I cant recall our MP's putting up the same arguments whan cannabis was downgraded.It sent out the wrong message and i fear it can't be put right now.In fact many ministers thought it was somehow cool to admit that they had used drugs in there youth which didn't help either.

Nice article Mr Coleman, I must point out several things that are in error, the police claim that 80% of the Cannabis seized is of the "skunk" variety, leaving potency or strength of alleged skunk aside for the moment, it is very easy to make that statement when you call every plant you sieze "skunk", there are some 400 varieties of hybrid/crossbred Cannabis on the world market and only 5 of them are named as "skunk" or derivatives of that name,
it stretches credulity that every single Cannabis "factory" in the UK are growing the same variety!. The truth is "skunk" has become a generic name for all unknown Cannabis, Given that the police do not have a clue what variety they are dealing with in a bust naming it "skunk" makes it appear they are dealing with the "strong" stuff that the tabloids have identified as the "Killer Skunk" and Gordon Brown describes as "Lethal"?.
As to potency,strength or THC content there is no standard test employed by forensic scientists in the UK and the only countries that regularly test Cannabis for THC content are the US,Norway and Sweden so where the UK scientists get the data I'm not sure, other reports suggest that Cannabis has perhaps increased in potency but this could be due to the freshness of the Cannabis being siezed in the UK as opposed to imported Cannabis which may have been stored and transported for a considerable period thus degrading in potency and content.

Cannabis is only a gateway drug in the sense that you have to buy it from criminals where the age of consent is ten pounds, they will offer other drugs when the desired one is not around, also the targeting of people growing their own is counter productive, these people have successfully removed themselves from being involved in street crime and drug dealing by supplying themselves with what they want, they have removed the money flow into the black market and are harming no one consuming Cannabis in the privacy of their homes, where is the victim of this crime?. busting home growers forces them back to street drugs and reinforces the criminal element and the black market, there is a supply because there is a demand, if we could all supply our own there would be no demand and no criminals to supply it leaving the police free to go after the hard drugs and real criminals.

So if we accept that not all Cannabis is "skunk" and not all "skunk" is "super strong" then the danger of developing psychosis or schizophrenia must also be exagerated too!, so when the government and media lie about the dangers of a drug that in its entire history has never killed anyone, youngsters informed by their personal experience that the hysterical claims of prohibitionists and puritanical politicians about Cannabis are lies!,percieve everything they say about drugs are lies, is it any wonder that they may go on to try other drugs such as Cocaine and Heroin also availiable at your local drug dealer due to prohibition.

As Bill Hicks once remarked about the war on drugs

"George Bush says 'we are losing the war on drugs'. Well you know what that implies? There's a war going on, and people on drugs are winning it!".