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Let’s take a look at how as a direct result of prohibition the UK cannabis scene is littered with cannabis oil scammers, confidence men, criminals, thieves and other nefarious individuals out to make themselves rich off of the backs of patients and consumers.
Unfortunately, it happens daily under prohibition. People in the community can be seen discussing it at length via Social Media – talking about times that they have been conned and that they know or suspect someone in the community of wrong doing and being involved for all the wrong reasons. We’re not just talking about cannabis oil scammers here, but all sorts of unscrupulous behaviours which we will discuss in detail below.
You know, the sort of behaviour that leads far too frequently to online Witch Hunts that devolve into immature behaviour that frankly reflects poorly on the community as a whole.
Now, don’t get me wrong, some upset is understandable given that some people are being fleeced out of in some cases a great deal of money. This doesn’t, however, help to remove consumers from criminality if they themselves then start committing crimes against one and other.
In recent years police forces and public opinion has been slowly changing with regard to cannabis, leading to this situation we have today of it remaining illegal but being increasingly becoming a part of our culture; whether you like it or not, cannabis is here to stay.
With no legal protection, this leaves the cannabis community in a veritable no man’s land with regard to reform or regulation. This allows for various undesirable elements to infiltrate the community and pose as reformers, activists, clubs and merchants winning the confidence and trust of the community.
Ask a lot of growers and they’ll tell you that they’re more concerned by gangs of thieves who increasingly are targeting cultivators than they are of the police, especially in regions who’s constabularies have adopted Durham Police forces breakthrough harm reduction policy of the deprioritisation of personal cultivation and consumption of cannabis.
If you are a cannabis consumer living in Durham (or one of the other forces who’ve adopted this progressive policy), it is considered the same offence for being found first time in possession as it is for personal cannabis cultivation – an automatic caution. This aids greatly in removing the average consumer from contact with a dealer who could potentially be involved in other criminal activity, also reducing the amount of money flowing into the black market.
By taking responsibility and control of their own supply the consumer has far better access to variety and continuity of strains. This is exceptionally important for medical patients who need a specific Cannabinoid profile and terpene combination for certain conditions, but it is equally important for recreational consumers who could have an adverse effect to a certain strain and would wish to avoid that strain in the future.
Although this policy is a start it does nothing to tackle the criminals that have traditionally controlled the supply of cannabis along with other drugs for decades in towns and cities across the UK.
In recent years some groups have been diversifying their trade by targeting other dealers, growers, and distributors and robbing them, thus taking control of that area and substance, building a monopoly and controlling supply which typically leads to a standardising and declining in quality, which is bad for consumers as well as the growers being robbed.
Because of cannabis’ illegality, those victims of sometimes violent crime are likely not to report it, for fear of being mocked by police, or prosecution for being involved in illegal activity, however benign growing a plant for personal use may be.
There are also individuals that are arranging buys to ingratiate themselves into grow collectives, clubs, and dealers to scout the way they operate and then ultimately set them up to rob them.
These individuals are often also involved in serious criminal activity and this exposes the average cannabis consumer to other drugs and behaviours that could be negated if they were allowed to cultivate their own supply at home without the fear of incarceration.
Cannabis Social Clubs are in no way immune from this issue, given the potentially vast sums of money that is involved means that clubs and collectives can find themselves inadvertently in direct competition with criminal organisations that have controlled the wholesale supply of cannabis in some areas for generations and will not be so willing to let that revenue stream dry up.
You hear of masked men with machetes raiding growers far too frequently these days and with cannabis remaining illegal these consumers will remain easy picking for these criminals.
The constabularies need to do more to protect Cannabis consumers who the majority don’t commit any other crime other than to break this failed draconian policy of prohibition.
Consumers deserve police protection just as much as any citizen with decriminalisation (and later full legalisation). We as a society would take the first tentative steps towards a reality in which cannabis consumers would no longer be persecuted by police could be protected and welcomed into society instead of the current paradigm which criminalises them and promotes antisocial behaviour as well as permanently damaging their self-image and self-worth by stigmatising them which we know has serious long term detrimental effects on their development and mental health.
Ending cannabis prohibition would mean that personal consumers would no longer be discriminated against by their local police force, which, as it stands can do nothing to protect them from the growing numbers of criminal gangs that are using sophisticated technology to target their grows with no repercussion.
