Time to stop targeting personal users of pot
MY NAME is Ryan. An everyday office worker, I do my job to the best of my ability. I own a car and live in a house. I'm a normal person who has pets and enjoys exercising. There is nothing about me that the average person would point out to suggest I'm a criminal, but that's what I am – in the eyes of the law, anyway.
I've smoked marijuana regularly for the past nine years of my life.
Why do I smoke it? It gives me a release and a way to unwind after a hard day. It gives me a chance to socialise with friends (yes, there are more of us in hiding) and, well, I just enjoy it. Do I need to have it? No, I choose to, just like I may choose to have a beer to unwind after a long day.
You may now be starting to question where this letter is going. No, I'm not going to try to hammer you with facts about how great this plant may or may not be – you have Google for that. I would like to question why the everyday consumer, just like me, is being targeted by the police and made out to be the bad guy by the courts.
Over the last few months, I have seen time and time again 'Male/Female found in possession of 0.2 grams of cannabis resin' (the size of a crumb), £500/£1,000 fines and a criminal drug record, at a time when the rest of the world is starting to realise that the war on drugs isn't working and never has. At a time when countries are moving/have moved to
de-criminalising or even legalising this plant with huge success, why are we ever-increasing the heat?
Marijuana is not the problem, we are. One thing people have to understand is that the average smoker, and there are thousands of us on this island alone, will not stop smoking because of the penalties. You may be thinking, well, where is this smoker? I never see them.
This same average smoker is doing your taxes, cutting your hair and helping you manage your bank account. They are not all wandering around Town, tracky bottoms on, ciggy in hand, off to the social. Well not at least until we put them there. We help create these people by taking what is a tiny amount of cannabis and throwing a huge fine on it along with a criminal record. We can add that person probably losing their job on top of barely managing to pay both the fine along with their next three months' rent while they are attempting, and failing, to find another job with that nice drugs charge on their criminal record.
Then where does this once-hard-working citizen end up? Claiming our hard-earned money, maybe? Or maybe staying at Her Majesty's pleasure and costing us even more.
I'm not saying weed is a wonderful drug with absolutely no side-effects, but I'm simply stating that maybe it's time the States really looked at the bigger picture as to what they are doing to their own people over a matter of what somebody chooses to do in their spare time. I suggest everybody takes a few minutes from their day and Googles what is going on in the rest of the world.
This problem hasn't been solved by punishment. Maybe it's time to look at other means. I also challenge you to try to find two stoned people fighting each other like our Town is plagued with as a result of alcohol every night of the week.
Name and address withheld.
