Every day there are stories in the British press about cannabis. Most concern yet another police raid on a “cannabis factory”, usually involving victims of human trafficking and organised crime. Such are the horrendous costs of cannabis prohibition. Innocent lives are destroyed, property is wrecked, electricity is stolen, neighbourhoods are ruined – all because of an inane, pointless and irrational government policy.

The CLEAR Facebook page is a constant news feed of these stories and calls for ‘comment warriors’, people who can post polite, well-informed, persuasive comments. This is an excellent way of driving opinion from the grassroots. Over time we can influence newspaper editors, local opinion formers, those people who are prominent in local society. It is a long game and requires patience, persistence and politeness – but also passion.

So follow the Google news service for stories and keep an eye in the CLEAR Facebook page. Please take the time to leave a comment on the website where the story is posted, express your point of view and use some facts to counter the lies and propaganda that are published about cannabis. If you can’t write a comment to the newspaper’s website, then write to the editor.

To be most effective, your comments should be polite and refer to scientific evidence. Please do not use bad language, however angry you feel at the content of the story. Please feel free to copy any information you find on this website to use in your comments. Over time, you will be able to build up some standard comments or paragraphs that you can save on your computer and copy and paste as you need them.

In most cases you will need to register in order to leave comments. This can be frustrating to begin with but soon you will be registered everywhere. Of all the local newspapers published in Britain, most use one of only three or four standardised comment systems. Once you’ve registered once, you’ll be able to comment on all papers that use that system.

The most important thing is to keep going. It can become tedious but invest just 10 minutes a day and you can be part of making an enormous difference. Working together we can have an enormous impact from the grass roots. Become a comment warrior today!