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Simpa’s Open Letter

To whom it may concern,

We have all unwittingly been sowing the seeds of distrust, dismay, and despair within our own community by supporting the continued subdivision of our noble cause; ending Cannabis prohibition. These seeds have quietly taken root and have been growing unchecked in all corners of our community for decades. Activism, advocacy, anarchism, and academia have all seen this narrowing of interest and passion to smaller actions and campaigns around “Medical Cannabis”, “Industrial Hemp” and “Marijuana” that has been to the detriment of all parties and the wider world.

This particularly peculiar and pernicious flora has come to fruition in recent years. Its first bounty is now being harvested in the form of “Legalised Medical Cannabis” in the UK. This corporate victory was primarily achieved by the weaponising and astroturfing of our community to push their narrative, agenda, and the pharmaceutical paradigm until we ourselves began believing it. When the legislation passed on November 1st 2019, our once loud and proud orchestral annunciation of truth and justice was left broken, raspy and cacophonous, unable to muster little more than a death rattle in opposition as we choked on the scale and scope of their betrayal.

We have all been misled into supporting and championing divisive singular narrative campaigns around cannabis. We have been led to advocate for Hemp over Cannabis, and inferior “legal” cannabinoids over other illegal ones, leaving the socially corrosive and criminalising status quo unchallenged. This has allowed for the individual synthesizable, patentable, and profitable components of the plant to be commodified, commercialised, and monopolised by corporate proponents who claimed to uphold the same ideals and serve our collective common goal of “freeing the weed” once and for all.

This has never been more self- evident than the current situation in Europe as the EU now moves to clarify its position on CBD as a narcotic, using the interpretation of the fraudulent and fascistic 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics as its justification. The Convention states that any and all components or derivatives of the plant Cannabis Sativa L are Schedule IV meaning they have “particularly dangerous properties” and are “likely liable for abuse” so therefore must remain illegal.

If they take this position it would put all of the CBD and Hemp companies and individuals that have profiteered from the perpetuation of prohibition – while Cannabis dealers and community champions faced incarceration – back in the pile with the rest of us. So, isn’t now the most opportune moment to cease these nonsensical definitions and divisions? To stop individual pursuits of profit? To band together to once and for all to liberate this plant from a century of propaganda, paranoia, and prohibition?

The British government as we know tried to get around these restrictions for medicinal use years ago by updating their original 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act with the Misuse of Drugs Regulation 2001. This allowed for Schedule 1 (1971 scheduling) drugs to be lawfully controlled, possessed, and supplied by prescription, while non-controlled supply and production of the exact same substance remained illegal. This greatly helped GW Pharmaceuticals and it’s vulture capitalist investors use the legislation as protection. They later got Home Office approval to launch their first Cannabis-based drug, Sativex, in 2006, thus avoiding prosecution for cultivating, processing, and distributing a Schedule 1 drug.

The subsequent “legalising” of “Medical Cannabis” in 2018 went a step further by creating a new class of Cannabis as a drug in Schedule 2. “Medical Cannabis” is defined in the legislation as a “Cannabis-based product designed to use in humans” acknowledging that it has some “accepted medical value” The deliberately use of “Cannabis-based” is ambiguous and Orwellian language, that I suspect has been used to allow for non-Cannabis derived medications under the interpretation of the law. It was also enough to placate the average advocate and naive tabloid reader into believing that everyone needing cannabis for its medicinal benefits are now legally allowed to access it.

In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. To date, the NHS has only issued TWO prescriptions and there have been less than a hundred private prescriptions handed out by the ever-growing gentrifying and profiteering private clinics. These establishments are predominately patronised by those fortunate enough to be able to afford hundreds of pounds for the pleasure of being told that “Medical Cannabis” can greatly reduce their symptoms and help them manage their condition.

Although some of these clinics are importing raw flower, they are primarily pushing tinctures and pharmacological extractions before the raw plant. I fear that this is part of a much larger plan to switch the market we were tricked into helping build from a plant that anyone can easily grow at home to synthetic cannabinoid analogs, non-cannabis-derived cannabinoids, and other “Cannabis-based” pharmaceuticalised drugs. This would negate the restrictions of the conventions altogether and greatly compounding some of the most sinister socioeconomic and individually destructive elements inherent in prohibition.

