Cannabis News DrugSense
  Weed Cheaper Than Ale and Almost Legal
Posted by FoM on July 03, 2001 at 06:14:43 PT
By Liz Sly, Tribune Foreign Correspondent 
Source: Chicago Tribune 

cannabis There was no mistaking the aroma wafting over the market stalls Monday in the south London community of Brixton. It was the odor of marijuana, accompanied by the heady whiff of freedom.

This teeming, underprivileged corner of London, notorious as a haven for drugs and crime, has been chosen to pilot a small but significant experiment that could open the door to the decriminalization of marijuana in Britain. Starting Monday, and for the next six months, no one in the Brixton area caught in possession of the drug will be prosecuted, local police have announced.

"Man it's great," said Roger, 19, who refused to give his full name, as he exhaled a stream of smoke over the heads of local shoppers. "I heard it on the radio this morning, that now you can smoke where you like and the police can't do [anything] about it. It means we can relax, we don't have to hide indoors."

The new policy is not quite that relaxed. Those found in possession of small amounts will have their drugs confiscated and be issued a warning. But there will be no criminal record and police no longer will stop and search suspects, effectively making Brixton the first place in Britain where people can use marijuana without fear of being prosecuted.

For many residents, that will make little difference. Drug dealers already loiter openly among the stalls selling dried fish, plantain and reggae music to the largely Caribbean local population. Drug users travel to Brixton from all over London to stock up on supplies. "Brixton has always had the Bohemian reputation anyway," said Barry Klieff, a real estate broker optimistic about the implications for housing prices in the area. "If anything, this will give it a star appeal. It's only cannabis, loads of people smoke it all over London, and most of them are middle class people."

For Britain, the implications of what is happening in Brixton could be far more profound.

The initiative was launched by police with little fanfare and barely any comment from the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who campaigned on a platform of "zero tolerance" toward drugs when first elected in 1997. Since then, he has fallen silent on the issue and police are willing to become more lax. The government insists there are no plans to decriminalize marijuana. The Brixton experiment has been dismissed simply as a local initiative in an area battling to contain a far bigger problem with crack cocaine and heroin. But it has been tacitly endorsed by Home Secretary David Blunkett and approved by Scotland Yard, Britain's highest police authority.

Policy Draws Criticism, Praise

Critics have accused the government of seeking to legalize marijuana by stealth, avoiding the public controversy that would accompany the introduction of legislation in parliament. Supporters have hailed it as a pragmatic step that will aid race relations, save public money and free police resources to battle the soaring use of hard drugs in Britain.

But all agree on the significance of the move. At a time when polls indicate public opinion tilting in favor of legalization, and amid evidence that police are more permissive of marijuana use, the Brixton experiment brings closer the possibility that marijuana use will cease to be illegal, even if it is not formally legalized.

"It's amazing. I was absolutely stunned when I heard the news. It came almost out of the blue," said Paula Woodward of Drugscope, an independent research agency. "People are going to be watching Brixton pretty closely to see what happens in the next six months. If it works, it could happen all over the country fairly soon."

If it does work, Britain would rank behind the Netherlands, which has not only decriminalized marijuana but permits its sale in special cafes, and alongside Spain, which has adopted a "blind eye" approach similar to that being piloted in Brixton, as one of the most liberal countries toward drugs in the industrialized world.

Statistics released by the independent Drug Monitoring Agency show that seizures of cannabis have fallen by more than half in the past three years, as customs officials divert their attention to the growing trade in harder drugs. Street prices have plummeted as marijuana floods the market: a marijuana joint now costs the equivalent of $1.40, far less than a pint of beer, Britain's favorite recreational drug, the agency said.

A European Union study last year found that Britain had the highest rate of marijuana use in Europe.

Though possession of marijuana carries a penalty of up to five years imprisonment, the law has never been as tightly enforced in Britain as in the U.S. According to police statistics, it can cost up to $14,000 in public money to push a possession case through the courts, where magistrates routinely fine offenders as little as $14. Three quarters of all drug prosecutions are for possession of marijuana, yet the rate of prosecutions for those caught is as low as 22 percent in some areas.

Official Blessing On Rise

"This is something that has been known but unsaid for a long time," said Woodward. "What makes what's happening significant is that this is the first time it has actually been admitted and sanctioned by officials."

Official sanction appears to be growing. The Police Foundation, a research group, recommended in a major study on drug policy last fall that marijuana should be downgraded to a Class C drug, which carries no criminal penalty, in order to allow police to focus their energies on tackling Class A drugs.

In a weekend newspaper column, Blair's former drug policy chief, Mo Mowlam, said she believes it is time to legalize marijuana. In an editorial Monday, the Evening Standard, London's largest newspaper, endorsed the Brixton policy.

Some Brixton residents are not happy that their neighborhood has been singled out. They fear the area could become a magnet for "drug tourists" who will further encourage dealers to operate there.

"It will bring all sorts of bad people here to cause all sorts of trouble," said Patricia Bubb, 47, who works at a salon beside the neighborhood's most infamous street corner. "We already have enough trouble here."

For others, the issues run deeper than drugs. Brendan Wright, 53, who came to Brixton in the 1950s from Jamaica, also heard about the new policy on the radio and was despondent. "I heard the police have lost the battle against drugs," he said. "They've been defeated.

"For our community, drugs is not the thing, education is the thing," he said. "How many of our black people are doctors, how many are lawyers? Yet the first thing our children want to do is stand on that street corner and buy those drugs, and now you want to tell them it's OK, it's not illegal. This is a terrible thing."

Note: South London OKs marijuana smoking.

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Liz Sly, Tribune Foreign Correspondent
Published: July 03, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Related Articles:

Decriminalisation Is Far From Lambeth
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10202.shtml

CannabisNews Articles - UK
http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=UK


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Comment #3 posted by Gilgamesh on July 03, 2001 at 20:56:38 PT:

Tolerance of Marijuana in London
This is a very big step that I hope will someday lead to the total legalization of marijuana in England. I hope that countries such as the United States follow this example.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by TroutMask on July 03, 2001 at 09:05:48 PT
Anti-prohibition results
Our early results are in and we are declaring the UK a victory for marijuana freedom fighters.

-TM

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on July 03, 2001 at 06:50:41 PT:

Mad Cow Disease striking the local populace?
"Some Brixton residents are not happy that their neighborhood has been singled out. They fear the area could become a magnet for "drug tourists" who will further encourage dealers to operate there.

"It will bring all sorts of bad people here to cause all sorts of trouble," said Patricia Bubb, 47, who works at a salon beside the neighborhood's most infamous street corner. "We already have enough trouble here."

A perfect example of poor reasoning ability.

For one thing, Brixton already has lots of 'bad people' there, and they're their for exactly the same reason such 'bad people' always congregate: money. Lots of money to be made in the illegal drug trade. So the problem already exists. And it exists because of the very same mindset that fosters and supports drug prohibition...as evinced by this lady's remarks.

(In an aside: have you noticed somthing about antis? They generally speak in simple, declarative sentences. The same way you would to someone who's native language was not English...or to an idiot. Is it because they believe that their target audience is incapable of the higher orders of mentation necessary to understand complex concepts?

Or is it that they, themselves suffer from that same lack, and assume that everyone else is equally so short-changed by Nature? You tell me...)

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