second chance to show us just how committed they are to reform, let the egos go on all sides, we dont have to work together, nor do we have to attack each other, the victim offender cycle is something that springs immediately to mind, come on now clear is better than this and isnt it the case that clear is focused on its goals not others.

Norml in the usa don’t seem do an awful lot, lots of chapters have less than 5 members, the only thing they appear to have done is either support or oppose an initiative.. cant find anything else, it’s one thing to have a platform to go blah blah blah on to the converted, it is an entirely different thing that clear has done, clear is actually taking this issue to the non users and it is those we need to persuade or spark some debate within them and their circles.

personally with no ill feeling towards the author, I would sooner not read this on the clear website, its simply bringing up the past and we need to move forward, however derek has done a very good critique of norml-uk on his blog at ukcia.

Just my 2p :)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Derek-Williams/1072934911 Derek Williams

Thanks for those comments Emperor, I tried to write something similar last night but the words wouldn’t come out. Like you, I understand the reasons for Graham’s comments but the only way out of a hole is upwards and that’s the way CLEAR has to go.

As of last night CLEAR has a website editor again (me) we will be moving forward, concentrating on the job at hand.

We have come under attack from a group of people, but they are not the real enemy. The real enemy is a much stronger, more powerful organisation. We must always remember that.
Robert Grantham

“Whenever you have truth it must be given with love otherwise both the message and the messenger will be rejected ” – Mohandas Gandhi

We must stop this tribal bickering, this will not help us

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