Peter Hitchens' Half Hour | 10-October-22

[@talktv]

Should marijuana be made a class A drug?

[@seandelap8587]

No prohibition doesn't work and why pick and choose when cigarettes and alcohol are legal so why is that any different.

[@stephfoxwell4620]

Absolutely yes. A dangerous , insidious evil spreading paranoia, mental health problems and bad driving.

[@bunneybeast]

No. It should be legalised

[@sdrawkcabUK]

@@seandelap8587 because destroying your lungs with tobacco and getting angry and violent after 10 pints is fine, but popping a pill at a rave or chilling with some reggae and a spliff is not. Makes sense 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Midland_Wolf_71]

GROW UP you reactionary fools…. The strength of the strains currently available should be minitored as its no longer the stuff of the 80s/early 90s, but on the whole, Class A…… seriously? Should 40% proof spirits be made Class A too? Numpties...

[@mattwarrilow]

Peter is at his best in this format, someone who lets him talk

[@jonatha_nbarron]

We are so lucky we get to hear this man every week, honestly, Peter is a national treasure.

[@tanman966]

Hitchens’ 20 minutes

[@stephfoxwell4620]

27 today.

[@graemecreegan6749]

A few nights ago I sat and watched a 30 minute reportage program about the de-criminalisation of marijuana in Thailand around 6 months ago. When it ended I changed channels and immediately saw live reports of the mass shooting of children at a pre-school in Thailand by an ex-policeman who was sacked for drug offences ☹️

[@markfarnon6742]

Excellent point 👏

[@sn4831]

So if it was legal he wouldn’t have been sacked

[@graemecreegan6749]

@@sn4831 the point is he is a known drug user and he shot dead 24 children and 8 adults. This is exactly the type of correlation Hitchens was talking about.

[@Ste2023]

Great listen . Peter 💪

[@maryhook9478]

Labour loves bog standard schools for others but send their own children to private or selective schools.

[@chrisruss9861]

Same with Australian teachers. They have the excuse their kid can't go to the same school where they work or the privately run school has a good music course or the like.

[@seandelap8587]

Very interesting discussion guys.

[@gb194]

A combative 10 mins during early days of COVID has morphed into the best half hour of radio in the UK Utterly compelling.

[@thesmallnotesduo]

And whose position has been vindicated by events? Peter has foresight.

[@gb194]

@@thesmallnotesduo cutting thru with working man as well. A football supporters club in Dundee has been named after him.....Peter Hitchens dark blues ......who would have thought that even possible

[@thesmallnotesduo]

@@gb194 He is helping keep us all FREE

[@gb194]

@@thesmallnotesduo agree

[@deepzepp4176]

“Paramilitary social workers”. Hitchens is hilarious.

[@_swagmeister]

Didn’t know about the uvalde shooter being a marijuana addict, and I live in Texas. Thanks Peter for spreading awareness

[@AgnosticSpaceCreature]

all these ppl who think their better than poor ppl because they sit in a chair talking, what a talent

[@RAFchurchlawford4469]

*they're better

[@AgnosticSpaceCreature]

@@RAFchurchlawford4469 you must be even better, would love to see how good they are if we got invaded

[@AgnosticSpaceCreature]

@@RAFchurchlawford4469 end of the day there's only so much space for privileged positions, much better talent on the street, their a bunch of flowers who think they know best

[@amant7963]

hard work pays off, begging like a dog for free handouts will keep you jealous & whining

[@nelsano3]

I love Peter

[@paulpenfold2352]

Peter Hitchens is like the owl in Winnie the Pooh

[@nafeesmuktadir3199]

Make a hitchen's one hour 20 mins seem useless

[@michealkelliher8428]

The Comprehensive School model here in Ireland is an excellent model. It does exactly what it says on the tin, Comprehensive education. Unfortunately, there's only 6 of them. As for drugs, drugs are drugs, pure and simple. If alcohol were invented today, it wouod never be allowed.

[@markbateman9222]

Education started to suffer when governments started to boast that better exam results (measured by higher grades) was a mark of that government's success. This led, inevitably, to grade inflation and the destruction of the exam system as a serious measure of attainment. It was Margaret Thatcher who closed our local grammar school; luckily I got five years there, up to O level.

[@martincassels7995]

What we do know is that Hitchins is not an addict. Marijuana is not that addictive physically compared to Heroin but it’s definitely more damaging psychologically. I agree with his comments on hash but addiction is not that easy. Addicts do not care about the law!!!

