Enough is enough!
For decades the UK government have dragged their heels on cannabis decriminalisation.
The majority of the UK public now want cannabis legalised or don’t really care, and then there are disabled people that rely on cannabis, either having to pay through the nose for private prescriptions (which by the way are prescribed for ‘any condition’ now – literally anyone can get one for any diagnosis) or buy from ‘Dave” and all the risks that come with that. The quality is unlikely to be good as 80% of growers grow hydroponically and only 20% like us; organic. That’s without the risk of being criminalised.
With the climate warming, cannabis is a carbon sink BUT it also has so many other uses!
Not just medicinally but also for building or packing materials, plastic alternatives, insulation! We used to grow fields of hemp in the UK for rope making! Hempcrete or hemp breeze blocks have better insulation than current standard building materials! I am left wondering why our governments won’t challenge or even discuss drug policy reform when you include the potential tax revenue for HMRC too.
We’re not well ourselves but barely anyone else is sticking their heads in the firing line to fight for cannabis equity alongside human equity, these go hand in hand for us.
Advocating just as Queer people is tough, plus disability etc. We need numbers, to shout about this!
In the 90s and 00s I remember thousands of people coming to London for 4/20 and massive marches on parliament and people smoking openly everywhere. Where’s that anger gone? I might make the letter an open petition or letter that can be signed by anyone who agrees but for now I am just going to drop it here!
Ps. Anyone can send a letter to 10 downing street. This is going in the post. You can email his office and I’m happy for anyone to use the following with some of your own edits as a template for your letters.
Grace x
PM Letter:
Dear Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer
I hope this letter finds your desk and eyes as I feel this issue is important and essential to help the struggling UK economy recovery, in a few different ways.
I’m a long term (decades) chronic pain patient with three chronic pain conditions I now manage mainly with a legal cannabis prescription. I have been through the entire NHS chronic pain pipeline and out the other end. I will have chronic pain for life and I have had to accept that.
That brings me on to what I’d like to talk about: Cannabis decriminalisation for medical users. The right to grow the medicine we need and not be at the whim of over priced expensive private clinics or dodgy home grown from a street dealer. Cannabis is the ONLY drug that helps millions of people like me and I, like many others, have been up and down on morphine and stronger painkillers for years. I actually cut my opiate usage by 90% over a year just with cannabis and I’m not the only one!
Now, the way I see it, cannabis and CBD adult recreational decrimalisation is a no brainer.
There is already a thriving legal and illegal market for CBD products which opened up and then closed back down to new applications, sadly. Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and now Germany have all changed their laws to allow a set amount of plants to be grown and a set amount to be legal to carry. Of course we also have all kinds of systems enacted by U.S states, some good, some terrible. Canada has a reasonably good recreational and medical market. Maine has a caregiver status where I as a cannabis patient could grow 6 plants and share some with other adults that have a Dr’s prescription for it. As a long term user and advocate I have a lot of experience and I don’t understand why the UK is STILL years behind the rest of the world on this. Here are my requests I’d appreciate you seriously consider. Millions of Brits use cannabis daily, 100,000 a week are signing up for legal prescriptions alone!
Adult medical legal grow laws: Anyone with a diagnosed pain condition or condition which cannabis helps with should be allowed to grow 4-6 plants and legally carry up to 28g (1oz) – This would change my life.
Cannabis can treat so many conditions (actually it was 140 until 1940 in the U.S) it could save the NHS a fortune annually instead of opiates and SSRI’s.
Adult recreational decimalisation has proven to reduce alcohol and opiate use and the people are happier in the states that have done it like California. Adults over 18 that can legally buy lethal tobacco and alcohol should also have the right to choose much safer cannabis to relax with instead. (which has never killed anyone)
This seems like a fundamental human right? To rid oneself of pain?
It creates huge tax revenue for the government. Cannabis and CBD products can be taxed. (see California) This means government passive tax income.
Cannabis has been shown to be safer than most prescribed drugs. Especially strong painkillers like opiates or pregabalin. Of course it will require careful law making. Only available to over 18s etc. Available only from specified outlets.
Cannabis/hemp is also an incredibly useful plant with uses from rope and packaging to heat resistant building blocks and insulation. The possibilities for replacing plastic products are vast. Why aren’t we putting money into allowing small craft growers and people with decades of knowledge to set up businesses, not just the rich that can afford to start and get permission to run a clinic where once you have a prescription you choose your strains like a shop and order online. This seems deeply unfair to me.
We are in a climate emergency and hemp/cannabis growing means more carbon sink but cannabis/hemp also sequesters heavy metals like mercury from the soil in its fibres. I hope to see fields of hemp in the uk (again) one day! (I believe we used to grow tonnes for rope!)
The law as it stands heavily leans towards criminalising young people and especially young black men. Anyone with a prison sentence for a low level crime with cannabis should be freed and the places used for people committing serious crimes.
There is now a huge wave of users, potential businesses and entrepreneurs waiting desperately for cannabis decimalisation. Businesses that could employ people and pay taxes legally. The dam is going to break soon anyway, it already is, we cannot afford to wait for the law to change, I might be dead by then! why not get ahead of this. It would be a popular policy and kickstart business and growth. A majority of the British public agree with decriminalising cannabis for personal use already.
So far the only people making large profits are the unregulated cannabis clinics (not covered by the CQC for some reason? – This is actually a serious issue, why no oversight for them?) of which now there are over 40. The medical coverage and quality of medicine is pricey and very patchy.
There are thousands of expert growers in the UK that are underground getting poorer and poorer because of the law as it stands. It’s frustrating and sad to see the UK so far behind, globally. We have a fantastic opportunity here!
I can’t quite believe its 2024 and we are still not even discussing this issue, let alone any drug policy in general. Why are UK parliamentarians so scared to go near it?
I’ve never written to a Prime Minister before but I feel so strongly about this I’ve gone to the trouble of writing specifically about this to you. Cannabis has saved my life and that of my best friend with primary progressive MS. She relies heavily on prescribed cannabis products for pain like me. We are just two examples of the millions of disabled and pain ridden people in the UK that use cannabis daily.
I am just one UK resident. I don’t have a think tank or a monied pressure group to lobby parliamentarians to achieve this so this letter is it. I hope it’s given equal weight when considering these things.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you or your team on this. I’d be more than happy to talk to anyone if you’d like to discuss.
Regards
+ millions of British users that are too sick to advocate for themselves like this!
