Poll: Majority Want Cannabis Decriminalised
Before Christmas the PM rejected calls for a royal commission on drugs, arguing somewhat unfeasibly that the current policy was “working”. Despite that Clegg has moved in the right direction coming out as pro-liberalisation, packing off Jeremy Browne “Sugar” to Amsterdam on an, ahem, “fact-finding mission”. Tonight a new Ipsos Mori poll shows that 53% support either the legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis.
Two thirds want a review of all policy options, rather encouragingly that figure increases to 70% among Conservative supporters. A Portuguese-style decriminalisation of drugs is also backed by just under half of the population. Dave is resisting the British public’s freedom to party…
It is not for the state to dictate to me what i put in my body.
I can’t stand the LibDems, but I do agree with them on this.
8illy you formless twat. If the state provides you with money and has to pick up the pieces, then it can dictate what you put into your body. If you could get your security job back at the Council depot and start earning your own money again and can afford your own medical insurance, then you can whatever and whoever you like into your degusting body.
You are not the real @CRMM: You are 8illy, and I claim my five quid.
Just because I make the occasional non pseudo-intellectual comment does not mean that I am not the real deal.
What is real anyway – in this life of plenty (wine and friends in town) is is not as clear as it might otherwise be.
Think on my musings for he that does not think, does not think. Away now for coffee, for it will soon start to chill. To the ramparts!
You seems not to be to the real CRMM.
The real CRMM has a certain style, which your close approximation does not match. Dwell on the grammar style, syllable counts and use of punctuation.
Methinks you have a touch of the 8illy, but that is only because you mentioned him first.
It’s that twat tat again with his modus operandi of feeble imitation and an unhealthy interest in tormenting poor Billy.
Dope smokers are almost as boring as people who constantly fiddle with their phones but are slightly higher up the scale of loserism.
It is a great shame when you witness someone trying to be someone else. Or in my case, sometwo else.
We are all so individual: our finger prints, our irises, our DNA. Our personalities, our thinking processes and our writing styles are even more subtle manifestations of this. The levels of optimism and jealousy are so easy to spot in others.
Rejoice in who you are. Not in who you want to try to be. Or even in someone that you have taken an inexplicable antipathy to.
Is that the real SC?
Both of me.
The cry of a jotted female impersonator:
Ewa (or Bob from Pinner to those who know). Was kicked off the Telegraph.
Perhaps we can give the underclass drugs instead of benefits – cut out the middle man.
He is actually quite a nice bloke… when off the juice.
Do the Lib Dems really give a damn about drug policy though? Or was Nick Clegg just seeking find something to define his party as different or trying to con the young students into voting Lib Dem again.
Remember what Labour did with drug policy. Class C then back again, that was all just politics and political posturing. David Cameron is the same, he voted against his party when he was part of a select committee and now he is leader of the Tories he has different policies.
It’s all just a game to them. And the Lib Dems are no different.
There is a bit of dishonesty going on in the cannabusiness………..
http://www.clear-uk.org/the-sativex-scandal-deepens-corruption-and-dishonesty-at-the-home-office/
So you need drugs to party, you sad sack.
If you can’t party without a chemical high you badly need to get a life.
That’s why he wants drugs. He can’t face up to life without them.
Does not the poll suggest that the 50% of people on benefits are also drug takers and were on this poll?
Who made the poll and why should we listen to it if it never reveals who they ask, how many and over what public spectrum.
Is Guido on cannabis?
Que
Anyone who can’t party without being sober is a waster and probably a homeless tramp.
Good thinking. Let’s concrete over the vineyards of Champagne.
You have to rely on spinach…which is almost as bad.
Anyone who has lived in Jamaica knows that ganga results in yoofs lazying around, causing big trouble and ultimately a society in fear of crime that is out of control.
Even worse it means Diane Abbott has declared England as her home.
At a time when lefties want to ban sugar in drinks and butter on bread I find it odd that they want to scramble brains with drugs.
We have enough trouble with yoof lout and drunken louts without the added danger of druggie louts.
+1
Those in favour of legalising drugs will change their minds pretty f*cking quikly when the EU’s dregs move here to smoke their brains out and driver around off their heads.
Not a big difference to the Poles I see every day on the M11, but a difference nonetheless.
>scramble brains
Absolutely right. THC fucks up your cortex, can lead to paranoid schizophrenia and God knows what else. Our rotund host is a living testament to the damage that drugs of all kinds will do.
A big fat cock?