[@GuyLegge]

I've been searhing around for this piece of "research" by John Marks and Baroness Cox and can't find it. Strange?

[@michaelking2058]

Do you not see the irony of a knight of the realm is the leader of the Labour party

[@seanmoran2743]

Skunk is not Marijuana

[@stephfoxwell4620]

Thatcher closed more Grammars than Labour.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

I think Hitchens has mentioned this a few times before. It's also ironic given she was a grammar schoolgirl herself, benefitted from that system - and probably couldn't of progressed to university and the higher echelons of British life if she hadn't attended that type of school.

[@RAFchurchlawford4469]

@@alphabetaxenonzzzcat 👍(*couldn't have)

[@allenomalley4014]

I went to a comprehensive school wish I could escape it tbh I’d be chuffed to have gone grammar or private

[@habu179]

Can't quite understand the host pretending to have a drink ?

[@GluepfirSICH]

The Mike Graham 1 second sip is rather annoying it incessantly disrupts the 20 minutes of Hitchinsolence

[@rww805]

Peter Hitchen's almost 20 minutes

[@NGE0001]

two BIG problems with his arguments. 1: Everyone pays high taxes now so why should my money be disproportionately spend sending a kid a bit brighter than my son to a Grammar school when I could use that money to top-up my sons education with a tutor. 2: most schools have a grammar stream/league where the brighter kids are taught at a higher levels with the added benefit it is not age specific (join at 13,15 etc) leaving out the 11+ exam who even the designer of that exams says is flawed

[@dantean]

It's when he gets on to his pet subject--marijuana--that you're reminded how Hitchens and the Right in general always busy themselves maintaining near complete irrelevance. Servicing the United States in their proxy war against Russia at the expense of heating this coming winter MATTERS, not whether some people prefer cannabis to alcohol for entertainment. And no, I'm not suggesting kids in school should be doing either, before anyone says anything.

[@GuyLegge]

Mike Graham and Peter Hitchens hammering comprehensive schools is not valid broadcasting. If one visits the House of Commons Library online one can download a pdf of postwar educational statistics that totally rubbishes what they are saying. Betwen 1964 and 1994 the school population in comprehensives went from 7% to over 90 % and all academic standards rocketed. Peter has been promising us his book on how exams have been dumbed down for ages and it has never appeared.

[@Ruda-n4h]

Academic standards went down and the exams became easier which is why the statistics went up. Peter's book will be out soon.

[@jamiejack764]

My hero

[@e.g.7612]

I’m ambivalent on the matter. In theory yes, but it just seems that quite a few negative consequences attend to legalization

[@7QHook]

looking forward to the v*ccine becoming a topic of the show again, soon.

[@sdrawkcabUK]

Love PH but not on drugs. He blames the users for funding criminals - that’s because the product they want is illegal. If they could buy it in gov-approved shops they would and that would be less money for the cartels (not to mention the time and resources police waste trying to indict these people)

[@gray41]

Not true it still be on streets infact street sellers sell more in America since it legalised than before as its cheaper.

[@seanmoran2743]

@@gray41 Have you noted the crime rates in the USA Sky High is one phrase I’d use.

[@tsuich00i]

So we should make a drug lord of the government.. Exactly how does that advance the cause of public health? We should do what places like Singapore, Japan and South Korea have accomplished and take serious punitive measures that actually hinders the poisoning of society.

[@СаваСтанковић-с7к]

Oh yes, that is how we got rid of cigarettes and alcohol from the black market. Worked like a charm!

[@sdrawkcabUK]

​@@seanmoran2743 many reasons for that. Effectively decriminalising 'minor' crimes like shoplifting, discouraging police from enforcing the law etc. Funding drug addiciton is one reason. That will always be a problem, legal or illegal.

[@seandelap8587]

Surely by legalising it would take control away from the drug lords and why look at the worst case scenario when the vast majority of people who smoke Marijuana take it for recreational use anyway.

[@Raynes79]

Painfully dull.

[@seanmoran2743]

Have some soma

[@boscinet]

1/4 minute of Peter Hutchens is too long! never mind 1/2 hour

[@boscinet]

I mean Hitchens.....silly boy.

[@seanmoran2743]

Closed Mind’s never learn David

[@boscinet]

@@seanmoran2743 I would rather listen to his deceased brother

[@rewdwarf123]

I think you've spent more than 15 seconds on this thread.

[@boscinet]

@@rewdwarf123 True, but not with PH (this took 4 seconds)