Coffeehouse Culture; Plain Text; Page One; Article Four

	COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE -- Issue 1
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	PAGE ONE; ARTICLE FOUR; NEWS STORY This was our front page lead story in the paper publication 8^.5 MILLION PEOPLE CAN'T BE WRONG But The UK Government Could Although written n the autumn of 1998, when the UK's Government was rather less well established than it has since become, the main point of this story has not changed. Although the lies, damned lies and statistics might have changed, there are a lot of smokers in the UK. Indeed, enough to make a real difference one way or another to the way the country is run.
	Tony Blair's New Labour Government needs money. Committed to sticking to the Tories' spending plans and with a whole lot of expensive new measures of its own in hand, 'New' Labour has real money problems. However, a solution is at hand. As Coffeehouse Culture reveals in its lead Cannabisness story (see 'Let the Good Times Roll', page 4), the UK has a new and vibrant growth industry that could easily produce the necessary funds to secure the already faltering reputation of Tony Blair's government. With these funds, Blair would no longer find it necessary to tighten the screws on the poverty-stricken to support the health service, education changes and other measures that have been 'promised'. The potential money-spinner for the UK Government is the large and growing domestic cannabis industry. With over 23% of 16 to 25 year olds in the UK smoking cannabis on a regular basis, the size of this industry can only be guessed at but in any terms it must be viewed as extremely large. With suitable licensing and taxation measures in place the cannabis industry could provide Tony Blair's Government with all the funds it needs. While licensing and taxing the cannabis industry might be an extreme response to Blair's financial problems, it would certainly solve the Government's dilemma. Such a move would, of course, be beyond the Government's courage or imagination without a major repositioning of cannabis in the public arena. Although a cannabis public-profile 'makeover' might seem to be an unachievable dream, it is not impossible. Nonetheless, Coffeehouse Culture will be doing everything it can to help the Blair Government, as it is doing what it can for the Dutch Government. The Coffeehouse Culture 'Support From Unexpected Quarters' Initiative with governments is just one of the ways in which Coffeehouse Culture will be trying to integrate the cannabis culture into society as a whole. The pivot of its activities on behalf of the cannabis community will, however, be based on the phenomenon that is represented by Amsterdam's coffeeshop society as it emerges as a full culture.

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