Reply from David Burrowes MP

In reply to my original letter here:

http://homegrownoutlaw.blogspot.com/2011/05/letter-to-david-burrowes-mp.html

Dear Jason

Thank you for emailing me about my question on Cannabis use on 9^th May. Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you.

I appreciate that this issue is controversial, and that passionate views are held on both sides of this debate. However, I was careful and deliberate in noting a ‘probable causal link’ between cannabis use and mental illness. This position closely reflects the latest official guidance and research conducted by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in their 2008 report ‘Cannabis: Classification and Public Health’.

I fully and actively support attempts to reduce drug use, crack down on drug-related crime and disorder and help those who use drugs, including cannabis, come off them for good. Having met a large number of addicts during my previous career as a Criminal Defence Solicitor, and during my investigation into alcohol and drugs treatment with the Centre for Social Justice, I have been guided to focus on how we can improve treatment rather than change legislation.

Although we do not agree on this issue, I would  like to thank you once more for taking the time to contact me.

Best wishes

David

Letter to David Burrowes MP

 In Reply :

Dear Mr Burrowes,

I would like to draw attention to your comments in the house on 9th May 2011 regarding medicinal cannabis; they have left me questioning the morality of yourself and the government.

Firstly, let me briefly correct you on your remarks, please do take the time to read - they point out the inaccuracy of your comments:

“Stronger strains” -  http://homegrownoutlaw.blogspot.com/2011/04/skunk-debunked.html

"Mental illness" -  http://www.badscience.net/2007/07/blah-blah-cannabis-blah-blah-blah/

This is wholly inconsequential to the issue however.  As someone who has suffered debilitating illness for 21 years, I have had a legacy of prescribed medication that has left me numb, blinded and with paralysis; pharmaceuticals have been ineffective and counterproductive.  I am therefore left with two options, prescribed opiates that will leave my organs ravaged, or cannabis which is exponentially more effective and remarkably non toxic (the words of Dr. Lester Grinspoon; Professor Emeritus of Harvard Medical School).

The state can - and does - differentiate between prescribed opiates and street obtained opiates that cause harm through prohibition.  I wonder why this simple premiss cannot be grasped when discussing cannabis.

Your suggestion that it is more important to criminalise all persons and person’s interests regarding cannabis actions, than to grant clemency to people like myself is crass and demeaning.  This is not how a fair and rational society acts, and indeed this is not how the MoDA1971 is mandated to work in its application.  

Your comments have roused discourse within the disabled and chronically ill - not to mention their families who also suffer.

I look forward to hearing your response to this matter.




(Additional - due to a fault at google Blogger, this posting was removed and all comments lost.  I'm sorry to all those inconvenienced)