Jail term for drug dealer caught at rave (From Oxford Mail)

Jeez - tough break.

It doesn't actually say what Simon Joseph initially did beyond acting suspiciously, but the poor bloke ended up in jail.

Was Simon Joseph's crime so bad that he deserved to have his liberty taken away at huge cost to the taxpayer though? Has Simon Joseph raped anyone? Groomed anyone? Attacked anyone? Harmed anyone?

Cannabis is far far safer than alcohol, whatever benchmark you care to use. You only need to look at our town centres of a weekend to see the damage that booze causes. Pot heads meanwhile harm no-one and keep themselves to themselves.

Alcohol damage sees over 1,000,000 admissions to UK hospitals each year. Cannabis sees about 750.

What Simon Joseph did therefore, at worst, was far less bad, morally and statistically, than supermarkets do selling us heaving shelves of alcohol at rock bottom prices. Yet we see fit to let supermarkets and off licenses do that, but punish Simon Joseph far worse than I read about for violent thugs or even groomers. What's more it costs us a fortune for this obvious injustice.

Time for sensible and logical change surely. Time to stop listening to the tabloids. Time to start looking at the truth. Science is unequivocal; legalisation is the only option which follows logic. Why are we ignoring science and the truth when society suffers for it?

CLEAR are an organisation fighting to change this madness. We are fighting to see real criminals given real sentences, instead of wasting all our money stopping pot heads who harm no-one.

Join CLEAR and make this change happen sooner. Join CLEAR and help make society a fairer and safer place for all.

Jack, surely if you follow your very logical argument to it's logical conclusion, you should be campaigning for the criminalisation of alcohol, not the decriminalistaion of cannabis?

Well said Jack. Simon was not harming anyone and has never done anything wrong in his life. He is a lovely young man and certainly did not deserve such a harsh sentence just because of a racist interfering policeman poking around at a rave.

eatmygoal wrote:
Jack, surely if you follow your very logical argument to it's logical conclusion, you should be campaigning for the criminalisation of alcohol, not the decriminalistaion of cannabis?

No, just because alcohol is a dangerous drug doesn't mean that responsible adults should be denied it.

Prohibition of alcohol would never work anyway. They tried it in America and it failed miserably. Campaigning for the criminalisation of alcohol is simply not living in the real world therefore.

If responsible adults are trusted, encouraged even judging by the adverts, with alcohol, then it's obviously ludicrous that we have such draconian punishments for a drug which is far safer, cannabis.

That's the point and that's the complete injustice we are trying to end.

I mean really, is Simon Joseph as bad a rapist or a violent thug or even a burgler? He has harmed no-one whatsoever but is being punished far worse than I've read about those real criminals receiving.

Simon Joseph isn't a criminal, or at least if he is then so are Bargain Booze or Oddbins. So why are we wasting a fortune locking him up, if it means resources being diverted away from real crimes?

What a total disgrace to the victims of real crimes as well.

Join CLEAR, you can find us on Facebook. We are campaigning to stop this injustice.

Jack Herer wrote:
Jeez - tough break. It doesn't actually say what Simon Joseph initially did beyond acting suspiciously, but the poor bloke ended up in jail. Was Simon Joseph's crime so bad that he deserved to have his liberty taken away at huge cost to the taxpayer though? Has Simon Joseph raped anyone? Groomed anyone? Attacked anyone? Harmed anyone? Cannabis is far far safer than alcohol, whatever benchmark you care to use. You only need to look at our town centres of a weekend to see the damage that booze causes. Pot heads meanwhile harm no-one and keep themselves to themselves. Alcohol damage sees over 1,000,000 admissions to UK hospitals each year. Cannabis sees about 750. What Simon Joseph did therefore, at worst, was far less bad, morally and statistically, than supermarkets do selling us heaving shelves of alcohol at rock bottom prices. Yet we see fit to let supermarkets and off licenses do that, but punish Simon Joseph far worse than I read about for violent thugs or even groomers. What's more it costs us a fortune for this obvious injustice. Time for sensible and logical change surely. Time to stop listening to the tabloids. Time to start looking at the truth. Science is unequivocal; legalisation is the only option which follows logic. Why are we ignoring science and the truth when society suffers for it? CLEAR are an organisation fighting to change this madness. We are fighting to see real criminals given real sentences, instead of wasting all our money stopping pot heads who harm no-one. Join CLEAR and make this change happen sooner. Join CLEAR and help make society a fairer and safer place for all.

totally agree with you, he should of been handed a fine or something.
I once read in the news a pedophile was given a suspended sentence and this guy gets jail for smoking and selling a bit of weed.

Jack Herer nice rant dude but read the story the jail term was for class A and JWH-073 plus cannabis cultivation... And stupidly admitting intent to supply

Darkforbid wrote:
Jack Herer nice rant dude but read the story the jail term was for class A and JWH-073 plus cannabis cultivation... And stupidly admitting intent to supply

Are you seriously suggesting that he would have got a six month sentence for possession or obstructing a police constable?

No chance.

The production of cannabis was the issue everyone was interested in. The police would have gladly dropped all the other charges to keep that one.

Answer me this; has Simon Joseph harmed anyone in any way?

I totally agree that it was daft admitting supply mind.

I really don't get your point Jack, do you think UK jails are only full of violent offenders? The laws may be stupid, but the risk is yours to take with 6 offences this is not a bad jail term 12 weeks then out. As it goes I'm a very open drug user, but I personally hate the way the legalize cannabis campaigners turn their backs on the people using other drugs and use the blame drink argument...

Darkforbid wrote:
I really don't get your point Jack, do you think UK jails are only full of violent offenders? The laws may be stupid, but the risk is yours to take with 6 offences this is not a bad jail term 12 weeks then out. As it goes I'm a very open drug user, but I personally hate the way the legalize cannabis campaigners turn their backs on the people using other drugs and use the blame drink argument...

Apologies for the late response but no I don't think they are just full of violent offenders, what a strange thing to claim I do. Our prisons are overflowing with every crime. They are so full, we have to let dangerous criminals out early. That's why the cannabis laws are nuts. We can't lock up the real criminals, let alone having to find the space and money to lock up people like Simon Joseph here who have harmed no one.

Legalise cannabis campaigners don't turn their back on other drugs at all. I'm more raver than pot head if anything to be onest. 20 odd years ago in the little town I came from, we embraced acid house and all that goes with it, so hard that we changed the world.

The world won't get totally changed with a blanket approach of legalising all drugs. It's too much for the public to swallow at once. Cannabis is a very special case, in that it is incredibly safe. It goes against pretty much all the science available that it's illegal.