MAPS: UK: From The Beatles To Brixton, What A Long, Strange Trip

[Peter Webster <vignes@xxxxxxxxx>]

4 stories:

Pubdate: Sun, 10 Mar 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Simon O'Hagan

FROM THE BEATLES TO BRIXTON, WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN

It seemed so daring when 'The Independent on Sunday' began its campaign to
decriminalise cannabis. Simon O'Hagan reflects on how public and political
opposition went up in smoke

We have come a long way since police raided Ringo Starr's London flat in
the late 1960s and emerged triumphant with one and a half ounces of
cannabis. As the Beatles generation has grown up to be the leaders of
today, the use of cannabis has become so normalised, its effects long now
revealed to be so much less damaging than the establishment's scaremongers
would have had us believe, that decriminalisation has become almost inevitable.

That, however, is not to down-play the efforts of campaigners over many
years to force recalcitrant governments and police chiefs to look at the
issue dispassionately. As recently as 1997, when this newspaper took what
was then considered the daring step of calling for the decriminalisation of
the drug, the new Labour government refused even to countenance the idea.

Now we have a Home Secretary - David Blunkett - who has declared that
cannabis should lose its Class B status, which was all but an admission
that no casual user of the drug need fear prosecution. And with the news
that a committee advising Mr Blunkett has said that an experiment in
leniency in Brixton, south London, should be extended nationwide, the
argument is virtually over. To all intents and purposes, use of cannabis
today is no more a matter for police concern than is the smoking of
ordinary tobacco.

It is an extraordinary capitulation - an acknowledgement that the fears
surrounding its use are largely unjustified and that, while tobacco and
alcohol remain dangerous and legal, it is a nonsense that cannabis remains
harmless and banned. More important, there is a widespread consensus that
the law as it stands is wholly counterproductive in allowing criminals to
feed off it. Above all, with an estimated one in 10 people using the drug -
twice the European average - Britain's changing social mores demand a new
approach.

"Speaking as someone who takes his main pleasure from alcohol and
cigarettes, it seems to me entirely logical that all drugs should be
decriminalised," the playwright Alan Bleasdale, a supporter of the original
Independent on Sunday campaign, said yesterday. "If they legalised it
they'd remove crime from the streets and take the money from the bank
accounts of the bastards who sell drugs."

So how has this radical shift in policy come about? It was around the time
that the Beatles fell foul of the cannabis laws that a similar prosecution
of Mick Jagger prompted the then editor of The Times, William Rees Mogg, to
quote Alexander Pope's line about "breaking a butterfly on a wheel". The
Times ran a short-lived campaign, and a "Legalise Pot" movement was set up.
But while, over the next 30 years, cannabis use acquired increasing
acceptability, the authorities never saw it that way.

Any hope that New Labour might see cannabis differently was dashed when the
Home Secretary in its first administration, Jack Straw, declared himself
implacably opposed to decriminalisation, even as he set up the first "drugs
tsar", Kenneth Hellawell. Mr Straw drew the fire of The Independent on
Sunday, whose high-profile campaign supporters - from Sir Paul McCartney
and Nick Hornby to Anita Roddick and Mike Leigh - helped create a public
debate about cannabis use that would otherwise have been suppressed. Some
30,000 people attended a Decriminalise Cannabis march in London in early
1998, and the paper's then editor, Rosie Boycott, recalls that "we had
touched a popular nerve". Central to the argument was the plight of MS
sufferers, for whom cannabis provided proven relief. By 1999, even some
right-wing newspapers were calling for changes in the law, and condemned Mr
Straw for being too conservative on the issue.

Several shadow cabinet members are now urging Iain Duncan Smith to make
decriminalisation party policy as part of a more liberal approach on social
issues. Mr Blunkett would therefore be responding to opinion across the
political spectrum if he backed decriminalisation. Tony Blair has publicly
expressed his opposition in the past. But those close to him say he has
never had a "closed mind" on the issue.

