The Bitch!
OUR POPULAR WEEKLY NEWS REVIEW COLUMN
Save The Whales - The Happy People Don't Need Saving!
Well Darlings,
I have to tell you: nothing has changed. The
government that promised to listen after its recent
humiliation at the polls has within just one week
forgotten everything about that assurance they gave
us. Against all the advice of the Advisory Council on
the Misuse of Drugs which carried out a year-long
investigation on behalf of the government - and
therefore on our behalf, the drug cannabis is, subject
to Parliamentary approval, to be restored to a Class B
status.
Whilst the reclassification to a Class C drug in 2004
did not encourage more people to smoke it - the number
of users has actually fallen since that change - so
likewise this stupid move will not deter anyone from
using it. When it comes to drugs people either do or
they do not use them. It is as simple as that. The law
does not, and will not, make one iota of a difference
to the numbers of users, but it does to the amount of
work with which our already overstretched police
forces, legal system, and prisons have to cope.
By refusing to heed the advice of the Advisory Council
which, based on the health risks associated with the
weed, concluded it should remain as a Class C drug,
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is telling us that she and
the government know far better than those who are
qualified to make such a judgement. But not simply
content with that, she now wants to whip up public
hysteria again, just like the government did with
cigarette smoking, and have warnings printed on
cigarette-paper packets, with restrictions even being
imposed on material that might "encourage" people to
smoke it. This undoubtedly will include all the
printed tee shirts, mugs, humorous cards and posters
frequently bought by non-users as a joke.
Did anybody seriously trust what came out of Gordon
Brown's mouth last week? Nanny is still very much in
charge, not listening, and it is yet another smacked
bottom for the public! So there go a hell of a lot
more Labour votes!
The report from the Advisory Council found merely a
weak link between psychotic illnesses (including
schizophrenia) and cannabis use, and that it says
despite stronger "skunk" varieties being more widely
available today. It concluded that overall the drug
played only a "modest role" in the development of
these conditions. So what is all the fuss about today?
Alcohol is a far more dangerous drug. We all know
that, yet we tolerate it without question.
The use of marijuana, cannabis, ganga, call it
whatever you will, and with some strains far stronger
than encountered today, can be traced back to further
than 7,000 B.C. Some people may be surprised to
discover this drug is nothing new. Contrary to what
they may have thought those hippies of the sixties,
and I was one of them, did not invent it, they merely
brought it into the public eye. Throughout around 99%
of all that time people have used cannabis, it has
been perfectly legal to do so. Now whilst the world
today has many faults, and there are lots of idiots
out there trying to run it (and our lives!), on
looking around me I don't actually see whole
populations made up of pot-smoking psychotics, do you?
Aren't there more important things for a government in
such dire straits to worry about than giving the Nanny
State yet another stick with which to beat its people?
This headline grabbing exercise, for that in truth is
all it is, can only backfire on this pathetic
government. Jacqui Smith - get a life!
Too much rubbish is talked about most recreational
drugs; too much scaremongering. The millions of people
who use them are not all, or ever will be, addicts -
the drop-outs we see on street corners - those that
anyway usually turn out to be alcoholics. The
percentage number of those who will progress into
becoming hooked on hard drugs is negligible when seen
in relation to all those drinkers who progress into
alcoholism. Overwhelmingly the majority of illegal
users today are everyday people, from doctors,
priests, bank managers, and computer experts right
down to shop workers and building site labourers -
with few of them suffering any adverse effects at all.
Such people are out there in their millions, and they
are not all like Amy Winehouse - where a whole
lifestyle may be responsible for her condition, or the
teenage urchin seen throwing-up in a shop doorway -
where a sense of hopelessness along with alcohol may
be involved. Mostly nobody but close friends know the
majority of people who enjoy recreational drugs - the
users are that normal - and they are numerous. With
the drugs being illegal, and therefore underground,
the biggest worry to these people is not the law, it
is the unscrupulous supplier who might sell them
something dangerous.
So why are the authorities vehemently against these
drugs, and once more hysterically trying to whip up a
panic? Think Gordon Brown, think of all that happiness
being enjoyed every week by so many people with not
one penny piece of tax being paid, and now picture his
face again. If only the man had some foresight and
courage!
There are some things in life which must forever
remain illegal. Many of the recreational drugs we see
in use today do not fall into that category. Compared
to alcohol, where heavy drinking is blamed for up to
33,000 UK deaths a year, were the manufacture of these
drugs to be equally as controlled they would be much
less of a health risk. They are so much a part of so
many people's lives today it is time they were made
safer by being legalised, controlled and taxed. King
Canute has had his day - the indisputable proof is out
there: the tide cannot be turned. It is time to grow
up and be adult about the whole issue.
And in case you are wondering: no, I do not use these
drugs myself. But like countless people of my age,
having been around the block, I am not ashamed to
admit that in my younger years I frequently enjoyed
cannabis in all its forms, and several other
recreational drugs too. Aciiiiiiiiiiiiiid! : ) For my
generation it was all a part and parcel of growing up
to experience such things firsthand. Life should be
experienced, not orchestrated. Sadly youngsters today
cannot learn anything from life; they are not allowed
to. Everything is sensationalised, politicised, and
banned for them, until they and the whole population
become government-moulded all-alike items to be placed
in protective cotton wool to keep quiet and do as they
are told. The Nanny State is creating a nation of
vulnerable people frightened of everything.
We see distressed young women today who, because of
what Nanny has taught them, believe their whole life
has been ruined beyond salvation simply because some
undesirable has touched them inappropriately. Whilst
it is deplorable behaviour and not to be condoned, it
really is not the end of anyone's life. Nor does it
warrant being blown up out of all proportion, with all
the hours of counselling we see today simply to keep
some patronising people in employment.
Once such experiences were merely just a part and
parcel of life, and there were ways of dealing with
them without making the poor victim feel in any way
guilty, distressed or unclean. The victims are not
unclean, or permanently harmed, just because of some
unsavoury person's actions, and until recently they
never used to think of themselves in such a way. It is
only the Nanny State which has convinced them they
are, and burdened them with all that undeserved
baggage. When people could live their lives, instead
of being protected from life, things like this were no
big deal. They were better times for people when we
had no big deals. How many lives has Nanny ruined in
this way? I hate to think!
Nanny is also responsible for creating a state in
which people are now too frightened to let their kids
walk to school, or even visit the local shop, because
she has convinced them everyone out there is a
potential paedophile. They are not. Per head of
population I doubt there are any more paedophiles
around today than when I went to school - the
difference is in my day we weren't frightened of them.
Even as kids we knew how to deal with them. In my
childhood days we weren't stupid enough to give the
streets over to the nasty people of the world. They
were our streets too, and we survived them without all
the death and horror we see on them today - something
that has come about purely as a result of surrendering
our streets because Nanny has made us live in fear of
them. Before Nanny we were all a lot more sensible -
and far safer!
It is time for our politicians to grow up, and to
start living in the real 21st century world. And if
that means legalising a few recreational drugs and
placing them alongside all the evils of alcohol, then
so be it. Providing it is not at the expense of
others, nobody deserves to be made into a criminal for
simply enjoying themself. It is time Nanny left people
to live their own lives as they would wish. We are all
only given one life - and it was given to us, not to
Nanny!
Save the whales - believe me: the happy people don't
need saving. Been there - done that!
"The Bitch!" 9/05/08.
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