I worry that the CBD industry and the emerging private British healthcare sector – which will be created through impending US trade deals – will be Cannabis-free in the coming years. By the perfecting of synthesising and extraction techniques of non-Cannabis derived cannabinoids, terpenes, and other compounds present in Cannabis, they will nullify and mute the medical argument as an avenue to truly relegalise cannabis for all therapeutic uses. Only the therapies that they approve and profit from personally will be allowed to flourish.

It is these lessons that I implore you to learn from to help us all avoid the next big astroturfing project that is coming from the same minds behind the campaign to “Legalise Medical Cannabis” in the UK. Their next target is the “Hemp Industry” or as it should be known as, the “INDUSTRIAL CANNABIS” industry. In exactly the same way we empowered the medical paradigm, we are doing the same by calling the industrial properties and applications of Cannabis, “Hemp”. Cannabis is Cannabis. End of.

The regurgitation of these misnomers will only further confuse and coerce the layman into believing that “Hemp” and “Cannabis” are different plants. One with the potential to grow a brighter future and the other a dangerously addictive drug that causes psychosis. The continuation of this paradigm by stigmatising and segregating the industrial, medicinal, and individual conscious expanding uses of the Cannabis plant has been to the detriment of every living creature on earth.

It is the same plant that produces the full extract cannabis oil (FECO) that can help treat Cancer, Crohns, and countless other conditions that gives us the raw materials to negate the toxic and environmentally destructive practices and by-products of some of the most polluting industries on the planet.

The day to day processes and procedures of these global industries; Energy, Fashion, Agriculture, Construction, and Transportation, are currently contributing to an ecological and environmental genocide. From endocrine disruptive chemicals like Dioxins that are used to colour timber pulp paper (which is now so ubiquitous that they are present in all mammalian breast milk), to the Schedule one carcinogens BPAs and BPZs present in all petroleum-based plastics (and now found in the faeces of all humans), to the earth-scarring mineral mining techniques that tear open the earth to remove elements that are no longer needed in a world where Cannabis is legal. All of these crimes against nature are a direct result of the vilifying and demonising of this plant nearly a century ago.

There is no such thing as a “medical cannabis plant” or a “hemp plant” – There is only Cannabis and its innumerate cultivars. The misuse of nomenclature is a tool that this small cabal of cannibalistic capitalists wields to subjugate and divide our movement for their own sinister fiscal ends. We must above all else first standardise the terminology around Cannabis. This ultimately means accepting the truth, there is only Cannabis and its industrial, medicinal, and conscious expanding properties and applications.

We have cultivated the Cannabis and delicately woven its fibres into the ever-tightening noose around our necks by allowing the subjugation and arbitrary distinctions of “Medical Cannabis” “Hemp”, and “CBD”. Allowing these independent industries to arise and operate while the common man remains criminalised, creates a profit incentive for those industries to fight to continue their monopolies by demonising the other aspects of this wonderful plant.

In commercialising certain parts of Cannabis we have allowed it to be taken over, controlled, and regulated by vulture capitalists and ruthless individuals intent on profiting from the perpetuation of prohibitive policies.

The UK is not the USA. The factors that have allowed for dispensaries, GYO, the use of flowers as “medicine” and an industrial sector will not happen here while we are governed by these pirates in power. They will seek with every action to accumulate more control and wealth from the creation of any new Cannabis-based industry, be it medicinal, industrial or commercial.

Ultimately, until we stop infighting over the potential crumbs that fall from their table and focus on building our own damn table, there can be no tangible progress. Without a parlay between the individual fractured industries, the various activist and advocate groups within the community and wider industry, there can be only one outcome: The “legalisation” and “medicinalisation” of a plant whose potential could have saved the world, into just another soulless commodity destined to destroy it.

In all good conscience, no individual or industry should be allowed to profit while others remain criminalised and incarcerated. Our only option for resistance at this point is to revolt against the installation of the Prohibition 2.0 paradigm and the co-opting of our culture and community.

We must unify to cultivate a future fair and equitable for all consumer and non-consumer alike by tearing up the antiquated, racist, and fascistic drug laws. So I ask you, what better time than now to sow the seeds of equity, justice, and prosperity? My friends, its time we call for a Cannabis revolution and rebellion.

