[Orinlooper]

Lots of talk about cannabis maybe becoming legal to grow?

It’s actually possible to get a licence in the uk now, and from what I hear it’s looking likely things will get a lot easier soon.

It really is the most versatile plant, hemp is used and can be used for so many industries

I would love to grow about a hectare of hemp and keep my bees there. Canna honey is one of the best ever honey you can get.

[pgkevet]

If I recall correctly it was only a few ears ago that there was a hemp panting Uk for rope making and they made the point that the variety grown was too low in THC to be worth 'abusing'.
Interestingly it's legal to buy and own seed...just not to grow it. Some wag scattered seeds into the flower beds around parliament a few years ago. It grows easily enough - hence the name weed.

[cloddopper]

In the early days of being disabled & full of pain some 30 years ago I was recommended to look on the likes of eBay Canada for a booklet on how to cultivate it.   The book cost me a tenner including P&P.
 So off I went to Petsmart for a kg of indian hempseed for my budgies &fishing baits Har ha.
 Everything went well the nine plants gave me plenty , enough to store some for winter & spring too .
 
I used to stick a six inch long bud in a bottle of Bushmills single malt  and invert the bottle several times every day for a couple of weeks to leach out the THC .  Then every afternoon about 14.00 I'd have an eggcup of the elixir .
It certainly helped with the pain and didn't have any of the side effects I got from opiate pain relief. Everything was magic , being pain free for a few days at a time was amazing,it allowed me to sleep & feel refreshed from that sleep.

 Then one day I found I was shaking like a leaf at half past one . It didn't take me many days to prove to myself I'd become addicted to it and was in need of a magic fix earlier & earlier each day . Told my pain specialist about it and they said unfortunately it has that effect on some people , that I'd have to stop asap  before I went on to other harder drugs or became psychotic .
 
 The compost bin got fed well that evening , happily there was only a couple of egg cups of the treatment still in the bottle so it got emptied down the kitchen sink .


At the time the trials were being conducted on humans who had MS  and it was about to be recognised as a medicine as it had had most the THC taken out of the liquid in the sprayers.
 I was put forward  as someone who would have benefitted from the trials & it being prescribed for me ,  but it was not to be .
 I was informed in BIG LETTERS …" ONLY PEOPLE DIAGNOSED WITH MS ARE ALLOWED IT " .

[harmony]

Surely legalisation would be for the medical profession to prescribe cannabis for medical conditions not to allow the mass cultivation?

[pgkevet]

Surely legalisation would be for the medical profession to prescribe cannabis for medical conditions not to allow the mass cultivation?

I understand that is UK Gov's view but as you're aware several countries allow personal cultivation and legal sales for recreational use: superficially because they fail to enforce a ban aganst the criminal sales and likely in truth for the tax raised. Wasnt there a claim recently of £1Bn benefit to the exchequer if it was legalised UK? Never mind the cost of dealing with the aftermath.. gov never thinks that far ahead.

[honeyend]

We can eat poppy seeds in bread, but that's a huge leap to allowing people to grow opium poppy that heroin that is extracted from and medical diamorphine is made.
  The medicinal cannabis oil that is in the news has had the active compounds extracted so the oil is standardised and therefore the dose is controlled. Like all medicines it has to be tested and approved. Most drug testing is done on consenting adults, there are big ethical issues with testing on children and although children and young adults are prescribed controlled drugs its done with caution.

  We have had huge problems in the past with drunk drivers, I never drink and drive, I know my reactions would be slower. The thought that there would be another substance allowed for the general public to take that alters their reaction times and behaviour on the roads fills me with dread. I have looked after people would are seriously injured through drink driving, the worst brain injured, broken bodies do heal if not perfectly, there is nothing sadder for the family than an altered person due to brain injury.

If medicinal cannabis is prescribed I am sure it will be on a name patient basis and a Controlled Drug, with the caution not to drive. If you smoke cannabis for recreational use, like cigarette smokers, don't come near me, it stinks and pervades walls an carpets, I have learnt to my cost. I rented a house and five car bombs, used in every room, vinegar bowls and two years later and you could still smell it. Ugh.

[doganjo]

I was chatting to my son about this the other day.  We were discussing the predicament of those poor little boys in England and Ireland, who were granted  licence, albeit a temprary one meantime; and the one in Scotland who still doesn't have a licence after three months of campaigning by his parents.

Conclusion we came to was if it was legalised for medicinal use only, there would suddenly be a dramatic increase in sore backs, dodgy knees, painful joints/limbs etc, to the extent that the GPs would collapse under the strain.

Our thoughts were for a system that would eliminate the back street providers and so called gangs (although we weren't convinced that gangs deal in cannabis) whereby anyone could apply for a licence to grow a limited number of plants enough for their own needs or to provide named others at a set price governed by statute, and at a level that covered basic costs without profit.  The revenue raised from licences would be used to police the scheme.

Result
1. No contaminated weed products
2. Happy painfree population
3. Revenue stream for UK Gov
4. Products could be sold like oils, cakes, sweets etc with controlled doses in them rather than encourage smoking

And the smell doesn't linger if a house is properly cleaned - he used to grow it, no longer has time, no longer smokes.

[honeyend]

Like most plants there are many varieties of cannabis, some have more effects than others. There is a link between psychiatric illness and cannabis, whether it's because people who have problems are more prone to take it or the cannabis effects susceptible people, who knows.
  I have looked after people who are heroin  addicts, some functioning addicts, one a teacher and others that come through A&E with problems that effect their body as if they were dying from cancer. Young women who look like women of 60, who have a history of taking soft drugs before working their way up to the hard stuff.
  I worked in a prison for a short time and a lot of prisoners are addicted to drugs, they had a methadone dispenser. Its not something I would wish my children to risk.
  Why would we legalise something that is known to be linked to addiction, we have enough trouble with alcohol, and cigarettes have cost people their lives and cost the country in their continuing care? No one can tell me that the money raised in tax is worth the pain of a cardiac cripple who has so much pain that they can not walk, or a lung function that makes it hard for them just to talk. I can spot older ex smokers just by looking at them.

  Health care in this country is teetering on a precipice, its not just down to money but hands to give care. Anything that could potentially cause long term health problems and increases health budget in the future should be viewed with caution. Its hard enough getting a referral and treatment for self harm, where all you need really is a household object, which is on the increase in schools for both boys and girls. Its about preventing potential harm.
   
 

[Orinlooper]

I don’t understand the changes recently but some people are saying the law has just got even lighter

Some can now get cannabis on the nhs

So in reality if I am found to be growing a few plants on my land for personal use, what would actually happen?

If you have no record of anything, would you get away with it?

[doganjo]

All it needs is for a jealous neighbour to find out and report you - the smell of the plants is enough, and you could find yourself in jail like a friend of mine did a few years ago.  Growing only for their own use, neighbour smelt it called in the bobbies and they met up with an officious magistrate.

The law has not yet changed.

All that has changed is the willingness to grant licences for medicinal products for ill people - and not before time.

My niece might not have had to suffer from the distress of MS, and die early, if such medication had been available to her.

[wytchwolf]

currently in scotland at least cbd oil for medical use is available in most healthfood shops, including holland and barret.  And i was told by several police offers recently that 2 plants for personal use wouldnt even be confiscated, this was as they were looking into my newly finished growbox.  (I got raided for an airsoft gun coming through the post lol )