It’s 4/20 today which means everyone who partakes is going to spark up a doob at the anointed hour, sit back and chill. That’s what life’s all about, man.
Images VIA
Whilst the origins of the stoner holiday might be debated, one former undercover policeman doesn’t think that there’s going to be any debate about whether or not weed will one day be legally available in this country and hopes it will happen in the next seven years. Neil Woods spent many years infiltrating criminal gangs and bringing their kingpins to justice, but now operates advocate for reform to the criminal justice system and legalisation of drugs through an international organisation called the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP).
He argues that the legalisation and regulation of all drugs – including cannabis – would improve society immeasurably by eradicating most of the criminal underworld overnight. Here’s what he had to say about it:
It is often the same people [advocating for an increase in classification] who would advocate for relaxing the regulations around alcohol and other things, so it is an interesting comparison.
There’s a few things going on here, most primarily at the moment is that it’s a political football.
It’s a way to bash the opposition, it’s a way to appear tough.
At the moment, politics is in a complete mess, and trying to appear tough seems to be the way out from certain peoples’ points of view.
We have this ‘get tough’ and ‘get tougher’ approach, and that has led to us having higher drug deaths, we have less harm reduction, and we also have ‘county lines’ child exploitation.
This child exploitation crisis that we have, it doesn’t happen in France, it doesn’t happen in the Netherlands, it doesn’t happen in Switzerland, because they have more of a health-based approach,
We are doing this to ourselves, and we need to realise that and change direction drastically.
It’s definitely inevitable.
That’s one of the frustrating things, because it is inevitable and we need to get ahead of the game here.
Germany is about to go legal. It’s the biggest economy in Europe and this is big business.
This is a lot of business that is going to be taken from organised crime and channelled into legitimate business ventures.
The [UK] government is looking for new exports and new business development with the Brexit hangover, this is such – and I hate to use the phrase – but it’s such a no-brainer.
What concerns me is that when we do go legal, when we have a legal regulated market, it needs to be done right.
Racism is in the DNA of our drugs policy, it’s always been used to persecute minorities, and it is the marginalised section of our community that needs to benefit from this new green rush.
We have lots of examples of it done badly, so California where it’s just the worst form of capitalism, and examples where it’s done really well, like in New York State, for example.
They’ve given licences to people from marginalised communities, they’ve given start-up grants to people who have been affected by prohibition, who have criminal convictions, so that they can take part in this new emerging business opportunity.
They are basically investing in Black communities, those communities that have been the most affected, and that’s what we need to be doing in this country.
The big mistake they made in Canada is that they priced it [cannabis] at twice the price of the illicit market price.
So, as a result, they’ve only got 60 percent of the market. Now, that’s still a win because it’s 60 percent less money going into organised crime, however, we need to do better.
I think seven years [until a legal market] for cannabis in the UK, because I think it will happen in the next parliamentary session.
Halfway through that session we will have had the evidence from Germany, the economic benefits will be there, the movement across Europe will have grown more, we will have more legal jurisdictions.
It’s Woods’ time in the police that made him so determined to wipe out organised crime, although he admits that he took some time coming around to his current position.
We are a rapidly growing movement around the world of police and law enforcement who want an evidence-based policy.
I followed the evidence, but I was quite slow on the uptake.
It took me a few years to face up to the evidence that I was seeing before my eyes and it became quite clear that I was only causing harm.
I was causing harm to individuals who just want to use different drugs, but I was also causing harm to society by refining the ruthlessness of organised crime.
That’s what drugs policing does, it sharpens the sword of organised crime.
Well I’ve been making a similar argument to that guy ever since we started Sick Chirpse, but I think he’s refined it in a much better – albeit slightly longer – way than I ever could. He’s also done a hell of a lot more research and knows exactly what he’s talking about in regard to all aspects of his argument too and the implementation of a legalised system.
Anyway, hopefully he’s right because everything he’s saying makes sense and the benefits have already been seen in America and Germany too soon. Fingers crossed, although I have been saying that for about the last ten years as well.
For more of the same, check out this guy who spent six hours grinding £700 of weed for a massive 4/20 joint. Legend.
