By Chris Bovey
Judge Richard Hone QC has joined the rush to see who can get the most absurd statement into the media concerning cannabis.
In recent times we have had Dr Faizal Mohammed claiming hash sold in Liverpool is laced with heroin, UN bureaucrat Raymond Yans and the INBC claiming cannabis law changes pose a ‘very grave danger to public health’, and pathologists in Bournemouth falsely claiming cannabis can kill.
Judge Richard Hone QC
Now enter Judge Richard Hone QC, who has made the most preposterous comparison, claiming there is little difference between powerful ‘skunk’ weed and hard drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.
Where do I start, aside from the obvious question as to what Judge Richard Hone is smoking? We can safely rule out cannabis, we can even rule out crack and heroin, since anyone who knows the slightest thing about these substances would know they are not similar.
Crack cocaine is a highly addictive freebase version of cocaine that, when smoked, acts as a very strong stimulant. Heroin, known colloquially as H, smack, horse, brown, etc., is an opioid and is also highly addictive. As with other opioids, diacetylmorphine is used as both an analgesic and a recreational drug. Frequent and regular administration is associated with tolerance and physical dependence. Incidentally, heroin users tend not to use cannabis anyway.
Cannabis is none of these things. It is a natural herbal substance that is not dangerous or physically addictive – these are scientific facts and Judge Richard Hone QC has clearly not done his homework.
Is Judge Richard Hone just looking for media headlines, or does he actually believe this tripe?
Judge Hone’s usage of the term “skunk” is sensationalist and misleading. Skunk is a generic term from California for the first Afghani (Indica) crosses which had just been created from the first imports of seed stocks from that region. These were crossed with the imported Mexican, Thai, Colombian and other pure Sativas to create true F1s which, yes, were very smelly.
Now, sadly, it is used as a scaremongering term by the media, politicians and now uninformed judges such as Richard Hone QC. I guess White Widow, Amnesia Kush or Neville’s Haze are less catchy if you have an agenda to demonise a natural beneficial plant.
Those opposed to reform of cannabis laws have been trying to make out cannabis has somehow changed and is different to the cannabis that David Cameron was smoking at Eton. This simply isn’t true; people have been using cannabis for thousands of years for its pleasant medicinal and recreational effects.
Furthermore Judge Richard Hone’s assertion that there is little difference between cannabis and crack cocaine or heroin is insulting to the millions of cannabis consumers in the UK, who use this herb without causing any harm to society whatsoever.
There is a serious side to this case though. Judge Richard Hone made these ridiculous comments as he sentenced a Vietnamese drug gang who ran the biggest cannabis farm in Europe.
These gangs are involved in the people trafficking of children; this is an abomination to any decent minded human being. They pay no taxes and furthermore the cannabis they produce is far from the high potency skunk Judge Richard Hone speaks of, but rather poor quality, sub-standard cannabis that is grown purely for the profits of organised criminal gangs. Legalisation would put an end to this evil trade overnight.
Does Judge Richard Hone QC want to see an end to Vietnamese slave children being forced to grow cannabis in the UK?
Police spend £500 million a year just to detect and raid cannabis farms, which in turn clogs up the Courts systems, wasting the time of Judges like Richard Hone QC.
Regulation of a legal cannabis market, as well as putting the child slave traffickers out of business, would ensure quality control at point of sale. The consumer would know exactly what they are buying, i.e., the THC:CBD ratio, what kind of effect it will have, if it is Indica or Sativa dominant, etc., These measures are being introduced in places like the USA precisely for the reason of harm reduction and to stop putting billions of dollars into the hands of organised crime.
Judge Richard Hone QC said – “In my judgement, the distinction between cultivated skunk and class A drugs is not a large one”. This is an ignorant and unscientific statement. If Judge Richard Hone really wants to put the Vietnamese gangs put out of business then he should call for Britain to follow the lead of Colorado or Uruguay and call for the prohibition of cannabis to end.
Cannabis has effectively been de facto legal in The Netherlands and sold in licensed coffeeshops since the seventies, so we know a country can function perfectly well with legal cannabis outlets.
Does Judge Richard Hone QC prefer that cannabis is produced and sold by Vietnamese gangs, who use children who were trafficked to the UK and forced to work for the criminal gangs? Or would he prefer a legal and regulated cannabis market, such as is being introduced in parts of the USA? I know which model I prefer, and it’s not the one that involves trafficking of children for slavery.
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It’s a pity there’s no requirement to stay in the real world when ascending the judicial ladder!
