Following my blog post last week, the e-petition calling for an independent impact assessment of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, has jumped from 42,793 signatures to 126,652!
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45969
While it would be nice to claim credit for driving such awareness of the e-petition, it would obviously also be quite delusional. The campaign started by Green Party MP for Brighton, Caroline Lucas, received a major boost last week when high profile celebrity Russell Brand endorsed and promoted the e-petition. This led to an overnight jump in the number of signatures.
Now that the 100,000 signature limit has been reached the House of Commons will be forced to debate the issue.
Also encouraging this week was an article written by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that called for a 'rethink' of UK drugs policy and the 'war on drugs'. This followed his recent trip to Colombia.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/08/clegg-britain-must-join-drugs-debate
If we want to see change and an end to the £3bn annual waste of UK tax payers money on a failed drugs policy, then we need to make this an election issue in 2015. We need to voice our concern to our political leaders and demand that they listen and if they don't we need to make them pay at the ballot box.
For too long, too many people have been silent on this issue. If we want change we need to be prepared to speak out. Let's end the 'war on consciousness' and have a more sensible approach to the formulation of drugs policy in the UK.
No comments:
Post a Comment