Mendacity Killed the Khat

From the BBC

The herbal stimulant khat is to be banned by the government, against the advice of its own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. In January the ACMD said khat should remain a legal substance, saying there was "insufficient evidence" it caused health problems.(1)

But Home Secretary Theresa May has decided to ban it, saying the risks posed could have been underestimated.(2)

Khat will be treated as a class C drug, like anabolic steroids and ketamine. The Home Office said the ban was intended to "protect vulnerable members of our communities"(3) and would be brought in at the "earliest possible opportunity".

Khat is already banned in most of Europe and in a number of other countries, including the US and Canada. The UK's decision to follow suit is based on security and international considerations, in particular concerns the UK could be used as a transit route for khat to other European countries.(4)

"Failure to take decisive action and change the UK's legislative position on khat would place the UK at a serious risk of becoming a single, regional hub for the illegal onward trafficking,"(5) Mrs May said in a statement.

But campaigners said they were "disappointed and concerned" at the government's decision to reject the advisory council's advice. "A more proportionate alternative to banning khat and criminalising its use would have been an import ban or making it a supply offence only as applies, for example, to controlled anabolic steroids," said Martin Barnes from charity Drugscope.(6)

1. There's a bit in one of PJ O'Rourke's books where he describes taking it and it sounded like quite a mild buzz.

2. That's an argument for doing more research, and perhaps taking the "we want people to make their own choices" line than Cameron likes to roll out whenever it suits him.

3. "communities". Right, so it's puritan dog-whistling in favour of non-white puritans against the non-white people who like taking khat.

4. If they create a stupid law then that's their problem. Let them deal with it.

5. And this is a bad thing, how? Do the French care that white van men are filling up with booze at Calais, despite much of it being illegal? Of course not. Whole industries are built on idiot neighbours, from Canadian whisky to gambling in Nevada.

6. I'll never understand that argument. If we think it's OK for someone to possess a drug, why is it wrong for someone to sell it to them?

Ban it! Ban it!

The BBC serves up a veritable feast of should, could, is often, may, at risk, most likely, researchers, experts, at risk, potential harm and related to.

There doesn't seem to be a single hard fact (i.e. any fact falling into Class C or above) in the whole article.

In the immortal words of Phil Mogg...

OK, two kids ingested an inappropriate substance and died.

All very sad.

But where's the politician with the nerve to paraphrase Phil Mogg's off the cuff remark in an interview with Sounds magazine circa 1980: "Sid Vicious was a wimp who couldn’t take his drugs”?

"Will no-one rid me of this turbulent Drugs Tsar?"

From the BBC:

The UK's chief drugs adviser has been sacked by home secretary Alan Johnson after criticising government policies.

Professor David Nutt had been critical of the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from Class C. He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and said the drugs classification system was being used in a "political way". The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which he headed, is the UK's official drugs advisory body.

A couple of these quangista actually take their remit seriously, do some proper research and go round telling the truth. Look where it gets them.

Bansturbators of the week

From the BBC:

Council advises ecstasy downgrade

The body that advises the government on illegal drugs is to recommend ecstasy be downgraded to a Class B drug...

The Home Office has made it clear it will reject the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs' recommendation. Last month, the Home Office restored cannabis from Class C to Class B, against the wishes of the advisory council...

The Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales has expressed opposition to suggestions that ecstasy should be downgraded to a Class B drug...

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling* said it called into question the government's choice of advisers...

* I hereby withdraw the half-a-cheer I awarded him earlier in the week.

I didn't know that horse-riding was that dangerous...

From The Telegraph:

In the article, titled "Equasy: An overlooked addiction with implications for the current debate on drug harms", Prof Nutt wrote that "equasy", short for "Equine Addiction Syndrome", had caused 10 deaths and more than 100 road traffic accidents a year. Through hunting, it also led to "gatherings of users that often are associated with these groups engaging in violent conduct... Dependence, as defined by the need to continue to use, has been accepted by the courts in divorce settlements ... Based on these harms, it seems likely that the ACMD would recommend control under the MDAct perhaps as a class A drug given it appears more harmful than ecstasy."

... David Raynes, an executive councillor at the National Drug Prevention Alliance said: "Professor Nutt has made numerous unwise comments prejudging the ACMD review of Ecstasy. Is he on a personal crusade against the laws enacted by Parliament?

Professor David Nutt - you rock!

Rather disappointingly, the National Drug Prevention Alliance/Positive Prevention Plus appears to be a proper charity run by nut cases ... but half their income (Note 2, page 4) was from Drug Free America, who in turn are a USA-based fakecharity, who got $1m dollars - the bulk of their funding - from "Public Support and Revenue", see page 13.

Bingo. What complete and utter shits. If the US government has something to say, then it should say it, trying to influence UK drugs policy like this is totally underhand.

"Drugs swoops have little impact"

Woo hoo! They've finally noticed!

Police are fighting a losing battle against drugs crime, with seizures having little impact on cutting supply or reducing demand, research suggests.

The government clearly weren't happy with the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, who recently concluded that there was no point in increasing criminal penalties for possession of cannabis, and were of course promptly ignored.

So now we've got the UK Drug Policy Commission, which is basically a bunch of Labour luvvies (i.e. I've never heard of any of them except The Fink), and they come up with the same conclusions.

This is sort of the opposite of 'going native'. The gummint sets up these quangos, lets them know in no uncertain terms what sort of conclusions they want them to reach, sits back ... and nope, sorry, the answer is unchanged and it's not the one the gummint wants.

Next time they might as well play safe and staff it with tabloid editors.

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

I've spent all afternoon reading their report 'Cannabis: Classification & public health' and having considered all the facts and figures, what surprises me is not that they recommended that Cannabis be kept as a Class B substance (possession of which is punishable, in theory, by 2 years in prison); or that our socially authoritarian, meddling gummint upgraded it to Class B (punishable by 5 years in prison), but why on earth it was made illegal in the first place.

The killer fact, the one that the authoritarians will repeat ad nauseum is that frequent use of cannabis doubles the risk of a 'psychotic outcome'. Given that the report also states that "schizophrenia is a serious mental illness affecting about 0.5% of the UK population over the course of their lives" WTF sort of 'message' is that?

"Kids! Don't smoke dope! It increases the risk of you going bonkers sometime in the next half-century by half a per cent!"

Given that today's kids have got an 50% or so chance of being dead in half a century's time, big f***ing deal is all I can say.