cannabisnews.com: Parental Problems and Cannabis Law Parental Problems and Cannabis Law Posted by FoM on January 14, 2002 at 08:40:00 PT Evening Standard Editorial Comment Source: Evening Standard It seldom happens nowadays that a member of the Royal Family, who gets himself into trouble, provokes a wave of public sympathy. Yet that is what has happened in the wake of the weekend revelations about Prince Harry, alcohol and cannabis. Few people will suggest that it is "a good thing" for the son of the heir to the throne to have been regularly getting drunk with friends and smoking pot. But every reasonable person knows that is what many teenagers are doing every night, up and down the land. Their behaviour causes a lot of worry, and often anger, to parents. But in most cases experiments in excess peter out with the coming of maturity. Among only a few, happily, do teenage drinking and pot-smoking lead on to long-term alcohol and drug abuse. The Prince of Wales sent his son to a South London treatment centre, so that he could see for himself what can be the consequences of letting a summer holiday folly lead on to worse things. It is hard to see what more the Prince could have done as a parent. Most of the young cut loose at some stage, and suffer parental retribution in varying degree. It is unusual, even abnormal, for children to remain disciplined, obedient and sensible all the way through adolescence. Since Prince Harry seems pretty normal in other respects, why he should be any different in this one? The most difficult part of the equation, for children and parents and society at large, is to decide what line to take about cannabis, as Lesley Garner and Paul Barker discuss on our news pages. Attitudes are changing. The police have been driven to take a softer line on enforcing the law, precisely because it is being flouted by millions of young, of all social classes. Yet cannabis remains an illegal substance. It obviously puts the Royal Family in a difficulty, to have Prince Harry exposed as a law-breaker. Only the most curmudgeonly critic will today think much worse of either the boy or his father for what has happened - so long as Prince Harry does not make a habit of doing it. The most plausible, and perhaps most useful, outcome of this incident is that it will intensify pressure on the Government to review legislation on cannabis, rather than to leave the police and parents - including the grandest in the land - to muddle along with the present uneasy compromise, whereby the law is widely broken, but not enforced. To put it bluntly, we must either decide that cannabis does not represent a dangerous gateway to hard drugs, and decriminalise it - the course we would urge - or attempt the herculean and probably impossible task of making the present legal prohibition stick. Source: London Evening Standard (UK)Published: January 14, 2002Copyright: 2002 Associated Newspapers Ltd.Contact: letters standard.co.ukWebsite: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/Related Articles:Drug Law Must Align With Public Opinion http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11755.shtmlFor One Young Royal, an Early Whiff of Scandal http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11752.shtmlDutch Model for UK Drug Laws http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11624.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #11 posted by Lehder on January 16, 2002 at 08:40:15 PT food for thought So he just stopped drinking - cold turkey. AA was not necessary because George, by virtue of family connections, had Billy Graham. This denial of anything serious, deep or complex at the root of his drinking or at the root of anything that happens to him or us, has been embraced by the public. It is a form of mass hypnosis as well as a form of internalized class distinction. George comes from an entitled universe and that universe gets a begrudging respect from the people it oppresses.The official story seems to stand as a pretzel not going down right....A pretzel, like the truth, especially when twisted, is something that we all really need to chew before swallowing. http://commondreams.org/views02/0115-07.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Lehder on January 15, 2002 at 06:19:09 PT correction bruise is on his upper *left* cheek bone, consistent with the delivery of a right-handed blow, as I said. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Lehder on January 15, 2002 at 06:17:33 PT bush brawl Well, I saw a close-up of the big welt on George's face broadcast on the late news last night, and it's a lot nastier than I had imagined. Sounding as phony as an O.J. Simpson alibi, he claimed that the cut on his cheek was made by his glasses. Somebody slugged him, and hard - hard enough to knock him unconscious. To begin with, the location of the bruise, on the upper right cheek bone, is exactly the place where a swift right-handed swing, the most natural and instinctive of all punches, is going to land. And it's not just a cut and it's not just a bruise - it's an ugly black and blue bruise and raised welt; and the force of the blow was enough to open the skin for a good inch or more exactly as happens to boxers in the ring. With the big welt as well as the skin laid open, it's the kind of wound you see in bare knuckle boxing and bar fights. That's how it looked to me even slabbed over with makeup that was no doubt expertly applied to make the wound appear as minor as possible. Yet it's obviously the kind of an injury that is sustained in a fist fight, not from falling off a couch. I figure that either he got into an altercation with one of his Texas