We all know hat you like in your body Mr Kebab
It’s not for the state to extort money from me then waste it on health services I barely use but instead keeping alive dickheads who spent their lives eating Macdonalds, drinking, smoking or dope… Oh hold on…
The left are getting bent out of shape with the Pistorius case
The fact is that whether the person behind the door is an 8 stone blonde model or a 20 stone masked geezer with an axe it is still murder to shoot them if there is no threat from them.
Pistorius is no less guilty even if he thought there was an intruder behind the door.
Shooting intruders in not a recrational sport
Not here maybe but South Africa is just a teensie weensie bit lawless and human life is a cheap commodity there. Whilst I could argue we should make an exception on that basis, he’s still guilty as **ck.
you’d think with the history of youthful drug taking at cabinet level, the Govt would be well up for looking at the drug laws again. I wonder if that famous – but denied – video of a certain Mr Cameron lookalike off his box was at one of the raves Guido was involved in?
H’mmm “It is not for the state to dictate to me what i put in my body.” I see that is up to you, but wouldn’t you like to rephrase that?
Why should he, it’s Billy, the well known player of the pink oboe, he knows what he means and so do we.
@KT
I don’t care what you put into your body, as long as I don’t have to pay for it, and as long as I don’t have to pay for the consequences.
If you can afford it out of income that YOU HAVE EARNED then do as you please.
Yet another topic which politicians are peculiarly incapable of discussing rationally. We need a system of referendums so that the public can decide issues like this.
Do they just want certain relaxants legalized to help with gay marriage ?
I agree with you about referendums but would a No result to decriminalisation satisfy the druggies? I doubt it. If you give people enough drugs you may as well give them guns to shoot their wives and kids with as well.
Why a referendum on this issue in particular? In that case, every single issue should be decided by referendum. ow would you vote on the Disabled Persons Parking Badges Act? Or the Small Charitable Donations Act? Where’s the clamour for a say in the Civil Aviation Act? Why weren’t the public consulted on the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act?
Someone says ‘drugs’ and the great British blog-readers yelp ‘give us some now!’ And you wonder who’s to blame for horesemeat in our food…
With modern technology, there is no reason why the public can’t be asked their opinions on a wide range of issues, including some of the ones you mention
And the point of ‘asking’ us is what, exactly? Surely not a single reader of this excellent blog believes for one single second that any politician/party would take even the smallest notice of the public’s opinion… Traffic Cones Hotline, anyone?
We need democracy. Let the public decide.
To be honest I think it would save a lot of money (police, lawyers) and if it was sold in licenced premises and taxed and it would bring a lot of income to the exchequer, as long I do not have to inhale the stench coming from those smoking weed and stand next to someone who has smoked it (it remains on their clothes for ages). As long as those who use the drugs know the side effects of using such substances, any motor accidents, violence etc caused by users is treated the same as alcohol drinkers no excuses.
What I want to know is when are they going to decriminalize tobacco so that the louts currently cluttering up the tow path can go back in the blinkin’ pub as nature intended (so long as it suits the landlord).
I must say after a hard day in the office and once the kids have gone to bed, there’s nothing like a good one to unwind.
This would be great to bring in once the UK has exited the EU: Good time to party then.
Never happen far too many people make a bloody good living out of that weed being illegal and I don’t mean the criminal fraternity, personally if you want to help dilute the gene pool a bit then use drugs.
In my experience a bit of relaxation leads to more genetic exchange.
Relaxation may do – being semi-conscious on drugs won’t. That’s natural selection, see – idiots on drugs can’t reproduce.
Same with booze. You can’t walk to the bed when you are legless.
What a quaint idea that reproduction only occurs in bed! Even here in the noble, ancient and tourist-infested city of Bath it occurs elsewhere, generally on Friday and Saturday nights in and around the streets – so I’m told…
That is mainly a visual effect. Very little actual procreation occurs.
Dave is resisting the British public in more and more ways. He will reap the consequences.
Yes, they’ll soon vote Labour… and get state control over everything with Ed and his union stooges deciding what’s good for you.
That’s like saying support Hitler coz Stalin is worse.
Says who exactly?
Name the pollster, the question asked, how many in the sample, how broad a spectrum of the population is in the poll.
I may be cynical but like many polls of recent years the answer is more often than not rigged to suit the vested interests funding it.
Don’t forget Big Dave is expert at the U-turn manoeuver unrivalled by almost any PM in modern memory, Gideon acording to that photo Geedo posted, seems to have had more than a passing acquaintance with snow
Vote UKIP as they will clamp down on this dangerous drug culture.