Solidarity and salutations,

Simpa Carter

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A beginners guide to Cannabis Clubs in the UK

Cannabis is the one of the oldest known substances consistently utilized by humans. We have been consuming it for its medicinal properties, as a rather safe intoxicant, and industrializing the fiber, roots, hurd, and seeds of this amazing renewable resource into literally thousands of everyday uses.

In the 20th century as Cannabis prohibition really began to take effect – cultures and communities around the world that consumed or utilized cannabis as a cornerstone of their daily lives had their traditions, practices, and the ancient knowledge that connected them together over the commonality of cannabis criminalized.

Fortunately, there has been in recent years a reemergence in awareness of our rich history and deep connection to Cannabis Sativa L. This has driven and motivated like-minded individuals around the world to seek each-other out to share this sacred knowledge and celebrate Cannabis in all her multifaceted glory.

This community building has brought together incredible people from all across the world who are choosing to stand up against oppression and persecution to defy the stigma and risk prosecution to be honest about their cannabis consumption and to protect the peoples right to utilize all the plants of the Earth.

From the partially decriminalized Dutch coffeeshops that were formed in the late-1960’s in Amsterdam to provide any customer over the age of 18 with much more than just fresh coffee and delicious decadent dutch delights. To another slightly newer quasi-legal system that comes out of Europe that seeks to give autonomy and power back to the cannabis consumer – Cannabis Social Clubs.

What is a Cannabis Social Club and how is it different from a Dutch-style coffeeshop – I hear you asking? Well, Cannabis Social Clubs, or ‘CSC’s‘ for short, are non-profit private member associations – These non- governmental organizations are made up of like-minded individuals coming together to obtain cannabis through the creation of buyers networks and collective cultivation to ensure that all members have consistent, safe and fair access to quality cannabis and cannabis-derived products. Unlike Cannabis buyers clubs CSC’s do not limit themselves to just medicinal consumers as they believe all cannabis should be freely accessible for their membership to decide how to utilize and consume.

These organizations self regulate the cultivation, production, transportation, supply and distribution of cannabis and cannabis-derived products to its members. This is done while employing strict self-imposed rules, regulations and operating procedures to ensure that the safety, hygiene and efficacy of the products that they are providing is of the highest standard possible. They also seek to provide the most up to date and accurate information and educational resources to its membership.

These associations have in my opinion grown from several root sources. Firstly, a ruling by the Spanish supreme court in the 1970’s that small scale personal possession wasn’t to be criminalized, the signing of the 1978 constitution protecting Spanish citizens right to privacy, the acceptance of coffeeshop culture else where in Europe and the gradual reduction in the social stigma around the sharing and consumption of cannabis in mainland Europe.

These were the primary catalysts that allowed activists to produce what later became the first CSC model back in the 1990’s. It was these first attempts that gave birth to what is now currently considered the best operating model for CSC’s to adhere to – the ENCOD Model.

The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies (ENCOD) was founded in 1994 when 14 drug organisations combined resources to create the drug law reform body on the recommendation of a European commission. ENCOD has since been fighting for rational, sensible and fair drug policies throughout a lot of the countries of Europe by taking on the well-established monolith of draconian prohibitive drug policies on the international stage. Today they are a 150+ strong network of committed organisations and advocates.

The Coffeeshops and clubs are both currently illegal as the law stands in their individual countries. But just as the coffeeshops have been tolerated in the Netherlands for many decades leading to a gradual tolerance and acceptance of their existence by local authorities and now even to the eventual trialing of regulated legal models. The same is gradually happening in Spain as with a few other European countries with CSC’s. However, not without moderate to severe blow-back from certain prohibitionists and misguided or frankly corrupt policy makers.

So, although this and other perfectly functional models are out there and operating right now – These Cannabis clubs are still forced in most countries to function outside the protective sphere of legality to provide the vitally needed services and supportive safe spaces for their members to congregate, socialize, and consume cannabis, however they deem appropriate.

The clubs that have been emerging slowly here in the UK have been slowly gained respectability in their communities by fulfilling the shortfall created by the corrupt cannibalistic British “medical Cannabis” industry – Who are actively seeking to put profit and the interests of its share holders above the peoples basic right to access and use cannabis for its plethora of medicinal benefits it can provide.

