In more ways than one...

This forum was looking all lonely so I thought I'd make a post to set the ball rolling (mwahahaha, I'm really trying to get the first post in as many forums as I can... JOKE )

I can't really comment on activism outside the UK, but there's plenty going on here. For anyone looking to get involved, good places to start are http://www.lca-uk.org/default.php . I'd advise anyone intersted in cannabis issues to join the LCA today. I recieve email updates regularly (in the past coupla weeks I've been getting 4 or 5 a day, due to the trials of the Worthing coffee shop owners, one of whom sadly received a custodial sentence & the Rhyl medical cannabis supplier - who by the way was found not guilty at Chester crown court ). And when you join you get flyers to copy (a particularly good one about the dangers of soapbar included), no victim no crime stickers, and a free copy of freeweed, a pretty goog growing magazine. Go on, join - you know it makes sensi!

Another good site is http://www.ukcia.org/activism/linksactivists.htm

Finally, one thing we can all do - Email Tony Blair & let him know what we think of his 'declassification'. Here's the website http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp
I realise Tone himself won't see it, but if enough of a noise is made...

Like I said, gotta start somewhere - here's the Email I sent :

I am pleased that cannabis will be reclassified to a class C drug on the 29th January. However, I am extremely disappointed that your government keeps disseminating the same tired old lies and half-truths regarding cannabis. Only last night a representitive of the west midlands police appeared on a Radio 5 live phone in. It was patently obvious that this man did not have the vaguest clue. He kept spouting the same discredited 'gateway drug' argument that your government is choosing to hide behind, together with the spurious links between cannabis use and mental health problems.
I myself am a regular cannabis user, both medically and recreationally. I use the herb recreationally, since I am a sober alcoholic (not had a drink for almost a year). I cannot drink alcohol, I am an alcoholic, if I have a single alcoholic drink it can lead to week long drinking binges, it's a problem I have, recognise I have, but I still need to wind down at the end of the day, and cannabis allows me to do that. I also suffer from bipolar disorder (manic depression) - which, by the way, manifested itself way before I ever smoked a spliff. As a consequence of my illness, I have to take 800mg of Lithium every day. Lithium is an extremely nasty, toxic metal salt, with an interesting & amusing range of side effects, from severe stomach cramps to dizziness and confusion. Smoking cannabis alleviates these side effects to such a degree that I find myself unwilling to take my tablets without a smoke, the side effects are just too severe. But since your government, just as previous governments, seems to feel it is their right to criminalise a substance without which my quality of life would be far less. How you think you are morally justified in criminalising a plant is beyond me, but if it was merely that, I could deal with it. But to also cause otherwise law-abiding people, like myself, to have to break the law and associate with criminals, is something I cannot reconcile.
Mr Blair, do you realise that the prohibition of cannabis is a direct violation of one of our most basic human rights - the right to dominion over one's own body. The public health issues are irrelevant, the only relevant fact is that it is my god-given right as a human being to decide what I do and do not put into my own body, and your drug laws are in direct contravention of that right.
The United Kingdom prides itself on being a free nation, but how can you consider a people free when a large proportion of the population are criminalised for doing something which is neither morally wrong, nor harms anyone but possibly the user.
I sincerely hope when the next general election comes round, you will see the power of public feeling - the type of people, lefty students etc, who would normally provide your party with a large number of votes, will show their opinion of your drug laws en masse, voting for the Lib Dems, the Green party or (as I shall be doing) the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.
Oh, and I haven't even touched on the economic benefits of legalisation, but I'll leave that point for someone more qualified to talk economics than myself.
Boojum Reviewed by Boojum on . Gotta start somewhere In more ways than one... This forum was looking all lonely so I thought I'd make a post to set the ball rolling (mwahahaha, I'm really trying to get the first post in as many forums as I can... JOKE :p ) I can't really comment on activism outside the UK, but there's plenty going on here. For anyone looking to get involved, good places to start are http://www.lca-uk.org/default.php . I'd advise anyone intersted in cannabis issues to join the LCA today. I recieve email updates regularly (in Rating: 5