I’d be all for banning mobile phones. I don’t see why I should be exposed to microwave radiation and disturbance just so some moron can loudly spout drivel. about inane crap.
Yup, and tittering in their Twitter account, jamming normal traffic
There I was remembering UKIP touting themselves as libertarians, must be the last spliff affecting my memory…
** twitter feed quiet, clearly chillaxing with a fat one **
Tom Watson?
Well, not Abbot, could be Prescott, or Pickles ? OJ support NAMBLA ?
The best way to deal with drugs is, if you are caught with any you are locked up till you consume your batch, then you are free to go. People with a bit of weed will be inconvienced for half an hour, international criminals caught with a ton of H cut with rat poison they were trying to sell to kids will be shut away for years or die trying to get out early.
Better still, make them consume their stash within 30 minutes.
That could work but you don’t really think that would happen do you, most of the big trafficers are known to police and intelligence services (or at least they should know) so you have to ask yourself why nothing is done.
As a teacher who has worked with many kids that have become addicted to cannabis I dread the day it is decriminalised. Anyone who thinks its effects are benign, I promise you it has a devasting effect on the adolescent mind.
The day it is decriminalised is the day the state starts taxing the stuff. Don’t worry luv, the kids will not be able to afford it.
Silly billy, they will just turn to benefit fraud and other crimes to pay for their ganja as they do now, only more so.
And if they cannot afford the state sponsored they will get the cheaper ‘illegal’ drug from their mate so the problem will not actually go away
We are having to cope with far too many cases of cannabis-induced psychosis amongst late teens/early twenties who are then incapable afterwards of holding down a job . I know that the majority of users are unaffected but it’s too high a price to pay.
Moron. Alcohol is worse. Much worse.
The rate of psychosis and schizophrenia have remained flat despite a massive increase in the last forty years of people smoking cannabis.
Sorry to fart in your lift Bergen but the truth is rather different than your received narrative.
As a person who endured many years of fake education at the hands of teachers addicted to power and silly pointless regulations, I shall ignore your exagerrations as being inherently unreliable. Less than 5% of the teaching ‘profession’ are credible.
That should be ‘fewer’.
If the government can tax it and dispense it they would do.
This totally goes against the anti smoking drive, and there are still issues with respect to D.U.I.
I do not understand why Cannabis and Cocaine, particularly coca leaf more than the refined powder, are not decriminalized at least: They are not particularly addictive and have net health benefits.
The opiates should remain illegal: Biologically addictive, see W!lliam S Burroughs for full qualified detail.
Until distribution becomes economically preferable compared to the so called war on drugs there will be no real change in the war on drugs.
“The opiates should remain illegal:” – what’s wrong with consuming things that are biologically addictive you fascist c#nt?
If the state can ‘celebrate’ me sticking a dick up my arse, then what’s wrong with the occasional toot?
Why can’t all these tedious neo-victorians fuck off and set up their own blog somewhere?
Bullshit.
Nowdays cannabis is so strong that it has permanent effects. About half the people I know who smoked it regularly have become agoraphobic or have other mental disorders now.
They are not agraphobic. They are probably just avoiding you.
Legalised cannabis could be sold in mild, medium and strong variaties, n’est-ce pas?
Sorry, they have real mental disorders. Even the dope smokers who don’t have defined disorders act decidedly weirdly. In particular the older ones are most definitely “not all there”.
Until distribution becomes economically preferable compared to the so called war on drugs there will be no real change in the war on drugs.
It do make my Old Dutch frisky.
How does this square with continued attack on tobacco, and banning Frosties ?
And horse meat.
Exactly, they want to ban sugar in drinks, stop the use of butter but are quite happy to see teenagers fry their brains with skunk!
This is great and all, but surely fixing the economy, holding the murderers on the NHS to account, exiting the EU are all slightly higher priority issues ?
Even OJ Simpleton hasn’t gone quite this down market, yet.
Vote UKIP.
Cameron’s EU Cuts were not beef, but horsemeat:
I note the French have given most of the license back to their company using horse meat as filler. Could it be that the French economy is in a worse state than their data states for them to do this?
I can only hope other companies shun it and force it into liquidation
It just means they hate the British and are happy to sell us crap. They never buy anything from us.
Like the breast implant mob ? You are very likely on the money there.
There is a bit of dishonesty going on in the cannabusiness………..
http://www.clear-uk.org/the-sativex-scandal-deepens-corruption-and-dishonesty-at-the-home-office/
Oscar Pistorius may have killed somebody – wall to wall coverage in the media
NHS kills people – nothing happens
government kills people – nothing happens
Nobody guilty, nobody responsible -, nobody takes nay notice
what a fucking shit country this has become
Nothing to see here, move along
Totally agree. Move on quickly as we must protect our sponsors in the Labour Party.
