No Evidence - No Crime? Seed Our Future, By Simpa

From the International prohibition of cannabis first gaining traction in 1925 after the Egyptian delegate, Mohamed El Guindy who imposed his own bigoted prejudices by proposing the inclusion of Hashish in the revised International Opium Convention relating to Dangerous Drugs to exposing the small cabal of industrialist tycoons, media moguls, and politicians who first conspired to demonise and criminalise cannabis nearly a century ago. Seed Our Future, in its roughly 18,000-word document provides one of the most concise narratives on the greedy, racist, and classist ideology that pervaded and perpetuates one of the most expensive, longest-lasting, and most socially and individually destructive conflicts in modern human history – the war on drugs.

The main argument raised in this report is the fact that there has never been any scientific foundational evidence for the international scheduling of cannabis. If there is no legal justification then all of the countries that are signatories to the 1961 convention and proactively still criminalise consumers are in fact breaking many laws.

During the research phase the team sent out FOI’s (freedom of Information requests) to all of the 41 British Police Crime Commissioners (PCC), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and the Home office to ask for the foundational evidence for the scheduling of cannabis in the UK. Their responses ranged from “We do not have access to these files” to “We do not hold the documents you’re seeking” making it quite clear that there is no foundational evidence for the scheduling of Cannabis in the UK. This opens the door to challenging the charges because as we know if there is no evidence, no crime.

This report compiles a wealth of evidence and knowledge which contradicts the cliched copy and paste response that Seed Our Future recently received from the British Home Office:

“Cannabis is controlled as a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as there is clear scientific and medical evidence that cannabis is a harmful drug which can damage people’s mental and physical health, and harms individuals and communities.”

What exactly is this clear scientific evidence? Well, the one bit of “evidence” that was discovered during the team's extensive research was that the foundational evidence for the above claims seems to stem from a 1955 World Health Organisation report that was sent to the UN titled “The physical and mental effects of Cannabis” It was this document that played a large part in the formation of the 1961 UN single convention on narcotic drugs – the basis for the international prohibition of cannabis.

In this rather antiquated and frankly racist document, the body speaks of “Marihuana” consumption as “evil” and “that its use eventually leads the smoker to turn to intravenous heroin injections” a long-since debunked myth.

The report goes on to state “’Experts’ on the Cannabis problem agree that, despite all the efforts made, the present geographical extension of cannabism constitutes a medical and social danger of no small importance” By ‘experts’ we are talking about people like the father of twentieth century prohibition Harry J Anslinger and Mohamed El Guindy.

Anslinger as you maybe aware 1937 once testified in a US court room that “just one marihuana would make white women want to sleep with black and Latino jazz musicians” and El Guindy, the man who provided zero evidence and some rather racist and questionable testimony to the league of nations that resulted in cannabis being included in the international opium conventions. These men hardly constitute impartial, unbiased, and well-informed individuals on the subject.

The ‘science’ presented in this document is now contextually laughable and obsolete. If this is indeed the evidence that the British Home Office continues to use to justify the continued criminalisation of cannabis consumers then they themselves are actively choosing to ignore half a century of research, cultural and social evolution, and scientific discoveries such as the endocannabinoid system and cannabinoids in favor of 1950s bigoted, racist, and classist ideology.

It is becoming ever more apparent that the ‘clear scientific evidence’ referenced in the Home Office statement simply does not exist and that the inclusion of cannabis within the 1971 MoDA is entirely unfounded, unevidenced, and driven by political ideology. This proves that the response by the law is disproportionate to the drug's potential harms and brings the law itself into disrepute.

So, if the law is wrong how do we make it right? Well, it all starts with the police. The enforcement of cannabis prohibition in the UK is anathema to the core Peelian principles that the police were founded on. When an officer makes a cannabis arrest it violates their attestation, a kind of oath the Police in the UK have to take when taking up a public role. This oath would be comical if the consequences weren’t so extremely dire for so many people.

Each officer declares that “I do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence, and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people”