Plus: The closure of a once-giant London newspaper, Lime bike ecstasy pills, and is the water in the Serpentine really as bad as the headlines would suggest?
Honestly cannabis should be legalised, regulated and taxed. It’s less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and making it illegal isn’t stopping people consuming it. We’re just giving a valuable revenue stream to criminals that could be going to taxpayers instead. I’ve gone to the cannabis dispensaries when I was in NYC and was able to calmly ask what was a low strength edible to try and it was delightful. It was much better than drinking. When are we going to stop fight the US’ war on drugs. It’s failed and we’re just wasting time a resources that could be spent on more important crime. I wish our politicians were more ambitious.
I don’t have a problem with decriminalising cannabis possession, but surely the issue is that the Met appears to still be institutionally racist, after all these years.
With regards the swimming I will add a caution regarding bacterial infection - it can also manifest in one's toenails, particularly if the nails are subject to repeated micro-trauma. As a rule, nails should not have a green tinge on the underside - indeed, one should never ask of any body part 'should it turn that colour?'.
A GP or podiatrist will know whether antibiotics are warranted, as long-term trauma can lead to nail loss, to say nothing of the effects of any bodily infection.
Does Sadiq Khan really want his legacy to be making London absolutely stink? Thank goodness for the Home Office.
“Decriminalising cannabis possession would also allow the government to treat the drug and the adverse consequences that some users face as “a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue”.”
This seems like complete nonsense. If they are serious about the harms from it then don’t encourage its use!
I really struggle to care about the “criminalisation” of people who knowingly commit crimes.
Tobacco smoke also “stinks” and has been legal for centuries. And I daresay if you wander into certain parts of London you’ll get a whiff of much worse than either. An objection to a smell is not nearly good enough to offset the potential benefits of decriminalisation. As for the harms, luckily there are a number of other countries where cannabis is legal, to provide data and research on any ill effects.
The knee-jerk reaction from central government just shows how out of touch and behind the times we are as a country. It also betrays how terrified Labour still are of what the right-wing media might do to them if they got behind Lord Falconer’s research - despite their almost unassailable majority and four years in which to use it.
What are its harms and why should it be criminalised? Who are you hurting or damaging when you smoke pot compared to cigarettes? It’s ridiculous that our government is still fighting this when other countries show it’s safe and it could be raising much needed tax revenue to focus on violent crimes
The links with psychosis are well established. So many people have their head of the sand about this while at the same time lamenting the “mental health epidemic”.
I think that’s a fair point and I respect anyone who is focusing on mental health issues, it’s not riskless or costless, but the key thing is whether the damage done is worse than cigarettes, as it’s illogical that one is legal and one isn’t. And also whether more damage is being done by it being illegal. Hell I’d support all the tax revenue raised going towards education of the dangers and towards the cost of treatment. The problem is at the moment that revenue is going towards criminal gangs. I think the experience of those countries that have legalised and taxed it, is showing that’s the better of the two outcomes
Legalisation will lead to more and more potent forms of cannabis entering the market which will only increase the negative impacts on society.
Also, being concerned about the smell of this stuff is seen as a low status opinion but I don’t want to live in a society like this. It makes day to day life slightly worse for so many people.
I’m fed up of taking my daughter to our local playground and seeing/smelling someone sat on a nearby bench smoking weed.
The damage is far worse than cigarettes. Obviously the health effects are awful but usage continues to decline. And the good thing about cigarettes is they don’t cause you to go mental.
I agree with you on the smell, which is why I’d like to regulate it instead. It’s a bit like cigarettes. You should only be allowed to smoke them in certain places, otherwise you should be fined.
On the strength point again I think this is where regulation can help. If you look at prohibition the reason alcohol was so strong was you were incentivised to consume it in short sharp bursts. If it’s legal there’s not the same urgency. Plus you can regulate it so only the milder stuff is legal.
But I will accept that all of this is uncertain and respect the differences in opinion and the valid concerns about cannabis . Just wanted to flag the downsides of the current situation
Couldn’t Sadiq Khan just instruct the Met not to stop people on suspicion of possessing cannabis? There are plenty of other crimes for them to give their attention to, and that would avoid some of the health concerns of full decriminalisation.
Pure coincidence: We’ve published at the same time and covered almost the same things. The Longer London Minute! Or maybe mine is London Centricish.
The eternal tension between “the news agenda” and off-diary!