As the German stoners say, ” Legal? Illegal? Scheiss Egal! “
Make it legal and we could appear good looking to the druggies.
ComRes Poll puts UKIP firmly in 3rd place if GE called:
http://www.economicvoice.com/ukip-firmly-in-third-place-says-poll/50035028#axzz2LJG9Dopl
Lab: 36%
Con: 31%
UKIP: 14%
Lib: 8%
2,002 people taken over 13th-14th February 2013
Apparently, in a question to measure relative strengths of Prime Ministers, Cameron came out 43% ahead of Brown.
Out of the candidates for the four mainstream parties, UKIP are not looking to shabby at all.
All the coverage of the LibLabCon has been somewhat negative.
UKIP dropped out of MSM a bit, but only because of the bad publicity dominating the others, and perhaps the Beeboid strike.
As PT Barnum reputedly once said, there is no such thing as bad publicity. However, for the Lib Dems Brehan’s obituary qualification may be pertinent.
Cameron came out 43% ahead of BROWN?
You sure you have the poll year date right?
would actually vote UKIP in an election that mattered.
+1
Is looking after a dog a good excuse for expenses irregularities ?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9878079/Nadine-Dorries-attacks-expenses-investigation-and-says-she-needs-to-look-after-her-dog.html
She brought this on herself: Perhaps the voters should start making the connection though that MPs do so little in Parliament thanks to the EU that they can go on reality TV shows for a while without impacting their duties. Totally wrong message, but the truth.
Guido
Your figures regarding cannabis probably have marginally more legitimacy than Cameron’s on ‘gay marriage’, but that’s not saying much.
In all likelihood relatively few people have an opinion at all regarding legalisation of the weed. I very much doubt if 53% of the population are explicitly in favour of such a move.
Cameron is heavily into statistics abuse; it would be the height of folly for you to go down the same road.
+10 million
If you want horsemeat go and live in France. If you want drugs go and live in Portugal or Holland. If you want free money come and live in Britain.
Horses for courses, drugs for thugs and free bread for reds.
That should have been free ackers for slackers.
But what about free dosh for the posh? I need a new itehice for the summer season.
In English law Cannabis is an illegal substance. It is the street money of organized crime . Do not listen to left wing idlers saying it is a harmless recreational pursuit.
The Police and Courts should remove their fingers from their backsides and start prosecuting.
Either build five million new prison places or order five million electronic tags but please please do not sweep these evil weed under the carpet.
+1
Banning drugs is left wing.
So stupid. Cannabis encompasses a whole range of mind drug from happy to manic loon. Best to leave well alone. But as Dave now encourages men to stick their todgers into other men’s bottoms I’m not sure he will.
All a bit odd though when fatbot wants to make sugar and sticky buns banned substances.
So rather than understand why individuals in a society seeks an ever wider and more potent range of harmful chemicals to alter their mental state of reality and perhaps change that social environment to a more healthy one we’d rather just make it legal and then let the public purse pick up the costs from the fall out? How very libertarian.
Liberal, not libertarian.
Libertarians would examine the moral consequence of government allowing the use of substances, and if there is a problem that would be the basis for banning.
The situation you outline is a liberal socialists position.
- 1,000,000,0000000000000
This is cool. Working in Poundland I have to he stone cold sober but In the museum I can be stoned out cold.
and ‘work’ flexi-time ?
Let us hope Mrs Huhne walks free today. We need her to give in depth lefty reasoning as to why the EU and the BBC are good for mankind and luvvies in particular.
It’s the affects of drugs that are the concern to most. Not on the user but the way users adversely affect society.
It turns otherwise peace loving puritans into sectionable ranting loons.
Decriminalising things often has unintended consequences. In 1967 in England and Wales the homosexual act between consenting adults was decriminalised……and look where that’s got us all today.
Why people need to bash their brains with drugs, for “recreation” is beyond my understanding. The problem lies in the fact that drug users then try to drag others into their habit, hence the uptake by vulnerable youngsters.
Freedom of choice is one thing, but when it impacts negatively on others and their lives, then there’s something very wrong.
One Term Dave has confidence in Nicholson:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9878799/Someone-must-take-blame-for-the-Mid-Staffs-scandal-says-David-Cameron.html
Good, he’s on his way out then.
Why hasn’t Andy Burnham been arrested yet?
Because he doesn’t have any cannabis on him.
