Andrew Alexander uses his column in the Daily Mail to make the case for legalisation of drugs, starting from the current debate about what class cannabis should fall into:
For those who warmly applaud Gordon Brown’s declared desire to toughen up the law on cannabis, raising it from a Class C to Class B drug, there is always a simple question.
How would you react if your son, or perhaps your grandchild – otherwise law-abiding and blameless citizens – were caught with that drug and at once thrown in a cell and charged with a serious offence which resulted, if not in prison, at least in a criminal record which endangered future employment?
Perhaps you would protest in your grief that you did not believe the sterner law would affect your own family.
What you would certainly not do is praise the tougher regime, declaring how glad you are that your offspring now faces up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine, or both. That’ll learn them!
Elsewhere Eric Carlin uses his blog to express his dismay over the speculation around what the ACMD will say about cannabis classification:
If we can respect the confidentiality of clients in our drug services, we can do likewise in policy discussions which will have an important impact on them. The committee’s report will be published soon and the official spokespeople will explain the recommendations and rationale. As a new member, I was incredibly impressed by the depth and intelligence of the discussions about what are complex and difficult matters. It serves no-one, least of all the young people that we’re meant to be so concerned about, to pre-empt the launch of the report by trying to score cheap political shots in the media.
Filed under: ACMD, cannabis, classification , cannabis
Mp,s who are currently in favour of tougher penalties for
cannabis are using reasons that were caused by a tough approach.I refer to the stronger strains of skunk, it was
developed because it became increasingly harder to import
cannabis as customs and police became better at detecting it. Gangsters would rather put their efforts
into more profitable and easier drugs to smugle such as heroin and cocaine.
The war on drugs has created stronger strains of
cannabis and done very little to reduce use, and now they
use a problem they helped create to continue a failing
stratergy.