Do British judges go to work wearing helmets, or do they have to strap them on when the short bus arrives at the courthouse?
I gave up highlighting the UK judges incompetences to administer our judicial system along time ago
Are we seeing the last desperate attempts to keep the war on cannabis alive and kicking? UK and German doctors linking use to deaths, and judges/doctors linking it to heroin? Surprise, surprise – as soon as its made legal somewhere a new breed of propaganda surfaces….
Can I can sense a wind of change? Even the Daily Mail has started to be more positive about cannabis! ha ha
Overgrow the law, plant herbs everywhere and encourage as many people as possible to grow.
You can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.
Good Article, its terrible these judges can be so insane in there actions, knowing that they are also creating more business to immigrants, by paying more to lock them away with tax payers money to encourage more with no moral regulation or circumstance for control of these organisations, while violating every one elses right in the country to be themselves and smoke or use at the same time and still be able to create an aura where they have the power to place blame upon groups or individuals when its a victimless crime and a job well done to most people culturally, aside from things like trafficking which might have been deemed a necessary thing for the group, who have to work with much less than the average person and then at the side create this social genocide/ perversion through media and such where every one remains seperated an unable to organise to do anything against them, then people are forced to be backward an hide from there own truths cause there rights have already been stolen. keep with the good fight people, don’t live by hate, live by the right side of some good truths.
I think he is just looking after the jobs created by prohibition for his friends in the legal sector. he cannot be that stupid so its got to be more a case of cronyism.
Yes I guess its seems somewhat of a fake economy with fake crime, something that has been created in a climate of prohibition and through corruption, but its like a mass cash over expenditure, that victimises the sick and weak, causes further addiction, ruins many lives and creates further criminality and social problems through an unjust punishment system, exposes the young and encourages organised crime. It could be used easily to fund benefit cuts for the young and old. Remember Camerons idea for big society, how bad a role reversal was played up on that idea, terrible, I also can’t even remember how much that ww1 memorial cost again also. I think the Lib Dems are the only political party that would speak truth in tackling or addressing the issue, every news paper puts blame on Clegg but this is because hes out there doing what he says, seeing to the matter, an getting spewed on with politcal nonsense while being held back, but hes your guy.
Bloody hell and there’s me thinking Q.C.’s were the crème de la crème of the legal profession. Me thinks this judge reads the Daily Mail too much!
The sad thing is you can be sure this judge got his opinion on “skunk” from the Daily Mail or the Sun.
If cannabis is as dangerous as heroin, I’m amazed I’ve survived 10+ years of smoking it!
What is going on inside these peoples heads that make them make such comparisons? I am a nasty drunk. I have a few drinks and want to fight. My temper is short and I just become something I don’t want to be. Alcohol has made many of my friends do things that I and they are ashamed of. I have been up town and seen/heard the most ridiculous things happen as a result of alcohol, from girls getting pregnant from being to drunk to know whats happening to them and guys going nuts and destroying public property etc.ect.etc… It has been when I have been drunk that I decided to move on to try cocaine and ecstasy.. I would never have tried them if I was sober (or a little high).. Drink was the gateway to those drugs. Having talked to my friends about it.. neither would they have tried the harder drugs.. they where drunk and didn’t think it through logically.
Now.. compare that to having weed. I would have a smoke and be still very much able to make the decisions NOT to touch these other drugs because my decision making process is still intact enough to avoid them. I am not nasty when sober.. and when I have a smoke I am very much not that way.. yet I can go buy alcohol freely at any time and am punished by trying to have my safer alternative?
This all happened in my late teens early 20’s and to look back, I wish that we had cafe’s to go to and have a smoke and chill as I have NEVER seen a friend or person in public that has been with me while having a smoke causing any trouble. No fighting, no destruction of property, no females being to wasted to know whats happening to them, no negative effects at all that can be compared to that of times when we have been drinking.
Not a single one of us want to go back to drinking and none of us would even consider moving on to crack or heroine.. the thought of it is ridiculous… Drink has been the cause of people making the bad calls and they keep it out there for anyone to buy. You can say it is over 18 only.. but that has never stopped anyone underage who wanted to get there hands on it from doing so. infact, when you are young getting hold of the illegal substance is part of the buzz. I wish these people in charge who are making some ridiculous claims about weed would take a step back form the narrow view that they have and accept the facts that are being presented to them instead of “creating facts” out of nothing but opinions about something, than the reality of it. I could go on all day about this but got to go. Very frustrating topic all in all!