In the months leading up to the formal announcement..

Last year we were able to reach approx 237k signatures on the recent Cannabis legalisation petition (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104349) which resulted in a negative formal statement, yet a successful debate (the 'ayes' ruled in favour of legalization).

We should be trying to convert these 237k individuals to members of Cannabis legalisation (Rec/Med) groups to maintain constant pressure on the UK government to legalise.

I chose to attempt to join NORML-UK (due to the success of NORML in USA) yet despite it being an official chapter of NORML (http://norml.org/chapters/item/norml-uk) there was no option to join, just a method to donate with no feedback regarding its use.

I emailed all contacts on their website (most emails were inactive/broken & I heard nothing back from the active email accounts). I ended up posting the following reddit post on /r/uktrees expressing my issues with the current state of the NORML-UK website: https://www.reddit.com/r/uktrees/comments/4l1phl/normluk_not_open_to_new_membership_registration/

Turns out there was a serious reason why NORML-UK had not been functioning correctly:

Formal Accounts Announcement by NORML UK Women’s Alliance

Following a financial audit it is with regret that we have to announce it became apparent a significant amount of donated and collected money had not been banked by the former treasurer for NORML UK and the Women’s Alliance. To date, despite two formal communications, the person concerned has failed to provide a satisfactory explanation as to the whereabouts of the money, or to provide any information which could assist with our inquiries into the missing funds. We do not know exactly how much money is missing as no records have been submitted despite repeated requests.

This statement applies to the majority of cash funds donated and paid to NORML UK and the Women’s Alliance since the late Summer of 2013 at events.

The former treasurer is no longer working with NORML UK or the Women’s Alliance.

Both organisations will continue to pursue retrieval of the missing donations to a satisfactory conclusion.

A robust financial accountability protocol has been implemented by the Women’s Alliance to prevent this kind of financial abuse from occurring again.

We sincerely apologise to anyone who gave money in good faith to support the work of these organisations including to people who signed up at events, and their applications not subsequently processed.

Any queries will only be answered via email, there will no public debate, so if you have any questions or comments please send them to [email protected] or [email protected] and one of the team will get respond.

http://normlwomen.uk/499/

"There will be no public debate"

Looks like they're trying to sweep this under the carpet like it never happened and refusing to 'publicly debate' this issue, which honestly to me is massively unacceptable.

The former Treasurer/Web Master (Info still publicly available: http://norml.org/chapters/item/norml-uk) (Edit: I've been informed that it wasn't Chris Bovley, the identity of the embezzler is at this point unconfirmed) has potentially set back the UK Cannabis legalization movement by allegedly embezzling donated funds which could have instead been spent on the legalisation movement in the past. He should be facing criminal prosecution for embezzlement rather than getting away scot-free.

How can we achieve Cannabis legalisation in the UK (Rec/Med) without involvement of NORML?

Hopefully NORML-UK can sort themselves out in the future, but in the mean time their website is broken, their funds are depleted and they're not open to new membership.

Your options for UK Cannabis legalisation/campaigning/lobbying:

CLEAR-UK: http://www.clear-uk.org http://www.clearmembers-uk.org

Whilst Peter Reynolds may have a negative reputation on the internet (read: trolls spreading FUD against CLEAR-UK & coordinated subversion against the legalisation movement), it's not the man in charge but the movement/end-goal that's important!

CLEAR-UK has been in the news recently & have made far more progress than NORML-UK. They're currently working alongside GroGlo with a full Home Office licence to produce CBD oil for pain research; this could be leading the way towards medical legalisation in the UK: http://www.clear-uk.org/planting-200-cannabis-seeds-next-week/

You can join them with different levels of support. I joined with full membership (£30/year) to which I received a hand written letter, a membership pin, a membership card, several leaflets and an invitation to their facebook group.

They have plans to offer the following benefits in the future:

Vote in referenda and general meetings on policy and governance

Opportunity to work as a volunteer in campaigning, policymaking and administration

Members-only monthly newsletter

Members-only Facebook group

Membership card and welcome pack with leaflets and merchandise

Discounts on products from selected partners

https://twitter.com/CLEARUK

United Patients Alliance: http://www.upalliance.org/

The United Patients Alliance seeks to advance legal access to cannabis for patients with chronic conditions and we wish to see medical cannabis reintroduced into the British Pharmacopoeia.

Patients should legally be able to produce their medicine under strict guidelines at home or obtained from a regulated and licensed medical cannabis dispensary.

UPA does not have a public membership, but they are active in the news, attend events and are amongst those actively leading the charge towards legal medical Cannabis in the UK.

https://twitter.com/UPAllianceuk

End Our Pain: http://www.endourpain.org/

End Our Pain has been in the news multiple times recently with seriously convincing articles: http://www.endourpain.org/media/

They have several celebrity supporters & are gathering a large quantity of UK MP supporters: http://www.endourpain.org/supporters/

End Our Pain is a massive credit to the medical Cannabis legalisation movement, you should sign their petition, share the petition with your friends/family & perhaps write to your MP regarding the matter.

https://twitter.com/End_Our_Pain

UK Cannabis Social Clubs http://ukcsc.co.uk/

Join your local Cannabis Social Club in the UK! Whilst we do not yet have the same system that's in place in Spain, joining your local CSC will enable you to meet many like minded people in an open & friendly environment.

Contact your MP directly https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Write directly to your MP via email or letter regarding legalising medical/recreational Cannabis. I've written to my MP multiple times & have received responses usually a week or two later. If you don't write to your MP, how are they supposed to know who/what to represent?

Even if your MP has a known anti-cannabis stance, perhaps your letter will be the one which finally convinces them?

Lastly a few extra links:

Release - http://www.release.org.uk/

Transform - http://www.tdpf.org.uk/

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition UK - http://ukleap.org

What is the future like for the Cannabis legalisation effort?

I feel very positive about the future of UK Cannabis legalisation despite the hostile stance taken by the Tories.

Several more states are due to potentially legalise Cannabis in 2016: https://www.leafly.com/news/headlines/what-states-are-most-likely-to-legalize-in-2016

Canada is legalising Cannabis in 2017: http://globalnews.ca/news/2650706/canada-to-introduce-pot-legalization-legislation-in-2017/

13 states border Canada which will put pressure on these states to legalise, and if California legalises there's another 3 states with a border shared with a legal state. At a certain point, USA will have to decide on federally legalising Cannabis & when that happens, the decision to legalise in the UK will be a no brainer!

Thanks for reading, take it easy :)

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