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UK: Cannabis campaigner urges Plymouth MPs to vote on legalisation
Plymouth Herald Wednesday 07 Oct 2015 Daryl Sullivan, who is the chair of the Devon Cannabis Club, has written to each of Devon's MPs ahead of a vote in the House of Commons next week. The campaigner, who grew up in Ivybridge and now lives in Totnes, wants the drug to be made legal. He has written his open letter ahead of a commons vote on Monday, which was triggered by an online petition signed by almost 221,000 people. Mr Sullivan said in his letter: "An ever growing number of people are seeing the ‘war on drugs’ for what it is – a colossal waste of time, money, and lives which should be immediately abandoned and replaced with a humane system of regulation, rather than prohibition. "I genuinely believe that were you all to be in possession of the facts, rather than burdened with decades of fear-mongering and propaganda, you would come to the same conclusions as myself and millions of others, not just in the UK but around the world. "The purpose of this letter is to urge you to attend the debate on the 12th. "Regardless of where you currently stand on the issue, the 221,000 people who signed that petition deserve a proper debate. "They deserve to have their views represented in Westminster by the people they chose to represent them. "In last year’s debate some important issues and points were raised, but there were simply far too few people there to hear them and engage with them. Please don’t let this be the case again. "The government of today may not have any interest in legalisation, but any one of you could represent the government of tomorrow, and you deserve to know the facts." DARYL'S LETTER IN FULL Dear elected representatives of the county of Devon, I am writing to you today as a constituent of Totnes, and former constituent of Plymouth Sutton & Devonport, and South West Devon. This probably means that all but one of you will not bother to read any further, as according to parliamentary rules you don’t have to. But I hope that you will cast that particular rule aside for a moment, as this concerns you all. Still reading? Good. Thank you. The reason for me writing to you today is that, as you are probably aware, there is to be a debate in the Commons on October 12th concerning the potential legalisation of cannabis. The debate was triggered by an e-petition which as of this moment has gathered just under 221,000 signatures, and follows a similar debate last year, also triggered by a petition, which called for an impact assessment of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. These two petitions are indicative of an ever growing number of people who are seeing the ‘war on drugs’ for what it is – a colossal waste of time, money, and lives which should be immediately abandoned and replaced with a humane system of regulation, rather than prohibition. I have written extensively on this issue before, including in a previous open letter to Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, who I’m sure will be particularly thrilled to hear that I have no intention of boring you all with thousands more words. I will do my utmost to keep this brief. The Conservative government have already released a response to the petition in which they state that they have no intention whatsoever of decriminalising or legalising the use of cannabis, due to it being, in their words, ‘a harmful drug which can damage human health’. This response was obviously wholly predictable, and equally discouraging to people like myself who believe that this is something which needs to happen without delay. The cynic in me gets the impression that the strength of the wording was also a ploy by the government to ensure that as few of you (by which I mean MPs) turn up to the debate as possible. After all, what’s the point in debating a motion that has already been rejected out of hand? The purpose of this letter then is not to try and convince you all of the benefits of legalising cannabis. They are many and varied, and I genuinely believe that were you all to be in possession of the facts, rather than burdened with decades of fear-mongering and propaganda, you would come to the same conclusions as myself and millions of others, not just in the UK but around the world. No, the purpose of this letter is to urge you to attend the debate on the 12th. Regardless of where you currently stand on the issue, the 221,000 people who signed that petition deserve a proper debate. They deserve to have their views represented in Westminster by the people they chose to represent them. In last year’s debate some important issues and points were raised, but there were simply far too few people there to hear them and engage with them. Please don’t let this be the case again. The government of today may not have any interest in legalisation, but any one of you could represent the government of tomorrow, and you deserve to know the facts. Yours hopefully, Daryl Sullivan http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Cannabis-campaigner-urges-Plymouth-MPs-vote/story-27940859-detail/story.html#Ywm011ydkMq0HVbF.01
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