"LONDON — U.K. Labour Party boss Keir Starmer said he has “no intention” of changing drug laws in the country if his party wins at the next election.
Speaking to Anne McElvoy, the host of POLITICO’s new Power Play podcast, opposition leader Starmer said: “Other countries will take different approaches they traditionally have, but our approach is settled and not really a subject of great debate even within the Labour Party.”
Yet some in the party have been calling for just that.
Earlier this year, Labour peer and former U.K. Home Secretary David Blunkett told POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast that there should be an “open debate” about how victims of drug abuse are treated, and urged Starmer to launch an inquiry into the decriminalization of drugs. Meanwhile, Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has introduced pilot projects to end the prosecution of young people caught with cannabis in some London boroughs.
They’re not alone in their changing attitude toward drug use policies. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted a meeting of progressive leaders in Montreal last weekend that Starmer also attended, has introduced reforms to legalize the sale and use of cannabis. Several U.S. states have adopted a similar approach. Closer to home, Germany recently passed legislation to liberalize its cannabis laws.
But Starmer insisted he would have other priorities if his party wins the next U.K. general election, expected in 2024. “We’re going to have a huge amount on our plate,” he said. “I’m going to be laser focused on the five missions for government I’ve set out. And we don’t have the bandwidth for very much else, I’m afraid.”
In a wide-ranging interview on his approach to global affairs, the Labour leader also said one of his priorities would be “the restoration of the U.K. and its reputation on the world stage.”
Starmer, who campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, added: “I think it’s wrong to think that the only way you can be influential or play any part on the global stage is by going back into the EU. I don’t think that’s right. And if you look at what’s happened in, for example, the security field, particularly in the last 18 months since the Ukraine conflict, then actually the anchor has been NATO, not the EU.”
P.S I saw "Oh Jeremy Corbyn".....I'd love to know where some of the Labour administration truly draw their funding and whose been influencing them..I suspect it goes back to Blair and his alleged involvement with the death of John Smith at the State Dept.'s hands..
Ive upset some of my old friends who insist on voting Labour at the coming election, as if it will make a blind be of difference which shade of Tory sits in Downing Street?
After the film the audience were invited to make individual comment (if they wished), I said (and my remarks were echoed and expanded on by others -esp. re: Al Jazeera's "The Labour Files"-), that both Starmer and Jeremy have to address the elephant in the room that is "Libor" and the consequences of its "quantitative easing" ("ooh do you mind if I sit in your lap old-man?"). Yes our debts are far more fictional in the real world..their "economy" does not exist....and you can bet that's who is leveraging Starmer and the Labour Admin...
"Ive upset some of my old friends who insist on voting Labour at the coming election"
Let's assume they aren't lacking in brains nor perception. So... They know he's a Tory. They know he's a fawning establishment lackey. They know he won't do anything slightly leftish at all. They know in fact he will do the opposite and play the "muscular" card on Foreign Policy, Defense...Social security...etc... to out-Tory the Tories which can only mean that they are aware that ordinary peoples lives will get worse under Starmer.
Yet...on the "positive" side they will get the cachet and self congratulations of voting for what they can pretend is a moderate progressive left wing government. And if you bring it up the fact that its not they will give you TINOATORY: but "...There is no other alternative to the Tories."
It's a win-win in middle class circles: what's not to like?
Denmark has destroyed more than 145,000 kilograms of cannabis
"Much of the medical cannabis produced under Denmark’s regulatory system has not made it to market and was intentionally destroyed for various reasons, according to government data.
Just over 300 permits have been issued for the destruction of 145,541 kilograms (320,862 pounds) of cannabis, the Danish Parliament’s Health Committee said in a reply to a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year.
The figure includes all cannabis destroyed by the companies with an authorization to cultivate cannabis – within the country’s pilot program – from the date the businesses secured approval to operate, a government spokesperson told MJBizDaily via email.
