Cannabis News UK

[simba]

Yeah hopefully, but think about how many people don't even read newspapers or ever watch the news.

 

[thecannabisapp]

Hi everyone,

My name is Jia (pronounced Jah). It's my pleasure to join this community. I've been vaping since I caught a glance of the Pax on Californication with David Duchovny for about ten years now. I've been using an Arizer Solo 2 for about seven years. It's the best dry herb vape for heavy-duty, low-maintenance use, and I drive it daily.

I'm the founder and creator of The Cannabis App. We are a private members' app for patients, doctors, clubs, growers, and businesses with end-to-end encryption.

I'm here to ask for your help and support to raise awareness for our campaign to legalise adult home growing and cannabis social clubs in the UK in 2024. We're on a mission to reduce harm and improve access to safe and legal weed. We want to legalise home growing of cannabis for adults and cultivation and sharing through cannabis social clubs.

We want to go to the Home Office next April 20th with 100,000 members to petition for the licenses to cultivate at home and for clubs for all our members to have the safety, legality and equity in legal cannabis from the grassroots community.

World-famous clubs like the Chillin Rooms in Liverpool are already signed up and supporting us. As a hobby grower myself, I really want us to have the rights to grow a plant that companies can, but private individuals and associations don't have this right at the moment, and we can't afford a £4,700 license from the home office currently offers. I'm a medicinal cannabis patient, so this is my medication. And I thought, why can't I grow this myself without being criminalised by the current laws in the UK?

There are over 2,500,000 people in the UK who will use cannabis in 2022. This is government data from the Office of National Statistics.

I want to accelerate the legalisation of adult home growing and cannabis social clubs in this country, and I need 100,000 of you to help by signing up to The Cannabis App so we can ask the Home Office and apply together.

The Cannabis App is a ready-made solution to reduce harm and improve access to safe and legal cannabis against the old stereotypes often highlighted by prohibitionist propaganda. Our app contains built-in ID and Age check, as well as actual end-to-end encryption and comprehensive tools and info to help patients, doctors, clubs, growers, clinics and businesses connect in a safe and secure environment.

Let's present the Home Office with an opportunity to improve the country. Let's legalise adult home growing and cannabis social clubs like Germany is doing. The Home Office allows companies to receive cannabis cultivation licenses, so extending the same courtesy to private individuals and associations through a similar license scheme is not impossible.

Let's legalise adult home growing and cannabis social clubs in 2024. That's why the app has been built. I was inspired by visiting Barcelona in 2018 and meeting Gary Youds (founder of Chillin Rooms) in 2020. It was because of Gary that this app is here. I wanted to build this app to help him operate the Chillin Rooms legally so we could have the same thing in the UK as the Spanish have.

If you are in favour of legalising adult home growing and cannabis social clubs in the UK in 2024, please join me and the 950+ members already signed up! Our app is entirely GDPR and HIPAA-compliant and does not store sensitive personal data for your safety and both our peace of mind.

I'm a tech guy with over a decade of experience with open-source and enterprise software at large corporations and startups. I know all the tools and methods these companies use to stay compliant and safe with laws and regulations.

With your help, I hope we can get to 100,000 before April 20th 2024, allowing us to take the initiative in this conversation. Medicinal cannabis has been legal since Nov 2018. That was over five years ago. Since then, 99% of cannabis users still can't access or afford the clinic's services. Our grassroots community has been split, bought out, and forgotten, and progress for legalisation has been halted since then. But we are here to change this and tell you there's always hope and a way, if we can work together.

Impossible is nothing!

Please help us by sharing this message on social media in the other forums, and share our media images and videos wherever and with whomever you can. We need 100,000 members before April 20th 2024, so together, we can push for the legalisation of adult home growing and cannabis social clubs in 2024!

You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube @thecannabisapp.

Thank you all for indulging me by reading this far, and I hope some of you will join me on this exciting adventure! I look forward to engaging with you here and on thecannabis.app

Jia

 

[simba]

Got a github link for the app?

 

[thecannabisapp]

Got a github link for the app?

It's in a private repo atm. The code and features are unstable, so it's not ready to be open-source like more mature products. Please keep in mind that we're about to reach 1,000 members, and our goal is 100,000. There's a long way to go, so now isn't the time. If you are technically minded, I'm sure you can work out whether the claims of real end-to-end encryption are accurate without access to source code. But I'm open to outsourcing it in the future, so watch this space!

 

[simba]

Well it's more to do with trust. Why should I trust you with this data? If it was open-sourced then I have more confidence. The fact you've got it closed-source means that you could get to x amount of users and then sell the app with all the data.

Please be clear, I'm not staying you're going to do that, but it's a reasonable concern IMO. Especially because it's specifically looking for people who want to home grow legally, a portion of which may already be doing said activity.

