PhunkRabbit

I agree with Mike ^. It is a little too plain. Once there is content maybe it will be a bit better. The theme is at least modified from an existing theme by http://www.9thsphere.com/ (found via stylesheet). This is something ive never been able to understand, why, as web designers, do you need to use other peoples designs? I see far to often people hiring web designers for a web designer website. Your website should be a reflection of your work and your ability otherwise it is quite like false advertising in a sense. Obviously the site isn't completed so this comment might not be valid at this time but your portfolio could really do with some images. Video is a nice touch but imo it should be used to compliment a more "traditional" portfolio rather than on its own.

I will discuss this with you sunday. Have a nice weekend and thank you for being honest and explaining the reason for your passionate view It is now far more understandable why you have the opinion you have. Take care.

I will continue sunday evening, time to spend the weekend in essex with family. Have a nice weekend all

lmao really.... That isnt a generalisation? He knows, for a fact, with evidence to support it that everone who lives in his town, of who smoke cannabis, are wasters that are on the dole or push trolleys in tesco? I dont want to go down this path of sillyness but your not making it very easy. Dont take my comments wrong, im not trying to insult or attack anyone but seriously?

If you want to get technical, cannabis is not illegal. Production, supply and posession is. If you have to delete the thread then fair enough but I cant see the problem in debate. Maybe I am too passionate about this subject because like you say I am one of those "regular users" but you want the truth? I would give up my recreation pleasure right now if it ment my partner could use cannabis legally and I cant express how much good it does her for her illness. I dont think it is until you personally experience somthing like that, that you can fully appreciate it. I go for weeks and months without it when money is tight or supplies are thin. Maybe I am just one of a very small and unknown group of responsible users.

This is somthing I have thankfully never come across however I do know of it and it scares the crap out of me.

I didnt de-value his opinion or his point. I was mearly dissapointed that his reply was such a simple generalisation and maybe even as far to say a little insulting.

I thought the general discussion forum was for everything non-webdesign related ?

-ok first you said next to nothing, and now its up to a grand! lol The equipment costs, of course it does but the cannabis it produces costs next to nothing. You have misread two different quotes. -also are u mentall!! its mad addictive !!! lol im not arguing but it is not addictive, it has no physically addictive propertys. If you have an addictive personality then thats different and to be fair allot of what your saying here is different to what you said in PM's so im a little confused. i.e. when we spoke about not having any major withdrawal. - but i agree with u its just like alchoal,fags... do it too much its gunna hurt u. if u can controll it and only every so often, fair play to ya. - i no cannabis is used as a scapegoat to blame people for being wasters etc. - but its what jock said 90% of the time they are usually the people who do it To be fair even though I dont like generalising a whole community of people, this is kinda bordering on my point. If people want to abuse it and damage themselves then they are going to do it but those of us who can control ourselves should be left to it. Also, how many of those "wasters" are also drinkers, snorting coke, taking pills, smoking cigerettes etc etc etc I refuse to believe cannabis is the only common thing between all of them and I would also wonder if anyone has ever met a waster who isnt smoking cannabis, I know that ive met plenty.

Not sure what you are trying to say.

Well it is now scientifically proven so rest assured your opinion is perfectly valid. Cannabis is not only safer and better for you than allot of legal substances but it also has less affect on your mentality than most other drugs (cocaine for exaple) and alcohol. When the figures were talked about trying to link cannabis to mental health they stated that somthing like 80% of people with mental illnesses has used cannabis atleast once in their lifetime however what they ignored was the fact that somthing like 90% had smoked cigerettes in their life and somthing like 97% had used alcohol. Both of which are phyco-active. The problem here again is the fact that we dont know the full story. For one, as I said in a post a min ago, the iligality removes any possibility of regulation. Un regulated anything is a recipie for disaster. Would you drink un-regulated alcohol? There are people who have lived long lives addicited to heroin becauase they could afford decent quality heroin. The "junkies" that kill themselves and die young are the ones buying off of opportunists who are simply trying to make a quick buck and dont care how diluted the gear is proving it is profitable.

