Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
According to a new Ipsos Mori poll, a majority of Britons favor either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana and two-thirds support a comprehensive review of all the options for controlling drugs, from legalization to tougher enforcement.
Only 35% favored the status quo (21%) or harsher treatment of marijuana (14%). Eight percent had no opinion and 4% said "I have never heard of this drug."
Britain down-scheduled marijuana from a Class B to a Class C drug in 2004, but reversed course in 2008, placing it back on the more serious Class B amid rising fears of the dangers of "skunk" marijuana, Britain's generic term for high-potency, domestically-produced weed.
When it comes to other drugs, a majority (60%) favored the status quo, while only slightly more than one-third (36%) favored either decriminalization (14%) or a pilot decriminalization program (21%).
But more than two-thirds of respondents (67%) wanted a comprehensive independent review of Britain's drug policies. Support cut across party lines, with 69% of Labor supporters and 70% of Conservative supporters calling for a review of drug policy.
Britain's Conservative-led government has shown distinct disinterest in revisiting the country's drug policies, although that has led to some friction with its Liberal Democrat junior partners.
"These results just show how far ahead of politicians the public are," said the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which commissioned the poll. "Whilst Labor and Conservative politicians shy away from the debate on drugs, around half of their supporters want to see legal regulation of cannabis production and supply or decriminalization of cannabis possession, and a significant majority want a comprehensive review of our approach to drugs -- including consideration of legal regulation," the group said.
"Politicians have repeated their 'tough on drugs' propaganda for so long that they assume the public are more fearful of change than they really are," Transform said. "In fact the world has changed, and the public are far more progressive than was thought, right across the political spectrum. At the very least the government should heed long standing and growing calls for a review of all policy options, including legal regulation. And as a matter of urgency the coalition should engage in experiments in the Portuguese style decriminalization of possession of drugs for personal use. Now is the time for the heads of all parties to show the leadership citizens surely deserve."
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
Those Brit`s
Yea , what else is new ? The Brit`s will not see an end to Cannabis prohibition there until the Queen " B " is rolling down Buckingham Gate onto Birdcage Walk in a casket . Lucifer only has her for 120 years . I can`t understand how the British people still support the biggest welfare queen in history . That so-called Queen Elizabeth has never broken a sweat in her life , unless she was running from scrutiny . Put that in your pipe and smoke it .
In reply to Those Brit`s by kickback (not verified)
But they don't support the war on marijuana users anymore
and a halfway decent number support outright freeing the herb and a decent number support at least a 'pilot' (test) program of decriminalization of other drugs. And 2/3 support a thorough independent review of gov't drug policy, a clear vote of dissatisfaction with current policies. What started in Colorado and Washington isn't going to stop there, and it's not going to stop with cannabis either. We need to judge people as individuals for their individual behavior, not to declare war on fellow citizens over nothing.
No, you are the retard.
The amount of money taken off the Queen for the government is a heck of a lot more then what she receives off the government. She owns the majority of the land in the UK, and that is before you even consider the Commonwealth. The amount she gets from rents, mostly goes to parliament and she isn't allowed any of it back or allowed any say on what happens to it.
In reply to No, you are the retard. by Mary (not verified)
So? We don't pay any other
So? We don't pay any other land magnates large sums of money every year to do literally nothing. The fact that the monarchy happens to own a lot of land because (unsurprisingly) it used to own most of it anyway due to inheretance and executive power in the form of attainder and so on provides absolutely no justification for its continued leeching of the public purse. Monarchism is quite literally an indefensible position, and you look pretty stupid when you make attempt to defend it.
ohh right, the queen, yea thats the problem
"Tourists don't come here to see the Queen they come here for our heritage" I think you will find that's exactly why tourists come to the UK. We are not the only country with castles or heritage but we are one of the few with a ruling Monarch which makes all that heritage all the more relevant.
Plus I don't actually see what the Queen has to do with decriminalisation of cannabis or other drugs. She doesn't decide policy, she doesn't have any say so what is your point? Your complaining that she doesn't do anything BUT if she did morons like you would be up in arms as to why she gets to decide anything. SO what exactly would you like her to do?
You sound like a sad and angry little person. Grow up.