Another group of criminals that have infiltrated the Cannabis scene are the cannabis oil scammers.
These people are supplying untested, tainted oils that too often contain very little to no Cannabis oil at all.
Cannabis oil scammers popping up all over the country in recent years can be seen in one way as the evidence of cannabis’ efficacy for treating hundred of conditions and disorders as knowledge about cannabis’ incredible healing power continues to cascade its way into the public’s consciousness.
Cannabis oil scammers are snake oil salesmen, taking advantage of successive governments’ failure to reform cannabis laws and tackle decades of propaganda, misinformation and reefer madness – lies that create this vast grey area that these vultures can conduct themselves in.
Sadly Cancer in the UK is now more common than marriage so you can empathise and understand entirely why people are so desperate to try cannabis oil to treat themselves and their loved ones especially as we now know that chemotherapy the traditional treatment model for cancer causes more cancers to develop.
There is still a debate as to the exact method but thousands of patients worldwide are seeing results. If these patients could grow their own cannabis, they would be free to produce their own RSO at home avoiding paying thousands to these merchants of misery.
There are also a growing number of cases where cannabis oil scammers have been supplying oil to terminally ill children whose desperate parents have turned in their darkest hour to cannabis. Some of these people have been provided with a substandard product that often doesn’t contain any oil at all and fails to help improve the quality of life of the child at all. Some cannabis oil scammers are then blackmailing parents into paying them to keep quiet about the family’s illegal activities, threatening to contact employers, the police and local authorities with the knowledge that under current UK laws the child-cannabis-patient could be made a ward of state taken from the parents, even at death’s door.
In a post-prohibition paradigm patients would be able to access consistent, quality, regulated cannabis oils or have the right to cultivate it themselves and wouldn’t have to deal with these uncaring and manipulative cannabis oil scammers who are quite frankly con men who profit from prohibition and patient’s misery.
Another issue with today’s market is the runaway inflation, with some bud being sold for more than the price of gold, particularly if it has been imported from the US.
Some are claiming to be in it for the patients, and then charging extortionate prices for “Cali weed” and imported strains that if they are actually what they claim to be and not just grown in Daves’s spare room are to often shipped here because they have failed pesticide, fertiliser or mould tests in the states meaning they cannot be sold and aren’t fit for consumption in states with a regulated market.
There are also people setting up “cannabis clubs” as a cover to deal. These dealers are selling sometimes low-grade cannabis in plastic pop-tops sticking a Rx medical label on it, calling it “this and that” and charging two, three times the street value for it.
Putting cannabis in a pop-top doesn’t magically make it worth more – you can buy those tubs and stickers online for pennies. Don’t buy into the hype!
Finally, possibly the biggest outrage of them all is GW Pharmaceuticals who cultivates hundreds of tons of cannabis a year and are now subcontracting British sugar to produce tons more (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/25/british-sugar-to-cultivate-cannabis-plants-in-norfolk-for-gw-pha/). The make cannabis into medications that are being exported to over 28 countries but NOT the UK (with the exception of Sativex which is too expensive for most patients on the NHS). This is because the British government claims cannabis has no “Approved medical value” and it remains in the archaic classification of Schedule 1 criminalising any non-sanctioned research or usage of one of the safest and most beneficial plants on the planet. Cannabis is the only plant you’re not allowed to grow by law!
The drugs currently marketed by GW are:
Sativex – An oral spray derived from a strain of Cannabis called Skunk #1 which is sold at four times the price of gold, to treat Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It is worth noting that the MS society is slowly changing their stance on Cannabis. However, this does nothing to help British MS patients who are suffering today.
Epidiolex – derived from a whole plant CBD rich strain and prepared into an oral tincture which is proving to be an effective treatment for various early on set treatment-resistant epilepsy syndromes including Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) and Infantile Spasms (IS)
The scam here is that they produce medications for cannabis patients under protection from our government who then openly lie to us (its citizens) about the medicinal value of the plant they derive it from and continue to make tens of millions off of is a symptom of a much more insidious social sickness in this country.
Ultimately perpetuating prohibition will mean that the supply of cannabis will remain in the hands of dealers who are primarily motivated by profit.
If we really care to reduce harm then we must allow all consumers the safe space to cultivate their own cannabis.
Simpa
DCCC