Thank you for that well thought out and creative reply

Thanks for the reply. Cannabis grows natuarally outside and almost all of the cannabis that comes over from Morroco, Columbia etc is grown outside. England isnt the ideal place to grow it outside but it is still a perfectly good smoke. The cost of growing indoors for personal use is nothing when you concider how long you can spread the costs. I dont know how much you know about the growing process and methods. Seeds are expensive because they produce somthing very expensive however you do not need new seeds everytime you pot a new plant. You can take cuttings or clones as there are known sometimes, you can keep a "mother plant" for this. You can also grow a male cannabis plant a harvest thousands of seeds off it. With regards to lights, if you are growing for personal use then you will not need many lights, after a certain ammount it is just a waste. If you are using somthing crazy like a 1000w Sodium bulb then you are going to run up a massive electric bill however this is not necessary. CFL's or compact florescent bulbs are energy saving and work just as well. They cost pennys a month to run and used in conjunction with other CFL's can put out more light that your plants need. With regards to the costs of Hydroponic equipment, while I do not agree with non-organic growing methods (anything other than soil and water), hydroponic equipment will last you more than a single frow which means that cost also needs to be distributed acorss along period of time, similar to counting the cost of buying a new outfit for one night out on the town without considering that you will actually be able to use those clothes for years to come. When you consider that a personal grow of say 15 plants (10 cuttngs, seedlings , unrooted clones etc) (5 vegging or blooming) that take 3 to 5 months to fully mature will produce upto 10 ounces. A standard set of grow equipment including a tent, lights, ducting, filters etc will cost you between 400 and 1000 and last 2 years for arguments sake that is atleast 50 ouces of cannabis for £1000 (£20 an ounce). The guidelines we are working on for the government suggest a £1 per gram tax which makes that about £48 an ounce, I dont think anyone with any experience of cannabis would argue at £50 an ounce. Ive seen this argument plenty of times and what gets to me is what people (like a colleague) use it as a "Go to and get out" excuse. "I know plenty of people who are messed up from smoking dope, i dont care what you say" but generally these people actually have a much deeper past, for one you dont know the quantity or quality of the cannabis they used, for example poorly grown cannabis that has had too many neutrients added, not flushed properly (watered allot before cutting down to flush the added chemicals in neutrients etc) or just cut down too early (CBD is the last thing produced by cannabis plants, if you cut it down early it is imature and has not developed all of the anti-phycotic chemical). I know one person who is deeply affected by smoking cannabis, he used it for years (50 ish) however what I didnt know until recently is that he actually also used cocaine heavyly in the 70's and has been abusing cannabis (smoking far too much) for a long time. Bare in mind that cannabis is not addicitive, it is habbitual but it has no withdrawal like caffine and nicotine. I fully accept that if you are going abuse cannabis then you may very well damage yourself over a period of time but what about it being iligal prevents that? I am very overweight through my own fault, i ate too much and didnt exercise when I was growing up and now I have to pay for it but does that mean everyone who eats rubbish food or lives an unhealthy lifestyle should be made into criminals? You can abuse anything but that dosnt mean that everyone else should be penalised for it. If you abuse alcohol you will end up with a bad liver and probally kill yourself yet we are allowed to make that choice ourselves. Just because some people choose to abuse it we cant assume everyone is going to abuse it and thus outlaw it.

