In California, new campaigns for the legalisation of marijuana are getting attention in a country where penalties for possession are relatively strong. Cannabis Seeds UK residents possess, however, remain legal right up until they germinate, as a Harry Potter star found out this week.

Hogwart’s obese bully, Vincent Crabbe, has finally been put in his place, having found himself on the wrong side of the law this July. Jamie Waylett, the young actor that plays Vincent, has been arrested for growing quantities of strong cannabis from seeds, and for having several bags of the Class B drug in his car when he was stopped by police.

So it appears Jamie likes to indulge in his own magical spells whilst off-set, and when officers raided Jamie’s house and found ten plants next to his X-box, I imagine he wished Harry Potter was handy to make them disappear. The Metropolitan Police seized what is estimated to be several thousand pounds worth of plants he had grown from cannabis seeds. UK legal guidelines put in place by the Home Office suggest that the worst the weed-loving Hogwart’s wizard might face are five years for possession and up to fourteen years for cannabis production.

But Jamie might expect some of the leniency that celebrities such as Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty have come to expect. After all, he hasn’t been beating up photographers and driving erratically under the influence. The penalties the courts hand down for cocaine offences tend to be significantly more strong than cannabis seed-related offences, because one is class A and the other class B.

Currently, it’s perfectly legal in the UK for cannabis seeds to come into your possession. However, germinating the seeds and cultivating them into plants is not. This means you can buy marijuana seeds online so long as you resolve to do nothing with them.

Certainly you are asking for trouble if, like Jamie Waylett, you grow large volumes of plants from cannabis seeds in the UK, because the police cannot be sure that significant quantities aren’t intended for distribution rather than personal use.

It’s a very different situation in the United States, where 11 million Americans admit to using the drug regularly and illegally. Each state sets its own penalties for possession, use, sale or cultivation of marijuana, but in general the drug policies are less tolerant than in the UK. Cannabis seed cultivation in America remains a serious issue.

It has recently become a more publicised issue, too, as activists in California have paid for television adverts that attempt to reason with the state government by tempting them with a new source of income. The adverts suggest that legalisation could mean new opportunities for controls and taxation of cannabis, claiming that “taxes from California’s marijuana industry could pay the salaries of 20,000 teachers.” In a state suffering from severe budget issues, such a windfall could be welcome.

But until laws soften, American marijuana users will have to be careful. Although in Europe it is possible (and legal) to buy marijuana seeds online many companies will not mail their products to the USA where the penalties for possessing them are relatively strong. Cannabis seeds are safe in the hands of Europeans, it seems, but those Americans just can’t be trusted with them.

Robert Kane is the web editor of Sensible Seeds. Based in the UK, the company offers you the chance to buy strong cannabis seeds online at very competitive prices. They also offer a wealth of other products to browse as well as online articles and forum discussions.