Creative drugs policy? From the Tories...?
In 2012 the Government changed the penalties for cannabis
growers and now having up to 9 plants will see a more rational approach to
coping with the millions of those who do use the drug.
I wrote this piece because I have spent a lot of time working with the disengaged, especially those with habits, through my experiences I was able to speak to users, abusers and growers to try and further my understanding of the cannabis and drugs problems in a wider policy context.
The last decades Government efforts to reduce cannabis availability has caused more issues than expected and has ironically cost the NHS and Police service more time and more money than they once exerted.
These smaller seizures have encouraged the middle sized growers to expand and have also invited many new techniques in manufacturing the commodity and ways to influencing the small grower and user.
Many argue that drug seizures prove we are winning the war on drugs but in reality the implication of such moves further ostracise the ostracised and create new problems in an already ailing society. They also cause issues to those who fall victim to drugs and the law because when convicted the likelihood of reoffending is 30%, unfortunately I could find no figures to record those offending to fuel their habits.
Organised crime has also responded to these changes and has come up with a variety of ways to combat their losses. In the last 5 years crime syndicates have worked with addicts and individual users/buyers to spread that risk and have invested heavily in unscrupulous and dangerous operations to get their pound of flesh. Many are familiar with immigrants minding electrical death traps but the criminal world is now evolving to involve those who before only had smoking as their vice.
In the last two years organised crime has been drawing on the economically unsound to supply its needs, it serves as a good base of sale for cannabis, and for whatever else they want to sell (drugs and other), a partner who is invested in the product and a contact base that increases its reach while lowering risk. Losses only come in the form of finance as people are expendable and setting up a ‘grow’ has reduced hugely in cost especially as many large grow houses are Chinese owned with Chinese made products.
As with the alcohol industry cannabis has needed to evolve its product and a few techniques have allowed them to do this. Silica and other granule like substances have been added to cannabis in order to increase sale weight; unfortunately with horrible health impacts, blends (cannabis with non-cannabis product) are on the increase, mass quality has dropped and prices have spiralled for those considered designer strains. Even cannabis genetics have evolved and something called autoflower allows the usually gender variable plant to always flower female.
Cannabis flowers either male or female and only the female plants are smoked, for a first time grower in risk of a criminal conviction these new and expensive seeds reduce risk but also come with limitations for yield and so encourage a continuation of risk. These seeds also limit the amount of cannabis that can be grown and so allow an interesting control aspect to be maintained.
Yield and availability are a problem for users and many keep within their groups so they don’t lose track of suppliers, others sell to fuel their habit and tobacco is smoked without a filter in order to make their purchases go further, this added health risk heaps extra health issues on the NHS and increases the channels for fake tobaccos to be sold. There are varied ways of using cannabis and in the UK there is a real issue that unfiltered tobaccos are smoked by the majority of users.
Government research from Wilson and Stevens, ‘Understanding drug markets and how to influence them’ has already made the distinction that users as dealers ‘make little if any profit from their activities and are frequently dealing to sustain their own drug use’ yet approaches remain focussed on the user and not the supplier of large quantities or harder drugs.
Prices of both drugs have dropped sharply in the US/EU and this has been in part down to increased networking in the local markets; users feeding users. With cannabis this is also becoming true but while for organised crime cannabis acts as an outlet of sale for other products it does not act as a gateway drug to strong highs, unlike some legal and manufactured highs.
Is there an answer? California would say so, it certainly saved their economy but they are not without social irresponsibility, Holland feels it can work but is looking to stop the tourist trade from usurping its other qualities and many other nations such as Spain are adopting a more subtle approach to marijuana’s social and criminal impacts.
A discussion needs to be had, a serious one, not with the final solution to decriminalise as many would call for but to educate the decision makers so they can make best social and economic use of this growing issue.
Studies show that cannabis use for those between 16 and 24 years of age is on the decrease but is showing that harder and legal highs are on the increase; a user may not have had a toke due to not wanting to smoke but may have taken MKat or one of its variants.
For the same period statistics from Drugs Misuse Declared (2011) had 8 types of drugs on the increase including cannabis and cocaine. This data’s figures are supported by the estimation that up to 303,700 people have taken cocaine in their lifetime and 1,017,300 taken cannabis. These figures also estimate that up to 75,600 16-24 year olds have taken cocaine in their lifetime and 241,400 have taken cannabis. Within the last month the research estimates there would have been around 31,200 cocaine users between 16-59 with 133,200 cannabis users; yet an estimated 21 cannabis farms are found every day (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17888762) and in 2009/2010 21,337 seizures of cocaine were made with 176,578 for cannabis. (Seizures of Drugs in England and Wales, 2009/2010).
