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U.K. Update

High in the UK

By Mark Knowles (aka Noddy420)

High Hempos,

Here’s an update from the UK, which already has worse prohibition laws than those that were in bill C-15.

The cannabis movement in the UK has been driven very much underground with the constant bombardment of lies and misinformation spewing from the government and media.

With the recent sacking of professor Nutt, for doing his job for the ACMD (Advi- sory Council for the Misuse of Drugs act) the govern- ment seemingly won’t listen to their own advisers about science & findings on cannabis being safer than LSD. Cannabis should not be a class B drug. In the 1970s, MP Lord Foot said that cannabis should be in a class of its own—class D. In 2004, cannabis went from class B to C. Then in 2008, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, returned it to class B.

Surely, science will beat political policy and

these policies will be seen for what they really are— false. The sick and dying should not be traumatized with court proceedings be- cause they acquire the need for cannabis over convention- al medicine—now that’s sick.

You most likely have heard of the “super skunk cannabis,” but can anyone find any, I certainly can’t. Also note that skunk is just a strain name, which is no stronger than cannabis ever was. Sure there’s more of a variety now with breeders popping up everywhere, but it’s still the same old canna- bis that’s been here for tens of thousands of years!

Here are the options right now in the UK

1) home grown—usually good, but some people have started selling it damp, and sell- ing it for £20-£30 an 8th or £140-200 an oz. (if you can get it).

2) commercial bud—mostly damp bunk weed that has mould, with people trying to sell it for £140 an oz. There’s also

a high chance of contamination with grit/glass beads etc. thrown into bags to add weight, too. (Plenty on the streets)

3) pollem/polm—(dutch for hash) is a thin Moroccan type of pressed kief; clean but not potent at £15 an 8th or £100 an oz. (usually okay, but some bits have had suspect odours to them)

4) black hash—usually a hit or miss with black hash. A lot of Afghani hash is not as good as Afghan from back in the day. Some people think they can call it charras and stick on silly prices, which people just ain’t buying! £20 for an 8th, and up to £140 for an oz. (not always con- stant supply)

5) soap bar—low grade Moroccan hash at around 5% purity; usually adulterated. Never buy, it’s cheap & nasty. £ 60- 80 for an oz. Warning: keep out of reach of children; may contain small plastic parts!

The prices sky-rocketed when the political re-classification nonsense came into play…again.

As it stands in the UK, you can get five years for possession of cannabis, yet only four years for possession of a knife? The old chestnut that cannabis makes you violent, just does not wash—never did, never will. Just like the supposed link to psychosis. Yet still, the yellow journalism spews from the news. But, the scary thing is that there are people out there that believe the hype— don’t believe the hype…

No victim, no crime.

UK Hemp Expo This year’s Hemp Expo was held in Brick Lane, London. I had a good time with like minded people. I only made it for a couple of hours on the Saturday; I under esti- mated the chaos of commuting to London and lost some time, but got there for 4:20, which meant staying an extra night and going back again on the Sunday to make a full day of it.

I did some leafleting for Hempology 101, and handed out CBC of C product guides, which people where more than interested in. I met Marco Renda of Treating Yourself magazine—very cool guy. I also met resident UK medical cannabis activist Pinky, and the protest London team.

It was also cool being able to meet Big Buddha, who is known for the strain UK cheese (skunk#1 pheno x Afghani). He won a piece of glassware for being the UK Hemp Expo’s most popular stand.

I bagged some free seeds from the Soft Secrets guys. The guys from Sagamartha Seeds were cool guys, as well as the Attitude seed bank with their bike and babe pulling in the punters, lol. Hesi.nl were even giving out sample packs of nutrients for soil or coco mediums.

Overall, definitely worth £5 of anybody’s money, even just for the free Weed World mags etc. There were whispers of “this event wasn’t as good as last year’s,” but that may simple because there were not as many traders. Everything else was cool and had a chilled atmosphere— definitely a relaxed vibe! I was told that the cops popped in on the Saturday, letting their presence be known I imagine. I’ll be at the next event, which I hear may be in Manchester in 2010

Take care, Noddy.

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Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown is the editor of the Cannabis Digest.