I submitted a proposal to Your Country Your Call on February 18th entitled “Green” promoting a change in the way we view the Cannabis Sativa plant. It was not the only proposal I submitted, there were others, including “Bring Back Glass Bottle Deposits”. “Renegotiate The Corrib Gas Deal” and “Free Computing, It’s Easy” (open sourcing public sector computers). Unfortunately I can’t link to “Green”, well I am, but it will only take you to a page that reads; “You are not authorized to view this idea.”

When I put it up on the site it was hidden from the chronological page view within several minutes and also removed from search results and tags. But the page remained. A few similar ideas sprang up in the following days only to be removed. A couple remained, which dealt only with industrial hemp but of course there were comments about a broader use of the plant. I linked in interested people from those proposals and they supported mine and commented about the censorship of ideas. It was nearly there for two weeks, hidden in limbo within the walls of the call, before it was deleted completely. This type of innovation it would seem was not in line with the spirit of the site. So what is the “spirit” of the site? Well maybe I will leave that one for later. For now I will press on and show you my idea. It’s not new, it has been said time and time again, but the usual response to it is “sure it would never work in Ireland”.

But it could and it should and someday it will, but not until after a lot of damage is done to society as a whole.

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So why was this pulled? Why is this discussion not allowed on the table? In the past few days another idea has been removed, one that had gotten over 8000 votes of support. This was “A Resourced Based Economy”, a proposal inspired by the idea behind the Venus Project for a sustainable economy heading toward utopia. This has been removed for what has been called “spamming”. It does seem apparent that there was a movement to get people onto the site to support it, a canvassing so to speak. Now while it does seem in this case that there was maybe something askew, it would not be the first proposal to employ this tactic, as the fifth most supported idea,“Talent Tank”, demonstrated. People who support the Venus Project have been bombarding YCYC’s Facebook page and the website itself with irate comments about the removal of the proposal. So while there may be some validity for the removal of that proposal, even if somewhat misguided, at least it was only removed after it became popular and garnered some attention.

My “Green” proposal however was obviously hidden, while a discussion probably took place about whether this sort of frank proposal could be tolerated. It wasn’t, it was removed, people might see it after all and that wasn’t an option.

In the last two weeks another hemp proposal has gone up, “Grow hemp as our new raw material”, this time getting the support of the Venus Project troops and bringing in 111 votes of support at last count. I can’t be sure, but mine got around about 20 votes and it wasn’t even visible to all. It is kind of fitting that the most supported proposal is for a pharmaceutical drug, LDN, given that marijuana for medical use has proven benefits in the same areas

as this manufactured drug. So what do the people behind Your Country Your Call say about this then?

This was put up on their blog last week…

Then there are five questions to ask yourself before submitting a proposal,

so I give you my answers…

Because it is green by name and green by nature and could do with a new economy boost.

At the heart of it, Ireland is a tolerant nation which has had to put up

with a lot of hassle. Apathy has crept in over the years and innovation

met naysayers standing in the way, talking about change but hesitant to

help any one but fein. The heart grow cold as it was swayed by greed. If we

can let go of the nosey neighbour psyche and seek community again,

we can really have a great and open future. Too much gets swept

under the carpet in this country.

Employment with result first off by giving farmers a new (albeit

ancient) crop to grow, for industrial hemp processing and for

medicinal and recreation use. So there is employment gained in

agriculture, processing, retail, health and tourism industries. Yes

we would attract hoards of peaceful hungry people from all around

the world, no it would not be as bad as the drunks we like to think

the rest of the world thinks we are. Let’s get over stereotypes.

Recreational drug use is not underground, nor should it be. It needs

to be in the open, to be safe and to be tolerated.

What with the frenzy

over headshops at the moment we need to step back and look at the

bigger picture. People are resorting to headshop products in lieu of

an illegal safer alternative, namely Cannabis. There is a huge

demand and thus a need for supply. The popularity of the headshops

has only served to make this point crystal clear. There is a lot of

money to be made, would you rather it be made by criminal gangs who

contribute nothing to society but fear?

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