The time is right to decriminalise cannabis
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Your support makes all the difference.Today, the Independent on Sunday calls for the personal use of cannabis to be decriminalised.
The paper's reasons are outlined by Rosie Boycott, the editor, writing in Section Two and supported by strong arguments from a leading policeman and a consultant psychiatrist. The paper's campaign will continue until the law is changed and possession of marijuana for personal use is no longer an offence.
Already, well-known names from the arts, business, higher education and law are backing the paper's cause. Their names also appear in Section Two and will be added to in the coming weeks. This is the first time a national newspaper has sought the lawful use of cannabis for medicinal and recreational purposes.
The campaign comes as the Government prepares to appoint its first US-style "drugs tsar" to co-ordinate the anti-drugs efforts of the police, customs, intelligence services and social service. Interviews for the position took place last Tuesday with ministers alighting on one "favoured candidate". However, the appointment, which was expected to be announced in Tony Blair's conference speech on Tuesday, may be delayed for logistical reasons.
Once Parliament reconvenes after the party conference season, MPs from all sides are expected to argue for the law to be changed. Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport East and a consistent campaigner for decriminalisation, yesterday signed the Independent on Sunday petition for decriminalisation. Mr Flynn said: "We have lost the drugs battle in Britain."
An industrial chemist before he entered Parliament, Mr Flynn, who has never smoked or eaten cannabis, is one of a growing number of MPs who think that the law should be relaxed. He and his colleagues will ask the all-party Drugs Misuse Group at Westminster when it meets on 5 November to back new research to establish the virtues of cannabis use, with the aim of directing Parliamentary opinion in favour of reform. Lord Mancroft, another reformist, will also back the move to bring decriminalisation into the mainstream of political activity.
Their efforts are likely to attract a hostile reaction from Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, but Mr Flynn, Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year, is undeterred. "In July, the Government told me 50 per cent of young women and 70 per cent of young men have used illegal drugs," he told the Independent on Sunday yesterday. "At raves, it's a phenomenal 90 per cent who break an unenforceable law. Police prefer dealing with friendly huggers at raves rather than handling violent, puking drunks."
Mr Flynn added: "Is the answer to get tough, to crack down on pushers and users? It's been done and failed. America has had a 20-year war against drugs. The result? Drug use, drug crime are the worst they have ever been."
Drugs campaign, Section 2
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