LCC Scotland want the voice of Prisoners of the War on Drugs to be heard. We will publish anything that POWs want to write.

Five POWs had a letter published in Scotland On Sunday on the 21st of January. Two weeks earlier the paper published a major feature on Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth's calls for a "crusade" against "plague" of drugs, and asked for reader's responses.	Bars put drugs war in perspective Commentary, Scotland On Sunday, 21st Jan Following your call for a debate on the drugs situation in Scotland, we would like to respond to the comments in Mr Forsyth's New Year speech. We are five prisoners of the war on drugs, serving sentences of between nine and 15 months for growing cannabis. We make up 10% of the prison population here in Friarton and there are another 10% of prisoners serving sentences for other cannabis offences. Our five families are the real victims of this war, while we are incarcerated for our 'crimes'. This is a war on people who use/enjoy cannabis in preference to alcohol and tobacco. Cannabis has never killed anyone, yet 80% of drugs convictions are for cannabis. The Home Office's own figures show that there are three to six million cannabis consumers in the UK. Does Mr Forsyth think that jailing us is going to stop ordinary people enjoying cannabis? The question for Mr Forsyth et al is: "What are the real costs to society, of prohibition - even just in police, forensic, legal and court costs?" How much does prohibition damage society compared to cannabis use? Cannabis 'offences' are victimless crimes. Nobody wants to go to war with publicans, off-licences or tobacconists. In fact, the Conservatives will not even ban advertising for these dangerous drugs. Possibly because they receive party donations from these drug suppliers. This exposes Mr Forsyth, and the Tory administration, as hypocrites who are using hysterical and emotive language on a subject in which he appears poorly informed and has very little knowledge. Perhaps he should realise that cannabis users are voters and taxpayers as well.
James Murdoch Bob McGillivray Graeme Steel James Brown Brian McSherry HMP Friarton, Perth

SITTING HERE DOING TIME,
ALTHOUGH I HAVE COMMITTED NO REAL CRIME,
DEGRADED AND HUMILIATED IN MY MIND,
BY A SYSTEM SUPPOSED TO PROTECT MY KIND.

FOR OVER 100 YEARS THEY HAVE TRIED IN VAIN,
PUTTING THE EARTH AND ITS CREATURES THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN,
THE TIME HAS COME TO SET US FREE,
FOR THIS IS NOT THE WAY THAT IT OUGHT TO BE.

SO COME ALL YOU PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE LAND,
JOIN WITH US AND TAKE THE STAND,
LET'S BREAK THE HEARTS OF TORY GOVERNMENT,
AND RECOVER SOME OF THE MILLIONS THEY HAVE SPENT,
LOCKING AWAY A PEACEFUL RACE,
SUPPRESSED AND CAGED IN AN AWFUL PLACE.

I, BRIAN EDWARD McSHERRY, dedicate my poem to all the families of cannabis growers who have been punished as much as we have, by being left to fend for themselves in their world which has been torn apart; their own growth ripped out of the earth, just like our plants. I myself am serving a 15 month sentence for growing cannabis although my crop never got to a stage of yielding a single flower. In May, I will turn 30 years of age. I have been smoking cannabis for 15 years, half of my life, and this is the first time I've been put in prison. I feel the pain of my own wife on the phone when I get the chance to talk to her and also in her letters. It sickens me to think that this Government's policies on cannabis still live in the dark age. I was a working man before I was sent down, earning a damn good wage. I thought, how can this government justify spending so much money in trials of cannabis crime when they should be using what little resources of funding they are supposed to have in putting an end to the drugs that are killing our young.	Brian McSherry, from Dalry in Ayrshire, served half of a 15 month sentence for production of cannabis. Soon after arriving in Friarton he wrote this poem and statement expressing his feelings at being locked up and separated from his wife for enjoying cannabis in preference to alcohol.
Cannabis has never killed anybody. Cannabis does not lead to hard drugs. The only users of cannabis that turn to harder drugs are the ones who have no willpower and weak minds.	Brian McSherry Friarton Prison. Sentenced 5th Dec 1995 Liberation on 19th July 1996 if all goes well.
In my own mind I believe that it is the attitude of the Tory Government that causes a lot of younger people to turn to hard drugs. "Conservative" - I think not. Communist - I believe so.

This is the foreword from Mick Marlow's book Tricamerl Sensemilla. This 'non-disclaimer' are the words that ended him in prison. All unsold copies of the book were ordered to be burnt by Mick's trial judge, but the book has been republished in Holland. The book's introduction is also available online. Here Mick outlines the history of hemp and its prohibition and attacks the society that encourages the smoking of deadly tobacco, yet criminalises harmless cannabis.	Tricamerl Sensemilla - Foreword Almost without exception, books about cannabis start with a written disclaimer that they are providing people with the knowledge necessary to break the law by growing it. They assert that their efforts to describe in detail every aspect of cannabis culture, cultivation, genetics and plant breeding up to science degree level is intended to be merely novel or amusing. For whatever protection the author might feel has been granted by the insertion of a disclaimer, the use of such detraction is irresponsible and the public perception of cannabis remains wrong-headed by its inclusion. It implies that the book has been magically absolved of any suggestion that it could encourage criminality and that the information therein has been rendered safe by this gesture. Such daftness must surely contribute in its own small way to the continuing illegality of cannabis for social use. Whilst having no personal wish to deceive, and though the name Maria Warner is totally apposite to the nature of my book, it is of course, a pseudonym. Upon the reinstatement of public cannabis cultivation, possession and supply, I will gladly claim authorship in my own name. Though I and most cannabis users in my experience would be the first to stand for 'morally just' causes and ethical concerns, I have no disclaimer to enter. I trust that this book will reveal the reasons for its omission, also why the nonsensical, archaic laws forbidding free cannabis use should be roundly condemned by all, especially by those who write on the subject. Whether you use this or any other guide to break the law by growing cannabis is completely irrelevant - Tricameral Sinsemilla provides a much better reason for those who would take the risk and offers at the same time, a realistic proposal for cannabis legalization in both social and industrial use.
Maria Warner, April 1991.

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