Note: To the mods: If this post is in breach of the forum rules (I don’t think it is) then I apologise. Firstly, the goal/point of this post is to spark a discussion (hopefully a mature one) and help anyone with little or no knowledge of cannabis understand it a little better. I am not promoting illegal activities and I would not suggest anyone go and try cannabis while it is illegal. Discussing cannabis and its effects is not against the law. As most of you will have noticed by now via my signature, I am a cannabis legalisation supporter. My views on cannabis are somewhat controversial to some and make perfect sense to others. One of the inherent problems with cannabis is the fact that it is seemingly near impossible to have a reasonable debate about it, like many illegal activities. Something that perpetuates this problem is the fact that most of the legitimate information about cannabis is ignored, hidden and denied by our government. That means unless you have done your own research you will most likely only know what the government and media have told you about the plant and if that information was true, I would be totally against it too. Now, I don’t want you to think I am some anti-establishment nutter or conspiracy theorist, I completely accept that any reform in the law will require me to accept and embrace both the law enforcers and the government regulation and restriction. To be perfectly honest regulation and restriction is one of the best cases for cannabis legalisation to begin with but I will go into this more further down. There are perfectly understandable reasons why the government will not accept research that shows the positive effects of cannabis and the facts that cannabis is no where near as harmful, in any way, as legally available products in the UK include alcohol, tobacco, coffee, asprin and even fast-food. I am not saying the reasons are right or moral, in fact they are quite the opposite but they are understandable. In summary, some of the reasons why it is beneficial for the government to continue cannabis prohibition are: There are plenty of politicians with financial interests in trades that cannabis would have a direct impact on should it be legalised, some of these industries include drug re-habilitation, alcohol production, prisons, logging (paper), oil and fuel, pharmaceuticals, plastics and building materials/construction and many many more. Now you might be confused by that list and that is perfectly understandable which is why I am now going to explain something about cannabis’s sister plant, hemp. Hemp, or industrial hemp as it is better known, is one of the world’s most versatile materials. It can be used to create paper, bio fuel, rope, plastics, ‘hemp’crete (a way of making concrete using lime and hemp rather than traditional cement) the list is literally thousands of things long. Now I am not going to go into massive details about hemp because this post is going to be long enough as it is but in essence, hemp is one of the 3 main variations of the cannabis plant. While the first two types are used for consumption (cannabis sativa and cannabis indica), the hemp plant is not capable of getting you “high” and provides very few of the effects or benefits that herbal cannabis does however it is still ruled under the same laws as cannabis. You require a licence to “produce a controlled drug” to grow hemp despite the fact it cannot be used as a drug which makes it un-profitable and very difficult to start producing, that is assuming you get granted the licence in the first place. This prevents hemp from being used on a wide scale for the things mentioned above and allows the oil, paper and fuel companies to avoid a superior competitor. My last point on hemp is this, hemp is carbon neutral. No matter what you make with hemp because of the way and amounts it can be grown in, it offsets the environmental damage done by producing products from it be it clothing, paper, fuel or even food. Imagine if we could stop de-forestation for paper and wood (the biggest cause of climate change) by growing fields of hemp or even help offset some of the damage done. I am sure you are all aware of cannabis being used as a medication in places like the United States and the Netherlands. Some of you may understand and even accept the medical benefits of cannabis and there will probably be those who disagree and believe medical cannabis is a myth, lie or whatever. It was not until fairly recently that the reasons were discovered as to why and how cannabis can have such a positive impact on such a wide range of ailments. One of the inherent problems with the argument for medical cannabis is the fact that it is so hard to believe that one plant can do so many things so well. Much like hemp being great at thousands of things from fuel to plastics cannabis can relieve the symptoms of thousands of illnesses and could even prevent/cure some including cancer (yes really). Cannabis is made up of over 400 chemicals; the two big ones are THC which most people will have heard of and CBD. THC (delta 9 tetra-hydro-cannabinol) is a psyco-active chemical that can enhance and induce psychotic behaviour and it is highly likely that it will make mental conditions such as psychosis and schizophrenia worse with someone who already suffers (or is genetically pre-disposed i.e. is going to get it but is waiting on a trigger). THC produces the high you get when you smoke cannabis. CBD is an anti-psychotic chemical that helps to neutralise the psychotic elements of THC. CBD is also where allot of the medical potential comes from and produces the “monging” part of being stoned. High THC cannabis (15% +) are known as Skunk strains (skunk is a word often misused by the media) and are generally hybrids of sativa and indiaca or just pure sativa strains. High CBD cannabis is generally has a more mellow effect as you would expect from the information above, these strains tend to be indicas. Cannabis has thousands of strains and each one can have a slightly different effect, taste and smell. Some people even go as far as to cherry pick the strain they use depending on mood, desire and medical condition. Skunk (often called skunk cannabis, super skunk etc) is just one of these strains and has been around for a very long time. The other chemicals in cannabis are collectively known as cannabinoids. Now these chemicals including THC and CBD all work for something in your brain called the endo-cannabinoid system. This system has links to hundreds of places within your body including respiratory, cardiac etc which is why cannabis can have such a wide spread effect. Cannabis is the only source of these chemicals and they are something that the body wants and in some cases, needs. Pain relief is probably one of the most well know uses of cannabis as a medicine but it is only the tip of a very large iceberg. Cannabis can have a positive effect on anyone suffering from illnesses that