This sort of understanding and reporting underestimates use, much like our understanding of the war on drugs in general. The figures go on to suggest that 33% of respondents see occasional cannabis use as acceptable and 3% are okay with frequent use.
The research is useful but statistical studies on sensitive subjects should add ideas and not form policy, similarly the alcopop lifestyle misinterpreted our understanding of the drinking culture and we are at the mercy of a commercial world; this same world saw it fit to socially exclude tobacco rather than taking it away.
The response to the war on drugs has been to attack the users and because growing cannabis is a fairly unprofessional endeavour that can be started by anybody we have seen seizures of harder drugs on the decrease. Since the fight to stop cannabis went into overdrive in the early 2000’s cocaine and heroin seizures have decreased significantly whereas seizures of cannabis plants have increased with 83% being medium sized grows of under 50 plants.
The aspect of it being just a plant has finally hit home with this Government and they have created a much improved approach to deal with the social issues by lessening punishments for those growing less than 9 plants, if the plant is 40g or less.
The underworld is continually developing and operational changes have allowed their profits to Increase and further their activity. Gun crime is on the increase, many users are less connected with their communities (unless you include other users) and the control over areas is beginning to move to gang culture fuelled by organised crime, or by the organised criminals themselves.
A better approach could see huge tax revenues from seeds and product (estimated at £6billion), less outlets for the underworld to sell from and more time for Police forces to concentrate on serious crime; surely the influence and scaremongering of Harry Anslinger is behind us and we should look at how Canada decided the US was clueless in their response to soft drugs.
This discussion already occurs amongst the millions of users but also amongst growers who have had very interesting things to say. In the case of auto flowering seeds genetic development could allow Governments to create revenues for seed sales, including to pharmaceutical companies, and have a better statistical understanding of the role cannabis is playing in a society. In Britain we already maintain a vast national seed bank and many would agree that innovative horticulture and agriculture has a strong part to play on our increasing demand for food and sustainable energy.
In an era when manufacturing has slumped and engineers have been told to go into sales many young men with horticulture interest and skills are told to search for an apprenticeship in a job that might not exist in 5 years; surely when you consider biomass and food sustainability those skills accrued sustaining their vice might actually prove valuable?
Are the Netherland’s flower and seed exports accidental or are they enabled and sustained by those we in the UK perceive as living ‘misspent lives’? Many growers I met also showed off their indoor and outdoor vegetable/fruit patches created from the love of growing and a wider understanding of horticulture.
The future of those with ‘misspent lives’ could see them developing the plants/fuel of the future, electricians are clearly finding work somewhere and sales of hydroponic kits are creating a stable tax revenue stream for the Government.
Cannabis has its own offerings and in hemp a variant of the strain which has a low THC and high cannabidiol level.
Hemp has traditionally been used for paper, food and oil and is preferable to marijuana due to higher levels of fibre but cannabis that is smoked also shares these genetics and as Canada and China has found the fibres from these products can sustain a huge variety of uses and exports including plastics; all with biodegradable attributes.
We lack the ability to research the wider potential of this plant not because it is illegal but because we are scared of the discussion. Yet this could be of huge economic and social value even if it costs a party a few votes. The whole understanding of horticulture will soon merge with technology and mixed uses will have to exist, not only is it irresponsible to miss this opportunity but it is irresponsible to let criminals keep feeding off our weak while treating the disengaged as the main problem.
I wrote this piece because I have spent a lot of time working with the disengaged, especially those with habits, through my experiences I was able to speak to users, abusers and growers to try and further my understanding of the cannabis and drugs problems in a wider policy context.
The last decades Government efforts to reduce cannabis availability has caused more issues than expected and has ironically cost the NHS and Police service more time and more money than they once exerted.
Drug seizures have
doubled since 2004, mostly due to cannabis, yet this supply reduction has
impacted social, economic and underworld activity.
While the Police force have increased their focus on closing
cannabis farms there are few statistics to show how those efforts work to
improve the real problems. Many farm
closures target individuals and rely on neighbourhood assistance as well as
local Police knowledge but very few of these seizures actually break the
stranglehold that organised crime has on this revenue stream.
These smaller seizures have encouraged the middle sized growers to expand and have also invited many new techniques in manufacturing the commodity and ways to influencing the small grower and user.
