“I’m smoking my prescription and getting high”
– The Berkeley Barb- December 8, 1967
Cannabis Is Legal
Editor has legal turn on
“Isn’t Quintin Hogg an unremmitting shit? He tries to wiggle out of local honesty by talking internationally.
Mr Hogg was quoted as saying England cannot legalise cannabis because this country is bound by the International Drug Convention. In fact, cannabis is already legal in England by prescription. Moreover, this prescription for cannabis tincture is for a form of cannabis not bound by the International Drug Convention. The above prescription for four ounces of cannabis tincture contains about 1700 drops or roughly 40 “highs”. Hashish is imported by Ransoms in Hitchin, Herts. For the manufacture of this tincture.
It appears then that a proper tactic might be to make cannabis tincture more widely available by prescription first, then over the counter from chemists and greengrocers alike.
Although he B.M.A. reports there is “no medical indication for cannabis” not all their members agree. One doctor, in an interview with this writer, said, “the uses of cannabis might be reviewed in light of modern knowledge”. He went on to suggest a number of medical uses for cannabis: as a “basis for a new and comparatively safe sleeping pill because it doesn’t suppress REM (Rapid Eye Movement or dream) sleep”; “in preventing colds”; as “a mild hallucinogen for use in psychotherapy”; and “in helping alcoholics”; etc.
What has become clear is that cannabis is legal in England under certain circumstances, those circumstances can be extended without contravening International agreement, there is reason to believe cannabis has medical indications, and Quintin Hogg is an unremitting shit. One more point; I’m smoking my prescription and getting high. But don’t ask me to give you any. That would be illegal.”
The Berkeley Barb- December 8, 1967
