“I would have thought that a Police Caution would have been more than adequate in this case. My reason for stating this is that quite often burglars are not even charged. Have a pimple in your tyre though or go a couple of miles an hour over the speed limit and its a completely different matter and nowadays it is often said that only middle class decent people are prosecuted.

One infamous case that I heard about was that of a prolific Plymouth "joyrider". He stole a car yet again and was driving at 60mph in a 30mph zone and running red traffic lights. He was only caught because of traffic congestion. Now in my book he'd be guilty of theft of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, driving without insurance, driving without a licence and exceeding the speed limit. Allegedly the judge said "This is a really serious matter so I'm going to increase your three month suspended prison sentence to a six month suspended prison sentence". In other words the man was let off and later he was seen laughing once he go outside the court.

Cannabis is highly recommended in the Extra Pharmacopoeia of 1896 and allegedly Queen Victoria used to use it. Prohibitionists have of course made it illegal. Even Coca-Cola has been denatured as it no longer contains the active ingredient. In this nanny state I am frequently amazed that I can still buy Indian Tonic Water but "they" are probably working on it. Over here you cannot even buy travel sickness patches as they are prescription only (the great advantage of patches is that they cannot be retched-up)

Possibly it is felt that Cannabis produces a dopey idle workforce but if there are no jobs or if people are retired what is the problem?”

“Words fail me. This man consumed cannabis in his own home harming nobody. Who does the judge think he is giving an senior citizen an electronic tag and a curfew?? What does he think the guy is gonna do??

Cannabis is a harmless herb, not a drug. Time to light a fat one in this guys honour.”

“End the prohibition of cannabis.

Minimise all health and social harms.

Pull the rug from under organised crime.

Boost the UK economy by up to £9.3 billion per annum.

Permit the use of one of the safest and most effective medicines known to man.”

“How disgusting our authorities should waste tax payers money prosecuting an OAP for growing a plant that is far less dangerous than both legal alcohol and tobacco, and even has medicinal qualities.

M Matthews has enjoye this wonderful herb for 50 years and I hope he continues to enjoy it; I'm sure he just told the judge what he wanted to hear to avoid being sent to gaol.”

“at a time when we can not clean hospitals , when we can not keep abusers in prison and when we can not walk safe in any city any night because we can not afford the investment our police have so much time and money they can waste it by going out looking for cannabis a non toxic non addictive and according to all the latest advice from G,W pharma a very safe drug, and they would know they grow 300 tons of the super skunk cannabis and sell it all over the world with a government approved licence when was the last time the police closed down an home brewery for producing one of the most harmful substances know to man alcohol ? in fact when was the last time the police closed down a bar for selling drink to a drunk? i think the chief constables all over the U,K need to get some priority's in order instead of wasting any more money looking for hash”

“People will look back on this era of Cannabis prohibition much as we now look back and see how stupid alcohol prohibition was. This is all so damaging to society and every day the damage gets worse and harder to recover from. Can you imagine the power that the likes of Al Capone would now wield if the alcohol prohibition had been allowed to continue for nearly 100 years? They would have enough legislators in their pockets so that they could influence governments and ensure that alcohol prohibition continued. Now that is exactly the position the "drug barons" are in today. For this reason I believe that legalisation of Cannabis is the most urgent issue on this planet today.
What we need, instead of a blanket prohibition of Cannabis, is a proper legally regulated supply that will benefit the U.K. economy through huge tax revenues and free up the resources of the police and courts to deal with real crimes. Most of all a properly regulated supply will protect young people, as it is in the area of Age Limits that prohibition has proven such a huge failure. In countries where there is provision for the legal supply of Cannabis to adults the use of Cannabis, and indeed other substances as well, is greatly reduced amongst youngsters. This is because the licensed suppliers know full well that if they are caught supplying to minors they stand to lose their licence, so they just don't do it. Whereas in good old Blighty we have to soldier on with prohibition giving the whole market straight into the hands of dealers who simply want to see your money, they will sell Cannabis to anyone of any age. And that's not all! These unscrupulous dealers are often likely to say "Oh sorry, I couldn't get any weed this week, this other stuff is all they had, why don't you try some?" and then proceed to offer Heroin.
So, legalise, regulate and tax the supply of Cannabis for a Britain that is happier, less violent and more affluent.”

“This judge is about as far as you can get from the real world (along with all his gin swilling mates). What has this poor bloke done. Surely he is living proof of the safeness and efficacy of cannabis in keeping us healthy. And meanwhile GW Pharmaceuticals grow 20 tons of high quality, high potency cannabis in six large greenhouses in Kent, extract all the active ingredients, bottle it and sell it to the NHS at ten times the street price - all with full government blessing. They are doing the same as this poor chap but on a huge scale. Why are they not arrested?? These ridiculous laws are designed to do one thing, and one thing only, - PROTECT THE PROFITIBILITY OF BIG PHARMA, TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL INTERESTS.”

“Has Kenneths use of cannabis over the past 50 years ever been a problem to society? Does punishing an OAP (morally, practically or economically) benefit society? He was not participating in the drugs trade (he grew his own) nor dealing, there are no victims of his 'crime' and cases like this emphasise why we need to change the current drug laws.”

“how can somebody supposedly as wise and knowledgeable as judge harvey clark not realise that drinking eating and vaporising herbs for many is the desired form of consumption.
surely somebody as ill informed should not be in a position as to be sentencing people for what to the majority of us living in the real world see as a nonsense, depriving people of their medicine and right to liberty and freedom is not what the police cps and judiciary should be concentrating their resources on, why do they not set about tackling real crime?”

“To threaten people with imprisonment over a victimless crime , is fear control, we need logical reasons for the laws to work for all, it is legal to grow cannabis in the UK, yet we the eventual users, weather we grow or have to buy from the pharmacy or the underground marked , are being punished to protect the vested interests already consumer share markets, I will strongly speculate!

A suspended sentence helps no one, just adds fear to Kenneth Matthews, who has been using the 'safest' choice of recreational substance that has many health benefits, of the individual and society!

Human Rights with consumer rights is what we DEMAND, cause locking us away ain't gonna stop people like myself tbs!”