Many argue that drug seizures prove we are winning the war on drugs but in reality the implication of such moves further ostracise the ostracised and create new problems in an already ailing society. They also cause issues to those who fall victim to drugs and the law because when convicted the likelihood of reoffending is 30%, unfortunately I could find no figures to record those offending to fuel their habits.
Organised crime has also responded to these changes and has come up with a variety of ways to combat their losses. In the last 5 years crime syndicates have worked with addicts and individual users/buyers to spread that risk and have invested heavily in unscrupulous and dangerous operations to get their pound of flesh. Many are familiar with immigrants minding electrical death traps but the criminal world is now evolving to involve those who before only had smoking as their vice.
In the last two years organised crime has been drawing on the economically unsound to supply its needs, it serves as a good base of sale for cannabis, and for whatever else they want to sell (drugs and other), a partner who is invested in the product and a contact base that increases its reach while lowering risk. Losses only come in the form of finance as people are expendable and setting up a ‘grow’ has reduced hugely in cost especially as many large grow houses are Chinese owned with Chinese made products.
As one is shut down another pops up and our efforts to
influence seizure figures simply show how effective we have been at recording
the widespread use of this drug.
As with the alcohol industry cannabis has needed to evolve its product and a few techniques have allowed them to do this. Silica and other granule like substances have been added to cannabis in order to increase sale weight; unfortunately with horrible health impacts, blends (cannabis with non-cannabis product) are on the increase, mass quality has dropped and prices have spiralled for those considered designer strains. Even cannabis genetics have evolved and something called autoflower allows the usually gender variable plant to always flower female.
Cannabis flowers either male or female and only the female plants are smoked, for a first time grower in risk of a criminal conviction these new and expensive seeds reduce risk but also come with limitations for yield and so encourage a continuation of risk. These seeds also limit the amount of cannabis that can be grown and so allow an interesting control aspect to be maintained.
Yield and availability are a problem for users and many keep within their groups so they don’t lose track of suppliers, others sell to fuel their habit and tobacco is smoked without a filter in order to make their purchases go further, this added health risk heaps extra health issues on the NHS and increases the channels for fake tobaccos to be sold. There are varied ways of using cannabis and in the UK there is a real issue that unfiltered tobaccos are smoked by the majority of users.
With Police forces decreasing their numbers, but more time
dedicated to hunting down small cannabis farms instead of dealing with large
supplies and hard drugs, the NHS bearing the brunt of illnesses created from
cut drugs/ unfiltered tobacco smoke, and small farms triumphantly being used as
victories in the war against drugs we are laying no austerity measures on the
criminal underworld and are allowing ordinary people to further find themselves
at the mercy of organised crime and the recession.
Government research from Wilson and Stevens, ‘Understanding drug markets and how to influence them’ has already made the distinction that users as dealers ‘make little if any profit from their activities and are frequently dealing to sustain their own drug use’ yet approaches remain focussed on the user and not the supplier of large quantities or harder drugs.
The same research shows that farm cocaine at £325 a kilo
makes its way to the UK at 159 times that value (£51,659), with heroin starting
at £450 and selling for £75,750. Though from dealer to street cocaine only sees
a 69% mark-up Heroin sees a 269% mark up mostly due to the devastating way it
allows dealer and user to stay separated.
Prices of both drugs have dropped sharply in the US/EU and this has been in part down to increased networking in the local markets; users feeding users. With cannabis this is also becoming true but while for organised crime cannabis acts as an outlet of sale for other products it does not act as a gateway drug to strong highs, unlike some legal and manufactured highs.
I became interested in this subject because of the increase
of cannabis use in the young people I come across and it has been echoed to me many
times, it is not chemical, it is natural and it grows in the ground not a
bathtub.
Is there an answer? California would say so, it certainly saved their economy but they are not without social irresponsibility, Holland feels it can work but is looking to stop the tourist trade from usurping its other qualities and many other nations such as Spain are adopting a more subtle approach to marijuana’s social and criminal impacts.
In Britain we have barely scratched the surface of the
debate because party politics always comes first but in an age when our
understanding of economics and sustainability is not alleviating the problem
perhaps we should at least try and get a grip of our nation’s problems rather
than forcing outdated methods on a bucking population.
A discussion needs to be had, a serious one, not with the final solution to decriminalise as many would call for but to educate the decision makers so they can make best social and economic use of this growing issue.
Studies show that cannabis use for those between 16 and 24 years of age is on the decrease but is showing that harder and legal highs are on the increase; a user may not have had a toke due to not wanting to smoke but may have taken MKat or one of its variants.
