Frontlines: Time To Stop Listening to the Dopes

When I was young and carefree, it was widely accepted that if you wanted to be a student prince, you had to - Drink!
 
“Drink! Drink! Drink!/To eyes that are bright as stars when they’re shining on me/Drink! Drink! Drink!/To lips that are red and sweet as the fruit on the tree/Drink! Drink!”
A terrific song with a dangerous message. Mario Lanza sang it in “The Student Prince”. Soaring tenor voice to lift the heaviest of hearts. Became a staple of every alco-zonked campus gathering, commonly performed at close of play, standing on tables, waving pints. Drink! Drink! Drink!
 So surely it is time for “Grass! Grass! Grass!”
 The scientific case for legalising marijuana is conclusive. Tobacco is a carcinogen. Alcohol causes heart disease and liver-rot. But there is no evidence whatsoever that marijuana is harmful - other than on account of being commonly smoked mixed with tobacco.
 The latest confirmation comes from data assembled by researchers from the New York Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The key finding is that, “States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical cannabis laws.”
Not only is it untrue that cannabis leads to harder drugs, but moves towards legalisation lower the rates of opiate use and resultant death-rate. The law against cannabis is a danger to health. They should be handing out packets of grass to young people at risk.
It was as long ago as 1967 that The Times carried a full-page ad signed by politicians, lawyers, doctors, Beatles and believers in freedom declaring that, “The law against cannabis is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice”. The world has been transformed out of all recognition since. But the drugs laws in these parts have stayed stupid. The more I think on it, the madder it seems, and the madder I get.
There should be a civil rights campaign for cannabis on every campus. Go on. Be a student prince for the times that are in it.
(Incidentally, do you know of anyone who has ever bought a packet of king-sized Rizlas for any purpose other than rolling joints?)

Nothing in recent times has so starkly illustrated the gap in the mind-sets of North and South as coverage of Gerry Anderson’s death.
Gerry turned sideways to the sun on August 21st, same day as Albert Reynolds. In the North, every newspaper and broadcast bulletin led with Gerry’s death, followed by two or three pages inside. Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, a bevy of bishops, a swarm of media big-wigs and a medley of music and literary stars issued statements of sadness and sympathy. Them who hadn’t known him felt it necessary to over-blow an anecdote.
Gerry presented by far the most popular radio programme in the North. He was a mixture of Gay Byrne, Brendan O’Carroll and Dave Fanning with an additional dollop of Zen and an engagingly dirty mind. He once suggested that an autobiography by a bishop titled “Mister, Are You a Priest?” - said to be a reference to a charming remark by an innocent child - had originally been called, “Why Have You Got Your Hand Down My Trousers, Mister - Are You a Priest?”
He was bassist with the Chessmen, then with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then with Toejam. Wrote the best-ever book about the Irish music scene, “Heads”.  Gave Junior Johnston, Connor Kelly, the Enchiladas and many others their first radio plays. A goodly portion of mourners at his funeral in St. Eugene’s Cathedral were members of bands from the Nerve Centre, Sandino’s etc. He
will be much missed by many, including me.
 
The reason for a boycott campaign against Israel is that the Palestinian people appealed nine years ago for non-violent action against the State which had driven them out of their homeland to make way for Jewish immigrants and which continues by force to refuse them basic civil rights.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was launched in response to a manifesto by 171 Palestinian non-governmental organisations asking for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law”.
The aim is not the destruction of the Israeli State, much less the expulsion of Israelis, but to pressurise Israel into compliance with international law. In all the circumstances, a modest ambition.
It is constantly complained that Israel is being picked on. Why no boycott of Saudi Arabia, where women are sorely repressed and human rights remain an abstract concept? The hypocrisy underlying the question is immense.
The Saudi dictatorship is supported and armed to the teeth by the western powers. Britain’s Al Yamaha deal to supply fighter-jets, bombers, helicopters, missile systems, artillery and all manner of other killing machines over 40 years is the biggest single export agreement in British history - worth £80 billion. The plight of the Saudi people hasn’t been an issue with any British government.
The only people I know campaigning for an end to arms sales to the Saudis also back BDS. The contradiction is entirely on the pro-Israel side.
 If you can’t find a BDS campaign group in your vicinity, maybe set one up?