SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY, LONDON
CULTIVATION OF CANNABIS RESEARCH: GUIDANCE NOTES
The guidance notes below have been written to help clarify questions and ensure standardised answers from all respondents. If you have any further questions please phone/email either:
Tiggey May0207 815
Hamish Warburton0207 815
Question
9. There are obvious benefits associated with cultivating your own cannabis. However, we are interested in the reason or reasons that first made you want to cultivate it. For example, was it simply to make money? Or was there a reason why you needed to make money (a bill you needed to pay)? Did you start in order to save money? Or did you seek a higher quality product? Alternatively, you may have started cultivating out of curiosity, or to simply see if you could grow a cannabis plant.
11. Your reason(s) for cultivating maybe different now than when you originally started. If this is the case, could you outline how and why they have changed, and your current reasons for cultivating cannabis. For example, you may initially have started to make a little money selling to close friends, and now you simply grow for personal use. Or maybe, you initially started to cultivate cannabis out of curiosity, and now you enjoy cultivating high quality cannabis plants.
13. How easy was the information to find? How useful was the information? Could you provide us with specific details? For example, which books or internet sites you used, or whether a friend or acquaintance provided the expertise. Could you also detail any other source of information that you found useful.
14. There is no need to provide details on all the equipment you may use. If you could just briefly outline what equipment you have and how it is used. Potential equipment, for example, may included lights (please specify the type), rock wool, fans, pH testing equipment, heaters thermometers, hygrometers, electric fans, chemicals nutrients, etc.
25. A charge of cultivation is made under section 6 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. This charge tends to be made if the police believe that cannabis is being grown for personal use.
26. A charge of production is made under section 6 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. This charge tends to be made if the police believe that the cannabis is being grown for supply.
27. Could you describe the circumstance in which the police discovered that you were growing cannabis? Could you tell us what happened after you were charged? Were you found guilty or were the charges dropped? If you were found guilty, what sentence did you received? For example, a neighbour told the police that I was cultivating cannabis. The police then obtained a warrant, searched my property and confiscated the plants. Instead of going to court, I was given a police caution.
28. Could you describe the circumstance in which the police discovered that you were producing cannabis? Could you tell us what happened after you were charged? Were you found guilty or were the charges dropped? If you were found guilty, what sentence did you received? For example, a neighbour told the police that I was growing a number of cannabis plants. The police then obtained a warrant, searched my property and confiscated the plants and told be that they were going to take a sample for chemical analysis to establish the THC content. At court I was found guilty of production and supply of cannabis and received a six-month community sentence.
33. We are interested in your ideas and thoughts about how the law should change with regard to cannabis cultivation. For example, you may like to see cultivation legalised completely, or maybe enforced by civil fines rather than criminal sanctions. Perhaps you would like to see cannabis cultivation strictly regulated, for example, by requiring people to have a licence, limiting the number of plants and enforcing an age limit. Could you please outline the reasons for your suggestions.
34. Could you please outline what your understanding of reclassification is and what you think this will mean for those buying and possessing cannabis. For example, do you think that getting caught by the police will be less of a worry? Do you think more people will buy cannabis because of the reduced risk? Do you think there will be greater use of cannabis in public? Do you think that the police will ignore possession offences completely?