@tryptameanie 986083 wrote:
Interestingly, when David Cameron was young and had a spine he had some very sensible ideas about drugs. Sadly he turned into a coward and ran away from the palace of westminster crying.
I’m not sure how much real power Dr Dan Poulter has now (his less rebellious colleague Ben Gummer ended up being Health Minister for a bit and has then been moved to the cabinet office) but right from the start he has supported medical cannabis although not overt recreational use.
He is also a genuine NHS doctor who apparently turns up on the wards at Ipswich hospital quite often (and sometimes in London).
TBH both him and even Gummer are the remaining younger “liberal” Tories who are more like D66 in the Netherlands than the Thatcho type Conservatives – although I’m not sure myself if medical cannabis would be feasible to prescribe to younger patients (up to early middle age) who are not already in hospital, a residential home or sheltered housing with controlled access unless some level of recreational use is permitted at the same time.
Unfortunately I would fear for these patients safety (from people trying to rob them etc) and that they could be stigmatised in the same way that those on opiate maintenance programmes may be because the stuff ends up packaged in an akward bulky container. Its not that medical cannabis is a bad idea, quite the opposite but people (especially in our generation) often treat each other like shit these days and openly sabotage anything potentially good for themselves and wider society especially if its in the slightest bit “European”. (this isn’t confined to UK either!)
In NL there may not be such an issue about diversion when recreational users can just go to the coffeeshop and get as much as they want, and up to 30 grams only results in minor penalties (if people are even caught at all).
NL tolerated recreational cannabis use since early 1970s but medical use is new, from 2001 at the earliest.
| Office of Medicinal Cannabis
incidentally I’ve been tweeted some video links from NL Pirate Party to a documentary that claims the Netherlands is losing its lead in innovative approaches to cannabis and slipping behind the USA and the rest of Europe. The film is in 3 parts and all in Dutch so I haven’t had time to watch it yet or what its argument is, but from other news I’ve read in NL it appears their politiicans and citizens are falling down the same rabbitholes as those in the UK which is risking disruption of the more progressive attitudes across the North Sea.