If I wanted traffic I should’ve made the Lime story the headline! G’awn, stick that in tomorrow and see it become most clicked :)
In the old days we’d call that “being scooped” 😅
Ha, yeah. I have zero chance of scooping Jim on anything 🙌
Honestly cannabis should be legalised, regulated and taxed. It’s less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and making it illegal isn’t stopping people consuming it. We’re just giving a valuable revenue stream to criminals that could be going to taxpayers instead. I’ve gone to the cannabis dispensaries when I was in NYC and was able to calmly ask what was a low strength edible to try and it was delightful. It was much better than drinking. When are we going to stop fight the US’ war on drugs. It’s failed and we’re just wasting time a resources that could be spent on more important crime. I wish our politicians were more ambitious.
I’d have said “off their nuts on drugs” but you probably have journalistic standards.
The argument for decriminalising in favour of legalising eludes me.
I can only think of the issues with the legalisation of prostitution in Netherlands...
RIP the SLP. The paper I wanted to work for as a trainee reporter back in 1992, where murders were NIBs and no headline was too bizarre.
That's definitely a PostNL logo on the pills.
I don’t have a problem with decriminalising cannabis possession, but surely the issue is that the Met appears to still be institutionally racist, after all these years.
With regards the swimming I will add a caution regarding bacterial infection - it can also manifest in one's toenails, particularly if the nails are subject to repeated micro-trauma. As a rule, nails should not have a green tinge on the underside - indeed, one should never ask of any body part 'should it turn that colour?'.
A GP or podiatrist will know whether antibiotics are warranted, as long-term trauma can lead to nail loss, to say nothing of the effects of any bodily infection.
Does Sadiq Khan really want his legacy to be making London absolutely stink? Thank goodness for the Home Office.
“Decriminalising cannabis possession would also allow the government to treat the drug and the adverse consequences that some users face as “a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue”.”
This seems like complete nonsense. If they are serious about the harms from it then don’t encourage its use!
I really struggle to care about the “criminalisation” of people who knowingly commit crimes.
Tobacco smoke also “stinks” and has been legal for centuries. And I daresay if you wander into certain parts of London you’ll get a whiff of much worse than either. An objection to a smell is not nearly good enough to offset the potential benefits of decriminalisation. As for the harms, luckily there are a number of other countries where cannabis is legal, to provide data and research on any ill effects.
The knee-jerk reaction from central government just shows how out of touch and behind the times we are as a country. It also betrays how terrified Labour still are of what the right-wing media might do to them if they got behind Lord Falconer’s research - despite their almost unassailable majority and four years in which to use it.
What are its harms and why should it be criminalised? Who are you hurting or damaging when you smoke pot compared to cigarettes? It’s ridiculous that our government is still fighting this when other countries show it’s safe and it could be raising much needed tax revenue to focus on violent crimes
The links with psychosis are well established. So many people have their head of the sand about this while at the same time lamenting the “mental health epidemic”.
I think that’s a fair point and I respect anyone who is focusing on mental health issues, it’s not riskless or costless, but the key thing is whether the damage done is worse than cigarettes, as it’s illogical that one is legal and one isn’t. And also whether more damage is being done by it being illegal. Hell I’d support all the tax revenue raised going towards education of the dangers and towards the cost of treatment. The problem is at the moment that revenue is going towards criminal gangs. I think the experience of those countries that have legalised and taxed it, is showing that’s the better of the two outcomes
Legalisation will lead to more and more potent forms of cannabis entering the market which will only increase the negative impacts on society.
Also, being concerned about the smell of this stuff is seen as a low status opinion but I don’t want to live in a society like this. It makes day to day life slightly worse for so many people.
I’m fed up of taking my daughter to our local playground and seeing/smelling someone sat on a nearby bench smoking weed.
The damage is far worse than cigarettes. Obviously the health effects are awful but usage continues to decline. And the good thing about cigarettes is they don’t cause you to go mental.
I agree with you on the smell, which is why I’d like to regulate it instead. It’s a bit like cigarettes. You should only be allowed to smoke them in certain places, otherwise you should be fined.
On the strength point again I think this is where regulation can help. If you look at prohibition the reason alcohol was so strong was you were incentivised to consume it in short sharp bursts. If it’s legal there’s not the same urgency. Plus you can regulate it so only the milder stuff is legal.
But I will accept that all of this is uncertain and respect the differences in opinion and the valid concerns about cannabis . Just wanted to flag the downsides of the current situation
Couldn’t Sadiq Khan just instruct the Met not to stop people on suspicion of possessing cannabis? There are plenty of other crimes for them to give their attention to, and that would avoid some of the health concerns of full decriminalisation.