The data indicates the amount of legal cannabis destroyed under Denmark’s nearly 6-year-old medical pilot program surpassed the nation’s total marijuana output reported to global drug regulators.
A list of companies currently authorized to manufacture cannabis bulk and primary products is available here. The list includes units of Canada’s Aurora Cannabis and Australia’s Little Green Pharma as well as Medican, a medical marijuana company headquartered in Helsinge, Denmark.
The Danish medical cannabis pilot program came into force in 2018.
The destroyed cannabis is equivalent in weight to roughly 79 Tesla Model Y vehicles.
The numbers underscore that a significant amount of legal cannabis grown in certain countries is never sold for various reasons – such as poor quality, regulatory factors or insufficient demand – and is subsequently destroyed.
In Canada, for example, licensed Canadian companies destroyed a whopping 872,443 kilograms of cannabis between 2018 and 2021.
In Denmark, several types of cultivation authorizations exist. They include:
The country’s medical cannabis pilot program. The manufacture of active substances for pharmaceutical products. Plant propagation. The so-called “development” program, which permits companies to grow medical cannabis so they can hone their cultivation and manufacturing methods and be permitted to participate in the nation’s pilot scheme. The cannabis cannot be sold and must be destroyed.
What led to destruction
“All four types of cultivation are licensed and the companies produce and destroy cannabis,” the Danish Medicines Agency spokesperson told MJBizDaily.
“As our destruction procedures are not specific for the cultivation purpose or origin,” the destroyed quantity may include cannabis cultivated for the pilot program, imported for the pilot program as well as cannabis cultivated under the development scheme, the spokesperson said.
While the government can’t say why the cannabis was destroyed, the reply to the parliamentary inquiry noted that the destruction figure could include faulty or discarded products and all cannabis grown under the development program.
The destroyed quantity is expressed in kilograms of dried weight, and companies use a conversion factor if the destroyed product was an extract.
It also includes all cannabis containing more than 0.2% THC.
The spokesperson said a year-by-year comparison of the destruction data was not available.
2022 destruction data
However, a partial figure for 2022 was shared with MJBizDaily.
The Danish Medicines Agency reported that, for 2022, “lost or destroyed” cannabis amounted to 10,753 kilograms – an amount that doesn’t include marijuana destroyed under the development program.
It’s not clear why the amount of destroyed cannabis in Denmark is significantly higher than the amount of cannabis production reported to the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB), the United Nations body for the implementation of the U.N.’s international drug control conventions.
The quantity of cannabis produced in Denmark under the country’s pilot program, according to INCB figures, was:
2,112 kilograms in 2019. 6,587 kilograms in 2020. 32,433 kilograms in 2021.
The figure is not available yet for 2022.
A separate parliamentary inquiry asked for the number of companies approved to grow medical cannabis in Denmark.
In its answer, the Danish Parliament’s Health Committee said only nine companies had permission to grow medical cannabis either for the pilot program, the manufacture of pharmaceutical products or plant propagation.
In addition, 19 companies had active permits to grow cannabis under the development program.
Overall sales of all cannabis products in Denmark grew from about 30.8 million Danish kroner ($4.4 million) in 2020 to 64.3 million kroner in 2021.
Starmer would probably increase the penalties and criminalise more drugs. Absolutely everything he does is basically him sitting up begging to the ruling class as he simpers, "I'm a good boy. You can trust me. I won't piss on the carpet. Can I have a biscuit?"
####....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
"I'm a good boy. You can trust me. I won't piss on the carpet. Can I have a biscuit?"
Yup. The guy is so supine he gives me the creeps. I don't think they could have found a more contemptible cringeworthy establishment "Simp" if they had ordered it specially made:
Simp: "an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship."
Starmer is the kind of middle class social climber and simpering wanker my grandfather truly despised. His ghastly desire to serve and better himself by clinging to and clambering up the greasy pole of state power, is truly sickening. Just looking at him makes me want to take drugs. And that ####ing voice makes me cover my ears.
on September 21, 2023, 12:10 pm