 

[thecannabisapp]

Well it's more to do with trust. Why should I trust you with this data? If it was open-sourced then I have more confidence. The fact you've got it closed-source means that you could get to x amount of users and then sell the app with all the data.

Please be clear, I'm not staying you're going to do that, but it's a reasonable concern IMO. Especially because it's specifically looking for people who want to home grow legally, a portion of which may already be doing said activity.

No worries. Trust is a valid concern and a great question. I won't sell anyone's data, as this would be illegal. We're not like some of the patient card schemes, which ended up being a vast data-grabbing exercise.

I'm a home grower, and I'm passionate about clubs. And I have over a decade of experience in tech, so I've seen how tech has been abusing user data. That's why we're using end-to-end encryption and giving each member control over their data.

We don't store any sensitive data either. If you sign up, you'll see that I have deliberately chosen to ask for the minimum amount of data as needed.

There are ways to obfuscate your identity if you want to try the app out. I have confidence the members of this forum are well-versed in privacy techniques and have heard of a VPN before

Besides this personal assurance and my word, you must go with your guts. Always the best option.

 

[simba]

What I don't understand is why you talked about your open-source experience then decided to make this closed-source?

I also don't understand how the app is going to help legalisation of home growing vs. a similar number of people signing a petition?

 

[thecannabisapp]

What I don't understand is why you talked about your open-source experience then decided to make this closed-source?

I also don't understand how the app is going to help legalisation of home growing vs. a similar number of people signing a petition?

Great questions!

The app is a vehicle and solution to demand our collective rights to home growing in private and legalising cultivation for cannabis social clubs. My friend Gary Youds and I are both avid home-growers and want everyone to have this right legalised by the Home Office. A petition doesn't provide a solution. It only creates work for the mandarins in Whitehall. Our goal is to convince them of the benefits of legalising while removing the effort needed from them to implement their system (gov IT contracts cost millions and take years). It's an oven-ready solution with features that they can adopt by simply changing the wording in MDA 71 to enable this next year.

The harm from illicit drugs costs taxpayers 19.3 billion pounds a year. With 100,000 members, legalising adult home growing and cannabis social clubs could net the public purse somewhere around 120 million pounds a year from VAT, save us money on policing, and reduce the burden on jails. With over 99% of 2.5 million cannabis users without access to medicinal cannabis appointments and can't afford private prescriptions, the only practical solution is to legalise home growing and clubs like in Germany and Malta.

I made a video on YouTube discussing the possibility of legalisation in the UK in 2024. If you want to check it out, here is the link.

Without risking sounding like a parrot, I'm open to the idea of open-sourcing the app when the features are more mature. Just because I have experience using open-source software doesn't mean the project needs open-sourcing. I haven't decided to make this close source. There are practical considerations such as code quality and feature stability to consider when open-sourcing a project, so this isn't feasible while we're still a work-in-progress.

Looking at the source code also won't address your original concerns about bad actors selling user data. For the avoidance of doubt, doing this without user consent is illegal both in the UK and in the EU. We're trying to create a legal path for everyone to enjoy their freedom to cultivate in private, not go to prison.

If you're a software engineer with Typescript and SwiftUI experience and would like to contribute towards our effort to legalising home growing and cannabis social clubs in 2024, you can reach out to me on Github or via Instagram and Twitter @thecananbisapp

 

[simba]

Without risking sounding like a parrot, I'm open to the idea of open-sourcing the app when the features are more mature. Just because I have experience using open-source software doesn't mean the project needs open-sourcing. I haven't decided to make this close source. There are practical considerations such as code quality and feature stability to consider when open-sourcing a project, so this isn't feasible while we're still a work-in-progress.

Looking at the source code also won't address your original concerns about bad actors selling user data. For the avoidance of doubt, doing this without user consent is illegal both in the UK and in the EU. We're trying to create a legal path for everyone to enjoy their freedom to cultivate in private, not go to prison.

So I think you're being above board in general, but I don't agree having it open source would compromise code quality, it's not like any PR could get approved and merged without your say so. But I get you think differently which is fair enough.

Selling user data on its own would be illegal, but selling an app with registered users that are associated to data isn't illegal.

 

[thecannabisapp]

So I think you're being above board in general, but I don't agree having it open source would compromise code quality, it's not like any PR could get approved and merged without your say so. But I get you think differently which is fair enough.

Selling user data on its own would be illegal, but selling an app with registered users that are associated to data isn't illegal.

I have no plans and zero intent to sell anyone's data or the app to a 3rd party.

 

[simba]

I have no plans and zero intent to sell anyone's data or the app to a 3rd party.

Yeah probably not, but I'm just saying quoting the law in this scenario isn't as complete a defence as you make out.