Meanwhile, the police know the reality on the ground. As more pressing
priorities have crowded in, prosecutions have fallen away. According to the
most recent figures available, there were still 120,000 cases of cannabis
use dealt with by police in 1999. Anomalies persist, and how "offenders"
are dealt with depends largely on where they live. In 2000 we highlighted
the case of MS sufferer Lezley Gibson, who was put through a four-day trial
at Carlisle Crown Court after police raided her home and found her in
possession of eight grammes of cannabis. Only then was she found not
guilty. In other parts of the country, she would have received a warning.

No less a figure than the novelist P D James - Baroness James of Holland
Park - said yesterday: "I'm in agreement with the proposal to legalise it
for personal use. I think it's extremely important that it's available for
patients in need of it for medical reasons."

Ms Boycott said yesterday: "It's very good that the Government is
rethinking its drugs policy. This marks an important step. I'm delighted
that our campaign has borne such fruit."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Mar 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Sophie Goodchild, Home Affairs Correspondent

CANNABIS IS NOW JUST A SIGNATURE AWAY FROM LEGITIMACY. (OVER TO YOU, MR
BLUNKETT)

Relax Law, Say Government Advisers; Reform Would Be First For 30 Years; Lib
Dems Vote For Legalisation

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will be told this week by his official
panel of drug advisers to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C
drug. The change, which would enable users to smoke a joint in the street
without fear of arrest, would be the first relaxation of drug laws in
Britain for 30 years.

Yesterday, in a separate initiative, the Liberal Democrats became the first
major political party to vote for the full legalisation of cannabis. They
also voted for an end to prison sentences for those caught in possession of
other drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin, and called for ecstasy
to be downgraded from a Class A to a Class B drug.

The vote came as the Home Office considers recommendations from the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) that cannabis should be
given the same status as prescription tranquillizers such as valium, making
its possession a non-arrestable offence.

A source close to Mr Blunkett said last night the Home Secretary was now
"minded" to downgrade the drug. The advisory committee is considered the
authoritative voice on drugs classification and it would be unusual for the
Home Secretary to ignore its advice. The committee's findings will increase
pressure on Mr Blunkett to make a formal announcement of the reform the
laws on cannabis. A senior government source told The Independent on
Sunday: "He [the Home Secretary] said he was minded to do it [reclassify
cannabis]. He will make a final decision when all of the information is in
front of him."

As well as the committee's research, there are at least four other studies
being carried out into the policing of cannabis which are expected to be
presented to the Government over the next two months.

Next Wednesday, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation will reveal that up to
UKP50m a year is spent on policing cannabis and the time this involves is
equivalent to the work of 500 police officers a year. The Metropolitan
Police and the Police Foundation are also compiling separate reports into a
pilot scheme by police in Lambeth, south London.

Originally planned to last six months, senior officers have found the
scheme in Brixton, where cannabis users are not arrested but given
on-the-spot warnings, to be successful enough to warrant extending for the
time being.

An inquiry into drugs, including cannabis, is also being carried out by
members of the Home Affairs select committee who are expected to report to
the Government this April.

The debate over downgrading cannabis gained momentum last October when Mr
Blunkett announced that he had decided in favour of changing the law. He
proposed to end the power of police to arrest people caught with the drug
for their own use. This was partly so that officers could concentrate on
hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. His decision to change the drug laws
was announced to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

At the time, the Home Secretary emphasised that he was not decriminalising
or legalising cannabis. "Cannabis would remain a controlled drug and using
it a criminal offence," he said. "In spite of our focus on hard drugs, the
majority of police time is currently spent on handling cannabis offences.
It is time for an honest and common-sense approach focusing on drugs that
cause most harm."

The Home Secretary commissioned the ACMD to report on the medical and
social impact of cannabis. Their report was completed several weeks ago but
has been held on to by the Home Office.

Drugs charities and experts say they welcome the committee's report.

Roger Howard, chief executive of DrugScope, said he wanted the Government
to promise that there would be no fines or cautions for personal possession
of the drug.

"If this report is true, then DrugScope warmly welcomes it," he added.
"It's refreshing to see a Home Secretary at last moving towards a sensible,
logical and evidence-based drugs policy."

