UK - Petition to have a consistent position on recreational drug use

[Pondlife]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/DrugConsistency/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to have a consistent
position on recreational drug use.

In a recent reply to a petition, the government said that it "has no
intention of legalising cannabis". The reasons given are:

• acute and chronic health effects
• prolonged use can induce dependence
• smoking, in any form, is dangerous
• dangers for people with mental health problems
• wrong message to the majority of young people
• risk of increased drug use

Since these reasons are equally applicable to tobacco and alcohol, the
Government should make its position on drug use consistent. Either ban
tobacco and alcohol as well, or legalise cannabis.

[x cynic x]

Then they'll think they would have to legalize the harder drugs like H and meth, which is obviously not going to happen. Swim doesn't understand.

[FuBai]

It's a cleverer petition because it demands focus on a single issue - that of hypocrisy, which means that coming up with an answer is going to be a little bit more difficult. I would still imagine that all we would get would be a generalised reply which might ignore the question entirely.

[Bajeda]

How bout a petition demanding that the government stops ignoring petitions first?

Reputation Comments on this post:

hehe. yes. that's what we need!

[Purest]

I don't see this petition helping in any way, like Bajeda just said, the petition will be ignored or when it finishes it will be rejected saying its "too like another petition on the site"
Honestly the petitions system should have been set up so much better as there are duplicates for practically every petition on there, its so easy for them to reject something when its finalised without giving a response.
See the petitions system as a basic forum, the government are the mods and anyone signing is a regular forum-poster, because there are so many threads and a large amount of thick people that will not follow the basic rules or use the search function, multiple threads on exactly the same subject arise. Now imagine the mods are so corrupt that whenever a subject comes up they don't want to answer that they will not actually take into account the way in which it is presented, instead they will make a personal attack on whoever posted the thread in the first place. Thats basically what happens whenever a petition is made that doesnt start by saying "without the government telling me how to live my life, i'd be completely lost".

I signed a petition earlier in the year about total legalisation, the argument put forward was incredibly well thought out, honestly I think it may have been made by a DF member or someone working for a group such as transform. It recieved a fair amount of signatures, before it ended in mid september, when it finished it was rejected saying it was a duplicate of other petitions on the site, despite the fact that a lot of the drug petitions seem half baked and don't give much reasoning at least not to the extent this one did. No matter what we say, we can't actually make a change. Its a shame, because democracy is based around the opinions of the majority, however the system over here seems to work on the idea of whoever the majority votes in to power has the right to decide everything about how we live our lives, putting practically everyone outside of the law.
During Tony Blair's time as prime minister, over 100 new laws were passed, the average person will know of the major ones such as the smoking ban, 24 hour liscencing and cannabis to class C. Yet ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law and it puts most people into the realms of illegality without even realising, and when people (... say drug users...) are actually not harming anyone with their actions they'll stay outside the law and actually be seen by the justice system as criminals.

(I really didn't mean to rant as much as I did)

[FuBai]

Originally Posted by Purest

I don't see this petition helping in any way, like Bajeda just said, the petition will be ignored or when it finishes it will be rejected saying its "too like another petition on the site"
Honestly the petitions system should have been set up so much better as there are duplicates for practically every petition on there, its so easy for them to reject something when its finalised without giving a response.
See the petitions system as a basic forum, the government are the mods and anyone signing is a regular forum-poster, because there are so many threads and a large amount of thick people that will not follow the basic rules or use the search function, multiple threads on exactly the same subject arise. Now imagine the mods are so corrupt that whenever a subject comes up they don't want to answer that they will not actually take into account the way in which it is presented, instead they will make a personal attack on whoever posted the thread in the first place. Thats basically what happens whenever a petition is made that doesnt start by saying "without the government telling me how to live my life, i'd be completely lost".

I signed a petition earlier in the year about total legalisation, the argument put forward was incredibly well thought out, honestly I think it may have been made by a DF member or someone working for a group such as transform. It recieved a fair amount of signatures, before it ended in mid september, when it finished it was rejected saying it was a duplicate of other petitions on the site, despite the fact that a lot of the drug petitions seem half baked and don't give much reasoning at least not to the extent this one did. No matter what we say, we can't actually make a change. Its a shame, because democracy is based around the opinions of the majority, however the system over here seems to work on the idea of whoever the majority votes in to power has the right to decide everything about how we live our lives, putting practically everyone outside of the law.
During Tony Blair's time as prime minister, over 100 new laws were passed, the average person will know of the major ones such as the smoking ban, 24 hour liscencing and cannabis to class C. Yet ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law and it puts most people into the realms of illegality without even realising, and when people (... say drug users...) are actually not harming anyone with their actions they'll stay outside the law and actually be seen by the justice system as criminals.

(I really didn't mean to rant as much as I did)

Petitions are useful as political tools as you can use them in debate. If a pro-liberalisation party get into power (by that I mean either labour or the conservatives has a policy change) then they are useful in demonstrating public demand. They are also useful outside of parliament in surgeries and Q&A sessions with MPs. I would agree with you in that the effect is not as direct a one as the petition style makes out, but I wouldn't dismiss their usefulness entirely in political wheeler dealing.

[Evil GIR]

You can petition till the cow come home or what ever that means, but it doesnt matter if you just get one signature or 1 billion. The government doesnt give a crap about what you or I think. They all have there hidden agenda and I guess the only way we can win this war is either get into power or become the ultimate spin doctor.

[Euphoric]

Regardless of the government's or political figures' agendas, it is the citizens that allow them their power (and theoretically elect them into office). If enough people felt strongly enough about it, it would happen or the government would be ousted thus losing its ability to pursue whatever agendas it may have (if there are any other than serving the people)

[Zaprenz]

International law/politics greatly affects local country drug policies though.

With BZP having been tested as a pilot scheme and a regulated "harm minimisation" tool which is now being made illegal(NZ) and cannabis being reclassified(UK) amongst other things - it would now require an even greater leap of faith by any politician as well as convincing the public.


That said providing heroin users with pure heroin & safe injection tools/sites has had successful results in the few places it has been tested. SWIM thinks that concept is more likely to happen than legalisation or regulation of other drugs.

[JDreaming]

The reasoning of the petition seems kind of absurd because health effects, dependence with prolonged use, dangers for people with mental health problems etc. are problems with all drugs, not just pot, alcohol and tobacco. So really to have a consistent policy on recreational drug use, either alcohol and tobacco must be banned or ALL recreational drugs need to be legalized. And it's blatantly obvious the UK government has no intention of doing that.

[aionsan]

People in europe (hum well, everywhere) should think again the notion of "government".

A government is there to serve the will of the people. When the gov' is starting to act on its own accord telling people what to do, it is time to remind them who put them there.

Same old : "Obey or else", except today people have become such lemmings it's not the people saying that, it's the people they're putting in power !