The Law Commission has released its long anticipated final report on the review of The Misuse of Drugs Act. After a first scan of the entire document, I'd say the report is largely better than the present methods, but still long short of where we should be.
There's a lot of yeah but nah but yeah's in there. For example, the Law Commission recommends that possession of drug utensils should be removed as a crime, but the sale and import thereof should stay illegal. The Law Commission recommends removing the police right to search without warrant any place, but insist the right to search people and vehicles without warrant should remain.
After much pondering by the Law Commission, they decided that the disproportionate search without warrant for a micron of cannabis should stay as the alternative options were all too hard.
The Mandatory Cautioning Scheme is suggested to replace the Adult Diversion Scheme, allowing cannabis users caught in the police net up to three chances to renounce their drug preference before they are thrown to the counsellors in the re-education camps.
To the vanilla people, this all seems so nice and reasonable. To one immersed in the cannabis culture, it's a pat on the head and a slap on the wrist from the Know It All brigade. It's a similar kind of offence to telling a Maori kid not to speak their language in school, as it was up until not so long ago. Or arresting a queer and saying you'll let them off if they swear to heterosexuality. It was an official attitude like that that killed Alan Turing.
Cannabis is not so much an addiction as a way of life, so please don't medicalise and outlaw my perspective. That's the sort of state attitude that gets the Falun Gong into trouble in China. We aspire to treat people as humans in this country, so stop trying to cure me.
Second scan soon.