cowboy buddies, drunk enough to slug the president, or else he insulted or attacked a woman who in a drunken fit - or perhaps a moment of lucidity - slugged him with a beer bottle or other handy club of sufficient weight to knock him cold. I don't suppose we'll see the bruise on his hip. But I can tell you that the bruise on his face is not a skin blemish - a wound like that also wrenches the bones and I'm sure it still hurts and will smart whenever he talks or chews for a couple of more days still.Will we ever hear the truth about this? Maybe. Whoever slugged him would get $5,000,000 for the story. The whole damn family is dysfunctional. What did you expect? [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on January 14, 2002 at 22:25:03 PT Oh puff_tuff! LOL! He sure needs Visine! Oh My! Thanks that was funny! [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by puff_tuff on January 14, 2002 at 21:30:18 PT He's so darn cute He even has the red eyes!! :) Prince Hempy [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on January 14, 2002 at 12:08:56 PT Lehder & Everyone - CNN POLL I can't help but think he didn't just choke on a pretzel. That's a bit too much to take. His face was puffy and red. He often has a red nose. That's usually a sign of drinking too much the night before. If he was drinking that is down right scary. Bush is scary if he's sober. Here's a CNN Vote about Prince Harry and Cannabis. QUICKVOTE What action should police take against Britain's Prince Harry? He should be charged He should be cautioned No action http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/14/uk.harry/index.html Current Results -- http://www.cnn.com/POLL/results/31511.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Lehder on January 14, 2002 at 11:39:05 PT I'm glad you asked, FoM Because I think he was drunk on his ass and that his alcoholism remains untreated. Fell out of a couch? The reports would have us believe that he fell about a foot and a half, from the seat of a couch to the floor - I presume the White House is carpeted - and got a nasty scrape on his cheek the size of a half-dollar and a bruise on his hip too; that he was watching football all alone with nothing but a pretzel for company and that the pretzel choked him, felled him from his couch and rendered him unconscious. Uh-huh. Let's play Wheel of Fortune. A Phrase: _ _ _ R AND PR_TZ_LS. (Hint: Goes with watching football) I think he had Booze, Dope and Broads in there and that he either fell or was shoved out of a barstool or maybe something more violent went down. Drug testing and screening for alcohol abuse are called for. Leslie Nielsen should have been there to administer the Heimlich Maneuver.---------------nice to see you back, kaptinemo. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Jose Melendez on January 14, 2002 at 11:12:55 PT: what else? Absolutely, it looks like what would happen if one passed out drunk off the couch watching football. Probably hard liquor, maybe combined with some pills, easier to hide than beer. At least he was not driving... too bad he could not just get STONED.:)By the way, look what's next in legal poisons for kids: Sources: Reuters | ABCNEWS.com Friday January 11 11:42 AM ET Brewer Hopes to Give Liquor More BiteSEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean brewer has come up with an alternative way for people to enjoy their favorite tipple -- ''chewable liquor.''Kooksoondang Brewery Co. said Friday it had developed a gelatin form of its popular Paeksaejoo rice wine, a mild version of South Korea's fiery soju liquor.``We were looking for new ways to consume traditional liquor,'' a company spokesman told Reuters.``But so far, we don't have concrete plans to market the product and consumer surveys are under study,'' he said.South Korea and Japan are co-hosting this year's soccer World Cup in May. The company said it planned to take a decision on the new product before the end of January. Jose Melendez [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on January 14, 2002 at 10:34:28 PT He's so darn cute I guess the UK has a Cannabis Poster Boy and what a great one too. I love those children. I thought Princess Diana was a good person and she had two beautiful children. They are mannerly, considerate and the one loves Cannabis. That's is just so cool!Any comments on Bush's blackout last night? We think he drank too much and passed out. What do you all think? I hope not because an alcoholic can't drink. He looked hung over to us this morning. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on January 14, 2002 at 10:22:49 PT Harry could be a powerful ally Imagine how cool it'd be to have a member of the Royal Family become a cannabis crusader... First stop on his education, instead of meeting junkies, let's take Harry to the correctional facility where he can have a lengthy talk with Colin Davies. (Why do they always try to reform potheads by showing them what happens to heroin abusers?) I wonder if Harry knows about, or has covertly been to, the Dutch Experience? Or Amsterdam? [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on January 14, 2002 at 09:01:21 PT: I had to laugh "The most plausible, and perhaps most useful, outcome of this incident is that it will intensify pressure on the Government to review legislation on cannabis, rather than to leave the police and parents - including the grandest in the land - to muddle along with the present uneasy compromise, whereby the law is widely broken, but not enforced."Correction: That sentence should read selectively enforced. Arrest Prohibition - Drug War is TREASON [ Post Comment ] Post Comment