Hooray, cannabis is potentially to be upgraded to a Class B drug! Excellent. The War On Drugs is about to take a bold step forwards towards victory, friends. What with this, the offensive poster that nobody else in the UK but me has seen, and the The War On Fags, you can be sure that
your local police are being used to their fullest. Look forward to to them spending even more of their time having to cruise around looking for parked cars in quiet areas, dispersing and harassing kids trying to share badly-rolled spliff in a bus shelter (it is after all, still legal to just nick some whiskey from the offie, and puke your ring up until you want to die), and inciting hatred towards the police*.
Meanwhile, here's an amusing selection of snippets from the Beeb's article on it.
Quote:
SKUNK
- Now accounts for between 70 and 80% of samples seized by police
- Six years ago it accounted for 15% of samples
Yes. This is known as Supply and Demand. In exactly the same way as a typical person does not enter a pub and say 'What's the weakest stuff you've got mate?', a proponent of cannabis will seek out skunk over cheaper, less potent varieties. I can provide a similar metaphor that instead involves going to the butchers, if you like.
Now, here's a question for you. Is that a percentage of the physical quantity of cannabis, or of the number of seizures? Note that it's not taken from the
arrests that followed - because the majority of seizures involve surly teens with a small bag of cheap bush. Nothing to prosecute over, but nothing to prevent a seizure.
My reaction: "Yes, I'm glad it's so easy to get skunk these days, and no cheap tar shit cut with fuck-knows-what." Which, you see, is exactly what used to be seized. A ten-bag of dirty resin. Hoorah then, that if it becomes hard to buy skunk, then The Kids will go back to smoking tar resin again. It's so much healthier and better in every way.
Quote:
Since cannabis was downgraded there has been widespread concern about the increased prevalence of stronger "skunk" varieties
It only twigged earlier for me, that it's
not that 'Foreign Super Skunks' are taking over the streets as I had originally read it; instead, it's that skunk is the type most often picked up, and that is indeed stronger than some nasty bit of tar resin. A semantic difference. This is both very enlightening for me - my dealers and I often joke, wishing some of this stuff would come anywhere near the Midlands so we could try a bit - and also
even more desperate and sad.
Skunk is a stronger weed, yes. It is stronger in the same way that say, a half bottle of Blossom Hill will get you more pissed than 1 Smirnoff Ice. Yes? It is not as though suddenly the weed equivalent of drinking Tenants Super for a straw has invaded Britain. For one thing it's not sudden, and for another and as with drinking a half bottle of wine,
you can take it at your own pace.
Now. From the age of 17 onwards I was
regularly consuming a good eighth or so a day, inhaled straight in the form of various bong type devices. Did I get off my tits? Fuck yes. In fact, myself and the gang of young men I Did Drugs with regularly, were constantly smashed on foreign super skunks. What happened? Well, I finished college (we all did), discovered a burgeoning musical ability thanks to weed + hours playing with Rebirth, and... carried on with my life. It was a shitty time of life for me in a lot of ways, but none of them involving drugs.
Years later, when I could afford to buy and smoke it regularly as an individual, I did so. I can say with complete certainty that of all the crap that has happened in my life, and of all the retarded things I've said or done - drugs were not responsible. I can however say that I've done some fucking moronic stuff because I've been slaughtered on Fakking Voddie un Coke But hey.
Supposedly, when Amy Winehouse was just bumming around in her flat in London before success came, and whilst she was just lying around all day, she was 'smoking as much as an eighth a day' and it resulted in her going off her faaaaackiiin 'ead etc. So I started doing the same for a month, out of curiosity. Result? Erm, well I couldn't stop playing Civilization IV** and I managed to get my head around guitar finger-picking for the first time, whilst lazily examining my guitar style. Perhaps it's just because she's so tiny and doesn't eat. Instead, I found myself curious and using my intellect more.
Because, you see, that's the
crux of this whole fucking issue. Cannabis consumption can just make you giggly, make you merry, maybe kind of hungry and sleepy. It can also add considerable depth and new-found perspective to almost anything you do - particularly if you are an introvert as I am. That's how I found the patience to spend hours just sitting around, watching my fingers with interest, confidence and calmness that I had previously lacked. The interest, and the concentration, to come up with all kinds of clever shit whilst doing my job (hoorah for working from home! hoorah for taking drugs whilst working from home!), that netted me praise, riches, and more.
More than that though - it can perhaps lead you to think about yourself. About who you are. What you are. Why. What comes next, and when and where - and if that's what you really want. It stimulates that inward thinking. It can lead to troublemaking, disobedience, wilfulness and stubborn attitudes.
Can you name me one person who committed suicide as a result of getting really, really, really stoned because e.g. their girlfriend cheated on them?
Name me one person who has said 'You know, when I was young I tried drugs, cannabis. Yeah, I smoked it - I liked it. I tried it for a few years then decided I wasn't keen. I don't recommend it'. Not someone who 'Tried it at a party' or 'tried it at university like everybody does - I didn't like it, I felt sick. Then I joined the Labour Party'. Someone who has DENIED it, after prevous advocation. Heroin? Fuck yes, I can think of so very many people. Coke? Yes. Speed? Yes. E? Yes. Booze? Yes. Tobacco? Yes. Weed? No. Can't think of anyone. I really, really, really can't. Those who remain advocates? Paul McCartney, off the top of my head. Supposedly Heather Mills disliked his weed habit.
I can think of quite a lot of old people who like cannabis in fact. You know where I'm going with this, so I'll leave that there.
Gah. I'm sure this is already far, far too long. In short, my point is this: are you an intelligent person? No, really - I don't mean 'intellectual', because that's fucking bollocks. I mean, are you curious and interested in yourself and the world around you? Do you enjoy eating and drinking things and noticing how they have different effects, like gassiness and drunkennes and sleepiness? Are you able to think for yourself? Do you trust Gordon Brown's opinion on anything that even slightly resembles a 'good time'? Do you trust me when I say that it won't make you eat babies or see floating bloody heads?
If so, and unless you have some kind of medical condition, then you absolutely owe it to yourself and everybody else to consume Cannabis for recreational purposes, at least once, very preferably every night for a week (or every other, perhaps). Not to massively indulge - oh, I'm sure you'll do so at some point, because that's how humans learn things, by going to extremes and sicking it up. And you shouldn't fucking be denying yourself even that part of it.
Be curious. For fuck's sake, ask questions, be curious, be demanding, be a cunt. You're a moron and deserve to die, if you would do any less (unless health concerns etc.)
* Oh most certainly definitely yes. I know this to be trufax, and not from personal experience.
* For those who will never get to spend an entire Sunday stoned, playing the longest, biggest game of Civ IV that you can have, singing along to your favourite music, and going to bed all relaxed and happy after a satisfying day of merriment - I'm sorry. You would love it. It would add so many layers to the game, so much intrigue. Especially if like me, you keep stopping to Wikipedia any unfamiliar references. Then returning to bomb the fuck out of the cunting Ethiopians for always trying to steal my fur. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.