For the same period statistics from Drugs Misuse Declared (2011) had 8 types of drugs on the increase including cannabis and cocaine. This data’s figures are supported by the estimation that up to 303,700 people have taken cocaine in their lifetime and 1,017,300 taken cannabis. These figures also estimate that up to 75,600 16-24 year olds have taken cocaine in their lifetime and 241,400 have taken cannabis. Within the last month the research estimates there would have been around 31,200 cocaine users between 16-59 with 133,200 cannabis users; yet an estimated 21 cannabis farms are found every day (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17888762) and in 2009/2010 21,337 seizures of cocaine were made with 176,578 for cannabis. (Seizures of Drugs in England and Wales, 2009/2010).
This sort of understanding and reporting underestimates use, much like our understanding of the war on drugs in general. The figures go on to suggest that 33% of respondents see occasional cannabis use as acceptable and 3% are okay with frequent use.
The research is useful but statistical studies on sensitive subjects should add ideas and not form policy, similarly the alcopop lifestyle misinterpreted our understanding of the drinking culture and we are at the mercy of a commercial world; this same world saw it fit to socially exclude tobacco rather than taking it away.
The response to the war on drugs has been to attack the users and because growing cannabis is a fairly unprofessional endeavour that can be started by anybody we have seen seizures of harder drugs on the decrease. Since the fight to stop cannabis went into overdrive in the early 2000’s cocaine and heroin seizures have decreased significantly whereas seizures of cannabis plants have increased with 83% being medium sized grows of under 50 plants.
The aspect of it being just a plant has finally hit home with this Government and they have created a much improved approach to deal with the social issues by lessening punishments for those growing less than 9 plants, if the plant is 40g or less.
This could bring about an interesting option for decision
makers looking to diminish the black market and use cannabis as a wider tool
for economic influence.
“It’s just a plant” is something uttered by those
growers/users that allowed me to talk to them and they are indeed right, but it
seems that the only people that currently benefit from this plant are the
pharmaceutical companies who are lobbying to have control over its use and
crime syndicates who operate in as wide context as they can.
The underworld is continually developing and operational changes have allowed their profits to Increase and further their activity. Gun crime is on the increase, many users are less connected with their communities (unless you include other users) and the control over areas is beginning to move to gang culture fuelled by organised crime, or by the organised criminals themselves.
A better approach could see huge tax revenues from seeds and product (estimated at £6billion), less outlets for the underworld to sell from and more time for Police forces to concentrate on serious crime; surely the influence and scaremongering of Harry Anslinger is behind us and we should look at how Canada decided the US was clueless in their response to soft drugs.
This discussion already occurs amongst the millions of users but also amongst growers who have had very interesting things to say. In the case of auto flowering seeds genetic development could allow Governments to create revenues for seed sales, including to pharmaceutical companies, and have a better statistical understanding of the role cannabis is playing in a society. In Britain we already maintain a vast national seed bank and many would agree that innovative horticulture and agriculture has a strong part to play on our increasing demand for food and sustainable energy.
In an era when manufacturing has slumped and engineers have been told to go into sales many young men with horticulture interest and skills are told to search for an apprenticeship in a job that might not exist in 5 years; surely when you consider biomass and food sustainability those skills accrued sustaining their vice might actually prove valuable?
Are the Netherland’s flower and seed exports accidental or are they enabled and sustained by those we in the UK perceive as living ‘misspent lives’? Many growers I met also showed off their indoor and outdoor vegetable/fruit patches created from the love of growing and a wider understanding of horticulture.
The future of those with ‘misspent lives’ could see them developing the plants/fuel of the future, electricians are clearly finding work somewhere and sales of hydroponic kits are creating a stable tax revenue stream for the Government.
Similarly development of growing techniques, especially
using LED lights (remember those engineers now in sales), will definitely be
the future of agriculture and energy saving products so surely we should be the
provider of this technology and not the client as we have become in most aspects
of international manufacturing.
Cannabis has its own offerings and in hemp a variant of the strain which has a low THC and high cannabidiol level.
Hemp has traditionally been used for paper, food and oil and is preferable to marijuana due to higher levels of fibre but cannabis that is smoked also shares these genetics and as Canada and China has found the fibres from these products can sustain a huge variety of uses and exports including plastics; all with biodegradable attributes.
We lack the ability to research the wider potential of this plant not because it is illegal but because we are scared of the discussion. Yet this could be of huge economic and social value even if it costs a party a few votes. The whole understanding of horticulture will soon merge with technology and mixed uses will have to exist, not only is it irresponsible to miss this opportunity but it is irresponsible to let criminals keep feeding off our weak while treating the disengaged as the main problem.
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