One more point I'll say, I'm not sure why you made this an app and not a website/progressive web app. As it restricts your potential audience, and means you have two different code bases between the Android and iOS apps.

 

[thecannabisapp]

Yeah probably not, but I'm just saying quoting the law in this scenario isn't as complete a defence as you make out.

One more point I'll say, I'm not sure why you made this an app and not a website/progressive web app. As it restricts your potential audience, and means you have two different code bases between the Android and iOS apps.

The app is a PWA. The iOS version using SwiftUI is in the works and will be out sometime next year!

 

[simba]

Why do you need an iOS app then if it's a PWA? It should work on iOS? Also you will have problems trying to get it onto the App Store. Apple don't like vape apps, so an app with cannabis in the name is highly unlikely to be cleared.

 

[thecannabisapp]

Why do you need an iOS app then if it's a PWA? It should work on iOS? Also you will have problems trying to get it onto the App Store. Apple don't like vape apps, so an app with cannabis in the name is highly unlikely to be cleared.

Some people prefer a native iOS app. Also, Apple is going to allow side-loading sometime next year.

 

[simba]

Also, Apple is going to allow side-loading sometime next year.

I'll believe it when I see it, I mean never say never, but it's unlikely IMO.

 

[thecannabisapp]

I'll believe it when I see it, I mean never say never, but it's unlikely IMO.

Fair enough! Trust your eyes! But you can find cannabis apps on Apple's app store in America, such as Weedmaps, and Eaze. Side-loading is an EU thing which Apple has to follow. Going to bed now. Night night!

 

[simba]

Fair enough! Trust your eyes! But you can find cannabis apps on Apple's app store in America, such as Weedmaps, and Eaze. Side-loading is an EU thing which Apple has to follow. Going to bed now. Night night!

Yeah I looked at Apple plans to sidestep by using the MDM functionality for companies to roll out. So I wouldn't bank on that being an easily accessed feature for standard users.

 

[Cheebsy]

I wish you the best luck @thecannabisapp and hopefully success. Unfortunately I can't join anonymously so I won't be helping the cause.

 

[thecannabisapp]

Thank you @Cheebsy for the kind wishes

 

[Copacetic]

Great back and forth here between @thecannabisapp and @Cheebsy here, I enjoyed that. Seems like tca (hope you dont mind the abbreviation) had pretty good answers to Cheebsy's (very valid and insightful) concerns.
Your app and goals sound great cannabisapp, I hope this takes off and helps the cause.
Have you considered posting on the r/ukmedicalcannabis subreddit?
I believe there are now around 30,000 legally prescribed UK medical users.
I imagine your goals align well with the vast majority of those folk, and they won't have the same privacy concerns as all us (rightfully) paranoid shadow dwellers!
Worth considering? I don't want to divert traffic away from FC (my vaping alma mater) but I don't know of a dedicated thread here for legal UK patients yet? (please correct me if I'm wrong, I confess I haven't looked).
And good luck going forward.

 

[Cheebsy]

Great back and forth here between @thecannabisapp and @Cheebsy here,

The majority of that back and forth was with @simba , and I agree I enjoyed it too

 

[thecannabisapp]

Have you considered posting on the r/ukmedicalcannabis subreddit?

Hi Copacetic! Yes, I have posted there, and my message was removed. I've messaged the mods to ask for permission, but no one is responding. Sadly, medicinal cannabis has become quite polarising in the grassroots community as many advocates seem to have abandoned efforts to push for home growing and cannabis social clubs. We're trying this again now to rejuvenate and galvanise the community around a new way to approach legalisation through the app since it's a compliant solution to many government requirements.

In the meantime, I've made a new video on the history of cannabis so everyone can see why I think 2024 may be a pivotal year for the legalisation of home growing and cannabis social clubs in 2024.

Thank you for your kind wishes. We will certainly give it a go and see what happens!

 

[thecannabisapp]

Hi everyone,

Jia again, it's Feburary and almost 3 months have passed since my last video on legalisation. So here it is, the February 2024 legalisation update with news from USA, Germany, and of course, I discuss what's happening, or lack of, here in the UK.

Thanks for you for your support and look forward to answering any questions you have over the video and topics discussed.

Happy 420 and FC!

 

[Xenkishøtz]

The newest protest anthem advocating for the legalisation of cannabis in the UK. The THTV crew smashed this out the park, for real. Prod by yours truly. (feel free to check out our other stuff, too! Full Mixtape coming soon)

TØMBHØUSE TV - Hash It Out (prod. Xenkishøtz)

 

[CANtalk]

'Zombie' drug xylazine found in cannabis THC vapes in UK

Cannabis vapes are being sold containing the dangerous animal tranquiliser xylazine, experts say.

www.bbc.co.uk