{"id":19632,"date":"2017-11-29T08:32:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T08:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=19632"},"modified":"2017-11-29T08:32:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T08:32:45","slug":"why-is-uks-street-cannabis-so-thc-heavy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/why-is-uks-street-cannabis-so-thc-heavy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is UK’s street cannabis so THC heavy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research may have just found one more reason for the legalisation of cannabis. Neil Woods explains the dangers of UK\u2019s street cannabis and why high levels of THC are – not only the reason for some consumers\u2019 mental health problems, but – a result of the drug\u2019s illegality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On one extreme, you get those who say cannabis is so safe, there is no reason not to legalise it. Yet others claim it is more dangerous than most people make it out to be. A study released last month<\/a> by Volteface<\/a> adds crucial evidence to that debate.<\/p>\n

Not only does it show that what causes cannabis smokers to suffer from psychosis or other mental health problems is the\u00a0extreme imbalance between the drug’s two main components THC and CBD, but that\u00a0the level of THC in the cannabis we can buy on UK\u2019s streets has gone up exponentially over the past year.<\/p>\n

Neil Woods<\/a>, who was an undercover cop fighting the sale and distribution of drugs on UK\u2019s streets for 14 years and who is now the chairman of the drug reform campaign group LEAP UK <\/a>(Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), explains the details of the study; and why dangerously high levels of THC are a result of the drug being in the hands of organised crime.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/hHuC540vAcM<\/a><\/p>\n

The reason why street cannabis has virtually no CBD in it, is that \u201cit is the most cost-effective thing for organised crime to do,\u201d Woods explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe iron rule of prohibition is that the strongest drugs produced are the most cost-effective.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Cannabis Leaf Green Medical Drug. Photo credit: Max Pixel<\/p><\/div>\n

Organisations such as Volteface and LEAP UK believe that the only way to win the war on drugs is to regulate them; tackling the power of organised crime and assuring a safer way of using drugs. And the new evidence does indeed support the idea that we could\u00a0counteract the increasing mental health issues of those misusing the drug if we were in control of its composition.<\/p>\n

Young people access cannabis more easily than alcohol<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The report by Volteface also reveals that young people find it far easier to access weed than alcohol. \u201cOver half of young people in the UK have access to cannabis,\u201d Woods adds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

How easy is it for teens to access cannabis and alcohol? Infographic: Lotta Behrens<\/p><\/div>\n

According to a national survey conducted this year,<\/a>\u00a044% of questioned 13-to-18-year-olds said it was \u2018extremely easy\u2019 for them to get hold of cannabis for free, or to find a friend or drug dealer who would sell it to them. Only 23% of the questioned teenagers said the same was the case for alcohol.<\/p>\n

The same survey shows that young people are aware of the quality and type of the weed they were buying. But, even though they knew that it contained a lot of THC and that it wasn\u2019t the safest, they confirmed it was the only type of cannabis they could buy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n

The case against legalisation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil Woods’ stance is, of course, a debatable one. We should not overlook those who believe that\u00a0being unhappy with the drug abuse in our society is no reason to make it legal.<\/p>\n

“In fact, the best evidence we have shows that legalisation would make a bad drug problem much worse – by increasing addiction, normalising use among kids, and relegating its sale to profit-hungry corporations or governments with every incentive to increase addiction to advance their bottom line,\u201d Kevin Sabet, the author\u00a0of ‘Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana\u2019,\u00a0told the Independent in 2013.<\/a><\/p>\n

He believes that the legalisation of cannabis simply “is a very sloppy way to address the unintended consequences of current policy.”<\/p>\n

Why is the UK so hesitant to reform drug policies?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In April 2017, Canada announced <\/a>that the recreational use of marijuana would be permitted throughout the country by July 2018. With this, it follows the US states Colorado and Washington State, as well as the Netherlands and Portugal, all of which have seen remarkable improvements<\/a> in reducing the misuse of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am completely certain that the evidence [coming from Canada] will show that young people\u2019s access to Cannabis has been reduced, a healthier product is being produced through the regulation, and it will show that the value that exists within the realm of organised crime has been reduced,\u201d Woods comments.<\/p>\n

Watch his stance on why the UK is hesitant to reform drug policies and why law enforcement is one of the leading players campaigning for reform:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/_c0_NP2Aanc<\/a><\/p>\n

Even in UK politics, we have seen an increasing number of voices calling for drug reform since the last election – with cannabis at the heart of the debate.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrats explicitly denounced <\/a>the \u201cwar on drugs [as] a catastrophic failure\u201d claiming that \u201cour current approach to drugs helps nobody except criminal gangs.\u201d Both the Conservative and the Labour parties have started to advocate a reduced criminalisation of drug users.\u00a0To date, being in possession of the Class B drug could still earn the holder\u00a0a five-year prison sentence and an unlimited fine.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can find each party\u2019s stance on drug regulation and reform\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Words: Lotta Behrens | Subbing: Silvia Tadiello<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research may have just found one more reason for the legalisation of cannabis. Neil Woods explains the dangers of UK\u2019s street cannabis and why high levels of THC are – not only the reason for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":19633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}