Viscountess Runciman, a former member of the committee and campaigner for
reform, said this was a "very significant development".

"This is not to say cannabis is a harmless drug," she added. "It does
remain a controlled drug. There is still a lot of incoherence in our laws.
This will bring the law in line with Brixton."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Mar 2002
Source: East Anglian Daily Times (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Eastern Counties Newspapers Group Ltd
Contact: eadtletters@xxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.eadt.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/913
Author: Graham Dines, Political Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MP VOTES AGAINST CANNABIS LEGALISATION

THE Liberal Democrats have become the first main party to back the
legalisation of cannabis -- despite the opposition of their MP for
Colchester.

At its spring conference in Manchester at the weekend, the party adopted as
official policy decriminalising and legalising the drug, scrapping jail
sentences for possession of any drug for personal use and the downgrading of
Ecstasy.

Colchester MP Bob Russell was the only MP who spoke against the policy and
he said: "I disagree with the conference decision. It will allow our
opponents to portray the Lib Dems as soft on drugs.

"My colleagues are as opposed to substance abuse as I am -- where we
disagree is the method of dealing with the problem.

"I don't think we should have changed party policy until the all-party home
affairs select committee, of which I am a member, has finished taking
evidence on decriminalising certain drugs and reported its conclusions to
findings."

Mr Russell added: "A teenager is more likely to die from an Ecstasy overdose
than being murdered by a complete stranger. We must be careful that we are
not sending out the wrong signal to voters."

After the vote, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said the conference
resolution - which also called for more rehabilitation facilities and
tougher sentences for people caught selling drugs near schools - was an
appropriate response to the problem.

"The party has decided that the criminal law should concentrate on the
dealers, traffickers and exploiters of drugs rather than the users who need
help and treatment," he added.

The party's home affairs spokesman, Simon Hughes, said the conference vote
to reclassify Ecstasy from a class A to class B drug recognised it was in a
different league from more dangerous substances such as heroin or crack.

Although the package is now official policy, party managers admitted that
did not mean it would necessarily feature in the party's manifesto at the
next election, saying there would not be room for every policy to be spelled
out in detail.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Mar 2002
Source: East Anglian Daily Times (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Eastern Counties Newspapers Group Ltd
Contact: eadtletters@xxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.eadt.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/913
Author: Graham Dines, Political Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MP VOTES AGAINST CANNABIS LEGALISATION

THE Liberal Democrats have become the first main party to back the
legalisation of cannabis -- despite the opposition of their MP for
Colchester.

At its spring conference in Manchester at the weekend, the party adopted as
official policy decriminalising and legalising the drug, scrapping jail
sentences for possession of any drug for personal use and the downgrading of
Ecstasy.

Colchester MP Bob Russell was the only MP who spoke against the policy and
he said: "I disagree with the conference decision. It will allow our
opponents to portray the Lib Dems as soft on drugs.

"My colleagues are as opposed to substance abuse as I am -- where we
disagree is the method of dealing with the problem.

"I don't think we should have changed party policy until the all-party home
affairs select committee, of which I am a member, has finished taking
evidence on decriminalising certain drugs and reported its conclusions to
findings."

Mr Russell added: "A teenager is more likely to die from an Ecstasy overdose
than being murdered by a complete stranger. We must be careful that we are
not sending out the wrong signal to voters."

After the vote, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said the conference
resolution - which also called for more rehabilitation facilities and
tougher sentences for people caught selling drugs near schools - was an
appropriate response to the problem.

"The party has decided that the criminal law should concentrate on the
dealers, traffickers and exploiters of drugs rather than the users who need
help and treatment," he added.

The party's home affairs spokesman, Simon Hughes, said the conference vote
to reclassify Ecstasy from a class A to class B drug recognised it was in a
different league from more dangerous substances such as heroin or crack.

Although the package is now official policy, party managers admitted that
did not mean it would necessarily feature in the party's manifesto at the
next election, saying there would not be room for every policy to be spelled
out in detail.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk


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