Cannabis Social Clubs in the UK are generally less governed than their European counterparts and often regulated by several different ever-changing models and ideologies. They are, however typically a private member clubs for consenting adults to access Cannabis for therapeutic, recreational, and social consumption. They act as a first port of call for connecting with other cannabis consumers, a space to seek advice and general cannabis information, harm reduction and up to date educational materials.

There are a number of various clubs operating under different models and serving different clientele and their needs. There are active clubs across the UK from Dover to Aberdeen that operate under various models from non-profit to coffeeshop style cafes.

There are 43 different police forces in the UK – some support clubs and some do not, however the revolving door nature of public office and the fragility of policy to the scrutiny of public pressure means that this support varies greatly and cannot be assumed to be long term.

This uncertainty has created a rather large gray area were in the UK as where there was once support and approval for a CSC as a vital tool to reduce crime and help rebuild communities they now risk being targeted as they’ve once again been deemed “Unhelpful in fight against crime”

Many of the UK based clubs are associated to the UKCSC but not all follow the same model or operate physical premises like they do in say Spain, Belgium or Switzerland to name a few.

So who are the UKCSC?

According to their website;

“[The] UKCSC is the UK cannabis consumer voice, offering practical and legal advice and guidance to Cannabis Social Clubs, politicians and police forces in order to provide a self regulatory frame work to reduce risks. UKCSC are a not for profit Non Government Organisation founded in 2011 by concerned citizens comprised of experienced healthcare professionals, industry experts, horticulturists, clinical researchers, patients, entrepreneurs and activists from across the UK, United States, Europe and the rest of the world”

“UK Cannabis Social Clubs are Private Membership Clubs for adult medical and social use acting as a first point of contact for cannabis consumers, patients, advice, general cannabis information, harm reduction and education”

The UKCSC is currently the largest association of clubs in the UK that function under the same operating manual we discussed above. To learn more about the UKCSC and how to register and create a UK Cannabis social club click here. There are also plenty of resources online to help you find the information you need to form an independent club too.

There is a long history of independent and UKCSC affiliated clubs putting on spectacular public and private events for its membership and the local community. From Brighton Cannabis club’s yearly Green Pride protestival which takes place each July in Preston park – attracting several thousand guests to Hampshire Canna’s annual protestival on Eastney beach each August.

The independent club events such as DCCC’s Autumn Expo in Durham to MKCSC’s monthly drop-in which provides a free monthly drop-in for the public to come and ask questions and cultivate community connections at a independent cooperative coffeeshop for the last two years.

There is a long rich tradition of clubs organizing public events and protestivals to bring the community together and to protest the unjust laws that seek to deny people their basic right to a plant that is as equally connected to our past as it is our future.

So what does the future look like for Cannabis clubs in the UK and the wider world? Well, regardless of the various legislative proposals and so-called reforms due to be put forth to governments around the world in the coming months.It is the tireless efforts of committed activists that makes me confident that CSC’s will continue to gain respectability and acceptability until the day they eventually become as legally welcomed and protected as Workingmen clubs or public houses.

Written for CannabisActivismNow.com By Simpa Carter

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British Sugar and The Great Conservative Cannabis Con

By Simpa Carter

Founded in 1936 by the nationalizing of a 13 company strong industry, British Sugar now a private PLC annually produces over 1.4 million tons of ingredient sugar in the UK. They are also the sole processor of the UK’s entire beet sugar crop giving them an arguably unfair monopoly over the British sugar industry as a whole. Today the company is part of AB Sugar – one of the largest international sugar corporate conglomerates, which is itself wholly owned by international food, ingredients and retail group, Associated British Foods plc (ABF).

In this article, we will explore the links between British Sugar – a registered private company in the UK – and the current ruling British conservative government.

Over the last few decades, British Sugar has diversified from just producing and processing sugar beet, into creatively utilizing it’s excess and waste energy byproducts to produce a variety of horticultural crops.

In a statement from 2016, Managing Director of British Sugar Paul Kenward said; “Sixteen years ago we realised we could use some of the heat and waste carbon dioxide generated in our Wissington sugar factory to develop a horticultural business. During this time, we have invested in our world‐class facilities and developed our expertise to deliver consistent, high-quality crops season after season” adding that “The decision to switch from tomatoes to marijuana was in part to help treat a ‘debilitating childhood disease”. 