affect movement, spasm, pain, sight, irritation, inflammation etc etc etc etc and with regards to the comment above about cancer, in scientific experiments in the united states (and now several domestic experiments) THC oil was used to directly treat cancerous tumors and the result of these studies was a reduction of around 80% of the size of the tumor. There are multiple people who have claimed that cannabis cured there cancer either on its own or in conjunction with standard treatments. Either way it is pretty obvious now that cannabis really does have genuine medical value. The UK government’s official stance is that cannabis has no medical value. However if you live in a country (in the EU) that legally prescribes medical cannabis then you can bring up to 3 months supply with you legally without any challenge. If that wasn’t enough to raise an eyebrow then this should, during Labors time in office they granted a licence to GW Pharmaceuticals to grow and process thousands of cannabis plants in the UK for a product called Sativex. Sativex is made my “grinding” the cannabis up and processing it through a mixture of ethanol and liquid co2, this extracts all of the chemicals and allows them to filter out all of the plant matter. Once this is done they then add some peppermint flavouring and pack it into small vials for spraying into your mouth. Bare in mind that there are no additional chemicals added to this, it is just cannabis and not even an altered or genetically modified version. GW’s Sativex is perfectly legal and can be prescribed by any GP in the country however at this time it is only prescribed for people suffering with MS. The problem is the cost, at £300 a vial (about a months use) the NHS understandably are reluctant to cover the costs and depending on where you live it is not possible to obtain it without paying the full £300 per vial. The cannabis content of a vial of Sativex is less than an 1/8th of an ounce. On the street that will set you back between £20 and £30 or if grown at home it will cost next to nothing. The States have similar products and GW now have several countries who purchase Sativex for there citizens. Not only does our government allow the production of herbal cannabis but it is happy for us to export it to other countries. They also allow people into the country with their herbal cannabis, so long as British citizens are not touching it or they are paying £300 a bottle for it. Please tell me I am not the only one here who can see the hypocrisy in this. There are thousands of people in the UK who use cannabis illegally for its medical benefits, some of them grow it themselves and others are forced to by it off of street dealers. Not only are we criminalising people seeking medical help and pain relief but we are making them go into potentially dangerous situations and fund the crime that allot of drug money goes to. Cannabis that you buy off of the street has always been very unpredictable for both quality and value however something quite alarming that is on the rise are people contaminating bags of cannabis to increase weight and make it look more attractive. This can be anything from metal shavings to add weight to powdered glass to make it look nice and powdery, obviously smoking glass or metal is not going to do anyone any good. This is where regulation comes into the mix and also where we can start looking to protect our children and those who are vulnerable. If a young person or child wants cannabis, their ID is a £20 note. Got the cash? You can have the product. Obviously there are people out there who wouldn’t sell to a child but I am confident there are plenty who would much like the people who are willing to go into a shop and buy alcohol and cigarettes for children but it is allot harder for kids to get hold of legally regulated drugs than the illegal ones sold on the street. I am going to try and wrap up, if you have made it this far then, honestly, thank you. Cannabis is proven to be more than 3000x safer than alcohol and even safer than tobacco. A study of tobacco smokers, cannabis and tobacco smokers and non smokers found that cannabis smokers did not develop significant cases of cancer during the follow-up report, similar in numbers to the non smokers which discredits the myth that cannabis causes cancer like tobacco. You can even go as far to say that cannabis does have some protective quality’s from the harmful effects of tobacco. It has been said by the ACMD (the governments advisors on the misuse of drugs) that cannabis is one of the safest recreational drugs which is reflected in the previous reports by them, unfortunately the government do not have to accept there finding and the last person to directly confront the government on this was asked to resign, when he refused he was sacked (Google “Prof David Nutt”). The reason why it is seen as safe, once you understand why people thought it caused mental illness etc, is because it is impossible to overdose on cannabis. Its toxicity rating is something stupid like 40,000:1 meaning you would have to smoke something in the region of 15,000 ounces in 15 minutes to consume a lethal dose. I would like to leave you with this question: “If cannabis is really that harmful and the government knows this to be true, why do they not show us the evidence and why do they allow it to be grown for use in Sativex?” I am going to end here but I am more than happy to answer any questions you have, just reply. There are loads of things I have not covered like the organised crime, the £6 billion cannabis is worth to the UK economy and the billions of pounds we spend prohibiting cannabis even though its usage is still growing at an increasing rate. All I ask is that you read this fully first before posting a question or critism. Be respectful and you will get a respectful answer. You are welcome to post your opinion be it for or against cannabis prohibition but please quote your sources. Please do not reply without fully reading this post. I can provide reference and source for all of this information. All information is also backed up and sourced on the CLEAR website which also has a medical users leaflet that features my partner “Rhiannon Jones”. More info can be found all over the internet and on the CLEAR webpage (http://www.clear-uk.org). Interesting documentaries on cannabis and the law/history: Search YouTube for “When We Grow” – A full length documentary focusing on the UK and interviews Sarah Martin, a UK citizen with MS who uses and grows cannabis to treat her illness. Search YouTube for “The Union – The business behind getting high” – A similar video but focusing on the USA and Canada (longer but very good). - My English is far from perfect, I do have a habbit of repeating myself myself () at times and my grammar sucks.

I saw Iron Maiden at Download a few years back, I never really bothered with them until that weekend. One word.... Amazing. What a performance.