Cannabis haul! This is a Joke, Wake Up Smell the Beans

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

I wonder how many people in Ireland are driving around with tranquillisers on board? Last time I was home I got a taxi in which the driver was definitely off his nut and it wasn't alcohol or cannabis.

He was driving at 25 mph with a huge build up of traffic behind him. 'On medication' I was told by someone who knows him.

[conservative green]

question must be asked why the insistance on not legalising - who is profiting from prohibition, definitely not the public

Though their are individual guards that are moral people, the guards and the criminal justice system collectively are essentially a self-serving, self-perpetuating bureaucracy, paid for by us, the taxpayer. To quote Thatcher, 'it's our money'.

[TradCat]

Don't believe in criminalising people for posessing small amounts of weed, but I've heard all the arguments for legalising it, and they don't convince me. So, no sympathy for these boyos caught today.

You don't have to admire Al Capone to know prohibition was stupid.

[sarahj]

Even if the Gardai were to seize 70% of all cannabis imported into Ireland all it would do would be to double the price on the streets of the remainder as it is 'scarce'.

Also, that rise in price would see a renewed flood of foreign grown cannabis to take advantage of the new higher price available.

Well there's nothing to be had in Cork city at the moment. Word on the street is that the dealers are all collaborating and trying to eliminate weed from the market to concentrate on heroin and coke.

What a great state of affairs!!!

[Dillinger]

Just what we need stoned fools runing around the country, the damage they'd cause and the gardai time would distroy any so called economic benifits

Also dont forget the loss of life it would cause!!!

I think you are mixing them up with drunk people. When have you ever seen a stoned person run anywhere ?. Drunk people are busy killing themselves and other people as we speak.

[shutuplaura]

Presumably the money spent pursuing the late Mr Dutchy Holland and his ilk was in your view a waste of valuable resources? Perhaps the IDA should have grant assisted him and assisted with a market developemnt plan! Are you for real on this one or is this a piss take?

You can be sure Dutchy and his ilk or whatever you call them are praying cannabis doesn't get legalised.

Society can't cope with the effects of the only 2 drugs we try to regulate, alcohol and cigarettes, what evidence is there that we can cope with a 3rd legal drug?

Society can cope with booze and fag abuse. Society isn't disintigrating because the country likes to get messed up on a sat night. And society is currently coping with drug use. Stop being so melodramatic.

[The OD]

Just what we need stoned fools runing around the country, the damage they'd cause and the gardai time would distroy any so called economic benifits

Also dont forget the loss of life it would cause!!!

Moron 1.

Presumably the money spent pursuing the late Mr Dutchy Holland and his ilk was in your view a waste of valuable resources? Perhaps the IDA should have grant assisted him and assisted with a market developemnt plan! Are you for real on this one or is this a piss take?
Society can't cope with the effects of the only 2 drugs we try to regulate, alcohol and cigarettes, what evidence is there that we can cope with a 3rd legal drug?

Moron 2.

[sarahj]

Don't believe in criminalising people for posessing small amounts of weed, but I've heard all the arguments for legalising it, and they don't convince me. So, no sympathy for these boyos caught today.

WTF sense does that make?

You think it's not OK to arrest people for smoking it. But those people who say, grow it or sell it so they and their friends can have a decent supply, they should be caught?

Ridiculous argument!

[BrendanGalway]

You should read "Cannabis" by Martin Booth. Explained exactly how it's prohibition came about - mainly to do with opposition from cotton farmers and oil companies in the U.S. (worried about hemp taking their markets as a cheaper more sustainable subsitute, esp when a method for creating hemp-plastic was discovered). The U.S. banned it and forced the single drugs convention on the rest of the world. It was basically blackmail.

As if I needed another reason to dislike Oil companies. How did I know some Vested Interests somewhere were behind this? Im reading too politics, makes one deeply cynical.

Cheers for the book recommendation, I'll look that one up.

[Left sceptical]

I agree with wakeupcall. This tyranny has gone on way too long.

Only thing I would add is the comment on money earned from drug smuggling being used to fund other criminal operations, which is tirelessly mentioned. Its a point that really annoys me. The bloody point is to make money, same as any capitalist venture.

It just so happens this particular black market industry is one the biggest industries in the world. So the last thing Western powers want, in their self-serving interest, is a legal industry that their corporate giants can't dominate; with power in the industry (and $'s) flowing to countries like Mexico, Paraguay, Morocco, South Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal etc.