The condition that Mr. Kenward was referring to was Dravets syndrome – a rare form of epilepsy that causes severe medication-resistant seizures that begin in the first year of life in an otherwise healthy and happy child. It has been known for many years that Cannabis can greatly help reduce seizures and help manage the most dangerous symptoms of Epilepsy. 

British sugar announced on October 25th, 2016 that it had won a contract with the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals and approval from the British Home Office under license to cultivate cannabis in its 18-hectare greenhouse facility at its Wissington factory in Norfolk.

The main chemical component of the cannabis plant are the Cannabinoids and it is specifically a combination of the Cannabinoids Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) which seem to exhibit the most anti-epileptic, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory properties. When consumed regularly these Cannabinoids have been shown to reduce the rate of seizures in epileptic patients from hundreds a day to a few a week/month. 

Since 2016, British Sugar has been completing three cannabis harvests a year, due to be extracted into the $32,500 a year patented drug Epidiolex – a CBD-based medication prescribed for the treatment of Dravet syndrome and Lennox-gastaut syndrome – two rare forms of epilepsy.

In 2018 GW Pharmaceuticals and its US subsidiary Greenwich Biosciences acquired official permission from the FDA to sell their cannabis medication ‘Epidiolex’ as a Schedule 5 prescription drug. This made them the only company in the world to have a patented FDA-approved cannabis-derived prescription medication.

We begin to see yet another unfair commercial monopoly partially created by the government and for the benefit of the producers and not the consumers begin to emerge.

This move all but guarantees further exploitation of the millions of people still facing the daily stigma, legal harassment, and very real threat of imprisonment for simply trying to treat their illnesses/chronic condition with cannabis-derived products – while pharmaceutical companies continue to make tens of millions of pounds in profit, 

Don’t worry if you are a little confused as to how the British government is continuing to regurgitate the party line on Cannabis being a “dangerous street drug with no accepted medicinal value”, while at the same time they’re licensing private multinational corporations to grow hundreds of tons of it in the UK to be exported across the world. 

As previously mentioned, Paul Kenward is the managing director at British sugar – although you may not have heard of him, you might be familiar with his wife – Victoria Atkins MP who was elected the sitting MP for Louth and Horncastle in May 2015 and was appointed minister at the home office in 2017 by the then-Prime Minister Theresa May.

The former barrister was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Minister for Safeguarding by Mrs. May as she was a hard-line prohibitionist especially on Cannabis and that reflected her warped ideology perfectly. 

While this is going on at the home office – in number 10 Downing Street Mrs. May’s husband Phillip May the investment relationship manager for the Capital group investment firm which manages a portfolio worth over $2 trillion – is acting as an unofficial adviser to the Prime Minister. Keep in mind that the Capital group is the same firm that is the majority shareholder in GW Pharmaceuticals – a glaring conflict of interest, no? 

Mrs. Atkins had to voluntarily recuse herself in 2018 from speaking for the government on matters about cannabis and drug policy as she felt her husband operating a legal cannabis farm constituted a conflict of interest (another painful conflict of interests) She was quietly removed from being responsible for UK drug policy but remains in her post. 

Although Mrs. Atkins was no longer “the voice of the government” when it came to drug policy she still had the power to veto the appointment of Niamh Eastwood to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in June 2019 – after the home office advisory panel had previously approved her appointment. 

The longtime drug policy reformist and executive director at Release had previously been critical of the government and challenged a lot of the antiquated notions that underpin the continuation of the drug prohibition. An appointment that could have been a real and direct threat to the conservative cannabis cartel.

GW Pharmaceuticals announced in early April 2020 that Epidiolex would be de-scheduled in the United States, meaning that it is no longer a controlled substance and can now be sold from any retail outlet, in any state without requiring permission. 

So even with all of this being public knowledge and it is rather well documented by the mainstream media there have still been no real ramifications or legal consequences for the small cabal of Conservative ministers who have and continue to blatantly abused their positions to further the corporate agendas of their husband’s companies – further helping to set back cannabis law reform in the UK by years if not decades.

Ultimately, I believe that the best way to avoid the continuation of this kind of capitalistic, corporate, corruption, and cronyism is to completely and utterly decriminalize Cannabis Sativa L in all her natural forms for everyone to utilize as they see fit.