Conservative Dave don’t want things rearranged
And most folks prefer not to have drug law changed
Oh Lor! Could owt give you a bigger fright
Than to find that, for once, Dave got it right?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280876/Drug-law-survey-Just-seven-wants-drugs-laws-liberalised-majority-say-possession-remain-criminal-offence.html
Liberal ? Democratic ???? Hahahaha
LibDems two-faced ?? Who’d have thunk it ???
With news that the Tories are considering changing planning laws to remove the centuries old “right to light” , I think we really know who’s the builders’ bitch.
Ban steroids
Then we get lots more Boer models with big breasts
FabbriHunt you wear a Mirkin upon your chrome dome
Do you really face both ways, or just on all fours?
Derek Batey, host of ITV gameshow Mr & Mrs in the 1970s and 1980s, has died at the age of 84, his former employers at ITV Border Television have announced.
David Cameron, the toffee-nosed imbecile who destroyed England and the Conservative Party, died this morning after a long battle with 398 different forms of cancer, all of which were excruciatingly painful.
poor taste regardless of target
I remember him well, the oily little creep.
Im looking forward to the spongers (those on the dole) demanding greater dole money to feed their drug habbit.
Im sure many a liberal will agree that it is their human right to be able to “enjoy” their weed.
So is David Miliband in the pay of the UAE dictatorship? Not whataboutery, genuine question
Here is he giving a speech in Walthamstow.
http://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/city-bosses-named-on-child-porn-list-26-01-2003/
brain development completes at the age of 22. people over the age of 22 should be able to pay to attend a drugs education course (covering all types deemed illicit plus alcohol and tobacco) at the end of which they sit a exam. if they pass said exam they get a certificate which enables them to see their gp who then checks their physical and mental health. if found to be in good mental and physical health the doctor issues said applicant with a cannabis procurement licence. the rules of which are thus. it can be used to procure a maximum one ounce of cannabis a month from licenced sellers. the licence holder can only use it in the company of other licence holders. any licence holders found using or selling or sharing cannabis with none licence holders have their licence revoked (at the very least). simples. no more “cannabis is a gateway to other drugs”… cannabis is all people need.
*this suggestion is brought to you by kofi annan and was not sanctioned by the alcohol or oil lobby.
Cannabis is a gateway to nicotine.
Or how about the current scenario in which I ring up my dealer and ask for an ounce and he drops it off within an hour. None of us giving a fig about your vision of an authoritarian nightmare to get a smoke.
Many years ago (50) I too went on a fact finding mission to Amsterdam..
My recollections are that the mission programme rapidly became “off mission” indeed I never actually found the hotel room I had previously booked let alone managed to sleep in it.
I returned home penniless a missing wristwatch, wallet (no socks??) and a realization that absolutely no facts at all were gathered other than going there makes you feel quite unwell.
Sadly my mission was not government funded but I can confirm finding facts in Amsterdam ain’t that easy….
OK: So it’s my body and I can fill it with all the junk food, ciggies, alcohol, horse meat,pills, drugs et. etc. But when it all goes pear shaped who picks up the tabs. Those who don’t over indulge and pay their taxes.
Prohibition is an extension of slavery. You could also say, ‘all of this ‘war-on-drugs’ nonsense is just a smokescreen for the Abrahamic religions’ ongoing repression of gnosis,’ but not a lot of people would understand that, and far fewer would like to understand it than would like to hurt you for trying to help anyone understand it or for understanding it yourself, so probably better just to keep quiet (for the time being).
A majority might well vote for free booze but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
Based on the report today of provision of a £400k house on demand for a woman who has done nothing but have children, I reckon that they’ve already voted for free everything and have got it.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4801158/Jobless-mum-of-11-gets-luxury-6-bedroom-eco-mansion-built.html
No point decriminalising the consumption of it if you don’t then formalise and legalise the supply side of it.
Otherwise you keep the criminal organisations in the money while not arresting the users any more….which they don’t do often now anyway so it has already been de facto legalised anyway.
But we gain no revenue and keep the expense of policing the supply side.
Only a bloody politician could make such a dog’s breakfast out of a commercial possibility.
“Dave is resisting the British public’s freedom to party…”
The real problem is that Dave is resisting the British public’s wishes on pretty much everything.
It is somewhat ridiculous to have to use morphine based pain control drugs which have problematic side effects and which ultimately leads to addiction; when there is an non addictive, less problematic alternative which can only be accessed illegally. Ridiculous.
Cannabis has de facto been legalised – the worst you get will be a cannabis warning.