As for decriminalisation, it will never happen, those elected MPs of ours (which are much better than the Queen apparently) only care about pushing their own personal agendas for their own personal benefit while using their position of power and influence to achieve this. If they can get re-elected by doing as little as possible, blaming the other side and pretending to be in touch with the common pleb than even better! Look up what MPs actually do with their time and how much of that they actually spend on doing their jobs and then complain about how hard the queen works, who by the way does more than most people half her age. If I made £250 mil a year for doing nothing I would be doing just that NOTHING, not spending every day of my life making a bunch of assholes who despise me look better.
ohh right, the queen, yea thats the problem
"Tourists don't come here to see the Queen they come here for our heritage" I think you will find that's exactly why tourists come to the UK. We are not the only country with castles or heritage but we are one of the few with a ruling Monarch which makes all that heritage all the more relevant.
Plus I don't actually see what the Queen has to do with decriminalisation of cannabis or other drugs. She doesn't decide policy, she doesn't have any say so what is your point? Your complaining that she doesn't do anything BUT if she did morons like you would be up in arms as to why she gets to decide anything. SO what exactly would you like her to do?
You sound like a sad and angry little person. Grow up.
As for decriminalisation, it will never happen, those elected MPs of ours (which are much better than the Queen apparently) only care about pushing their own personal agendas for their own personal benefit while using their position of power and influence to achieve this. If they can get re-elected by doing as little as possible, blaming the other side and pretending to be in touch with the common pleb than even better! Look up what MPs actually do with their time and how much of that they actually spend on doing their jobs and then complain about how hard the queen works, who by the way does more than most people half her age. If I made £250 mil a year for doing nothing I would be doing just that NOTHING, not spending every day of my life making a bunch of assholes who despise me look better.
In reply to Those Brit`s by kickback (not verified)
Us? Queen?
Why do people always assume that we like and support the queen? The fact that we happen to have a monarchy doesn't mean that we actually have any say as to whether or not it exists; I've never met a single person who thinks of the monarchy as anything other than pointless but, let's face it, if the public can't convince this obstinate, idiotic Tory government to even launch an enquiry into drug policy, what chance do you really think we have of convincing them to dissolve the monarchy?
Tl;dr - stop bringing the queen into literally everything. We know; it's ridiculous, but she's not there by public appointment, nor does she stay financially solvent through voluntary donations. She's just there, it's infuriating that she is, but she is. Now, why don't you actually learn something about different cultures before you admonish them for failings that your perceive through a thick veil of ignorance?
In reply to Those Brit`s by kickback (not verified)
Queen Victoria smoked weed
Queen Victoria smoked weed after her doctor told her to for medicinal reasons. The doctor probably told her rather ironically to administer the cannabis by putting it in a pipe and smoke it. I think you should be blaming politicians, starting with Richard Nixon who declared a war on drugs in 1971 and just after this in 1971 the UK government followed Nixon's shining example of how to bring misery and show their unrelenting hate for their ordinary good citizens for simply getting high or for medical reasons.
http://www.ukcia.org/medical/menstrualcrampsmorningsicknessandlabourpain.php
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-10-07/news/famous-marijuana-users/full/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/24/war-on-drugs-40-years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugs_controlled_by_the_UK_Misuse_of_Drugs_Act
In reply to Those Brit`s by kickback (not verified)
lol
nice troll :P
shoot, didn't mean to shout like that
sorry about that
Prohibitionists Suck!
Prohibitionists are neither civil nor productive members of society, they are soulless parasites and inhuman, oppressive criminals from whom protection is required.
And the hypocrisy of the
The flag in the image is
The flag in the image is wrong. The position of the red lines specifically.
Boring
In reply to Boring by Anonymousmuff (not verified)
*points to social mobility
*points to social mobility figures for the UK*
Basically, you might be doing well, but the bigger socio-economic picture in the UK is incredibly bleak. Bollocks do we get paid too much; the fact that you're comfortable has clearly blinded you to the bigger picture, and made you apathetic. If anything, apathy is the most dangerous state of mind by far...
Why?
\why on earth would write something down if you are so utterly misinformed. Having an opinion is fine. If you are going to try and change someone else's however, don't just spout complete confrontational garbage. Construct, at lease, a persuasive argument and provide credible sources of information(not just google and wikipedia). Otherwise i believe you should be euthanized...that is just my opinion
Can we get back to the subject of ending this insane war
on users of the 'wrong' drugs?
merica
and running shit like this just makes more people think Merica
Whomever wrote this article
Whomever wrote this article could have, at least, remembered to put the Union Flag on here the right way up!!!
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