I thought I would start with my own story, although I fully realise that this is a case of preaching to the converted.
I first smoked some weed when I was 17 in the late 80's, I had been drinking alcohol already since 14 and it was not so uncommon in those days for one of my friends to end up in hospital having their stomach pumped after a hearty binge. I'll be honest, I really wasn't sure about weed the first time, it made me feel sick but alcohol was starting to lose its appeal as I approached the legal age to drink, so I smoked some weed and hash with friends because it was both cool and rebellious purely because it was illegal for anybody regardless of age. I'm glad I did because before long I found out that actually cannabis matched my personality far better than alcohol, and by the time I got to college age 20 it was already a regular part of my life. I got a good degree smoking on a daily basis, with splifs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and picked up a couple of police cautions for possession of cannabis, before going on to study for a PhD. These days I have an international reputation in my (admittedly rather small) field and a hearty string of publications to my name in the scientific literature, certainly the best of these (if not all of them) have been both inspired and written through the enjoyment of cannabis, it's fair to say that all of my best ideas come whilst enjoying a smoke (or vape these days). I wouldn't be half the scientist that I am these days if it wasn't for weed.
I was heartened to see that some MPs did debate the issue in parliament this week, although I fear that not much will come of it. I felt that even the pro legalisation speakers gave a little too much leeway to the prohibitionists simply out of parliamentary politeness. This left me feeling that far more emphasis was placed on the limited, and highly uncertain, potential adverse mental health effects, without any desire to try to monetise the likely costs so that they could be fairly compared with benefits.
I feel that it is important to be able to express all of the advantages and disadvantages in terms of a common factor, and the financial cost seems to provide both a practical and sensible approach to this. I would like to see a robust cost benefit analysis be performed for and potential enlightened approaches (decriminalisation, legalisation, regulation, whatever...), but would stress that these also need to be compared against a similarly robust cost benefit analysis of the current prohibition situation. For example, if a young persons ability to get a good job is inhibited through having a criminal record then their ability to contribute to the country through income tax will also be inhibited, in addition to the costs associated with criminalising them in the first place.
Still, if anything good does come of the debate it might be a relaxing of the restrictions on medical uses, and as I get generally more decrepit the likelihood that I might be able to argue a valid reason for using it that way, even though I've never considered myself to be anything other than a recreational (or perhaps spiritual?) user.
Maybe it really is a step in the right direction, but I won't be getting too excited just yet.
What's your view on it?
I first smoked some weed when I was 17 in the late 80's, I had been drinking alcohol already since 14 and it was not so uncommon in those days for one of my friends to end up in hospital having their stomach pumped after a hearty binge. I'll be honest, I really wasn't sure about weed the first time, it made me feel sick but alcohol was starting to lose its appeal as I approached the legal age to drink, so I smoked some weed and hash with friends because it was both cool and rebellious purely because it was illegal for anybody regardless of age. I'm glad I did because before long I found out that actually cannabis matched my personality far better than alcohol, and by the time I got to college age 20 it was already a regular part of my life. I got a good degree smoking on a daily basis, with splifs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and picked up a couple of police cautions for possession of cannabis, before going on to study for a PhD. These days I have an international reputation in my (admittedly rather small) field and a hearty string of publications to my name in the scientific literature, certainly the best of these (if not all of them) have been both inspired and written through the enjoyment of cannabis, it's fair to say that all of my best ideas come whilst enjoying a smoke (or vape these days). I wouldn't be half the scientist that I am these days if it wasn't for weed.
I was heartened to see that some MPs did debate the issue in parliament this week, although I fear that not much will come of it. I felt that even the pro legalisation speakers gave a little too much leeway to the prohibitionists simply out of parliamentary politeness. This left me feeling that far more emphasis was placed on the limited, and highly uncertain, potential adverse mental health effects, without any desire to try to monetise the likely costs so that they could be fairly compared with benefits.
I feel that it is important to be able to express all of the advantages and disadvantages in terms of a common factor, and the financial cost seems to provide both a practical and sensible approach to this. I would like to see a robust cost benefit analysis be performed for and potential enlightened approaches (decriminalisation, legalisation, regulation, whatever...), but would stress that these also need to be compared against a similarly robust cost benefit analysis of the current prohibition situation. For example, if a young persons ability to get a good job is inhibited through having a criminal record then their ability to contribute to the country through income tax will also be inhibited, in addition to the costs associated with criminalising them in the first place.
Still, if anything good does come of the debate it might be a relaxing of the restrictions on medical uses, and as I get generally more decrepit the likelihood that I might be able to argue a valid reason for using it that way, even though I've never considered myself to be anything other than a recreational (or perhaps spiritual?) user.
Maybe it really is a step in the right direction, but I won't be getting too excited just yet.
What's your view on it?
