cannabisnews.com: Rebuff for Drugs Reform 





Rebuff for Drugs Reform 
Posted by FoM on March 29, 2000 at 12:45:30 PT
By Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor 
Source: News Unlimited
The prospect of Britain's drug laws being liberalised following the release of a landmark independent inquiry yesterday was immediately quashed by the government. The Police Foundation report said that the penalties for possession of cannabis - among the harshest in Europe - do more damage than the drug itself and called for a reclassification of drug offences. 
The government, however, rejected the proposals to reclassify cannabis, LSD and ecstasy. A Home Office statement declared: "The government has a clear and consistent view about the damage which drugs can cause to individuals, their families and the wider community, the link between drugs and crime - and the corresponding need to maintain firm controls." The drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell, warned that reclassifying the drugs would do nothing to help the fight against illegal substances and said the proposed penalties for cannabis use were nothing more than a "slap on the wrist". The Association of Chief Police Officers said it did not believe there was a need to relax the drug laws, while the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales warned that many of the measures would send out the wrong message to young people. The report by a Police Foundation team which included two serving chief constables, Denis O'Connor of Surrey and John Hamilton of Fife, and which took two-and-a-half years to compile, called for the lifting of the threat of imprisonment faced by more than 70,000 people each year who are arrested for possessing cannabis, ecstasy and LSD, and for a cut in jail sentences for heroin and cocaine possession from a maximum of seven years to 12 months. The inquiry team discussed their findings with the home secretary, Jack Straw, last week. Although Tony Blair and Mr Hellawell rejected the report's recommendations for reclassifying cannabis, ecstasy and LSD, it is widely believed that its findings will prove influential in Whitehall eventually, as Britain increasingly finds itself out of step with the trend across Europe towards more liberal drugs laws. The inquiry, the most comprehensive since the Misuse of Drugs Act became law in 1971, marks a major establishment recognition that alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than cannabis and are so dangerous that they would be classified as class A and class B drugs if they were made illegal. The halfway "depenalisation" policy of the inquiry also reflects the wide range of views on drugs among Britain's senior police officers, from the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who maintains a tough line, to the Cleveland police authority which has called for a debate on legalisation. Lady Runciman, who chaired the Police Foundation inquiry, said that the most dangerous message about drugs was that they are equally dangerous: "When young people know that the advice they are given is either exaggerated or untrue in relation to less harmful drugs, there is a real risk they will discount everything else they are told about the most hazardous drugs, including heroin and cocaine." She said the harm drugs caused was not reduced by imposing harsh penalties for possession and criminal records on young people whose occasional drug use could be tackled more effectively by more credible drugs education. Public opinion surveys showed that the health-related dangers of drugs were far more of a deterrent than the fear of being caught and punished. While the report recommends downgrading ecstasy and LSD from class A status to class B, and cannabis from class B to class C, it stops far short of endorsing calls for legalisation. "Change is needed but it must come in the middle ground between unrealistic legalisation and an unwinnable war on drugs," Lady Runciman said. The report argues that for Britain's drug laws to remain credible they must reflect much more accurately the "hierarchy of harm" that actually exists. To class ecstasy as a drug as dangerous as heroin and cocaine was to give the wrong message about the relative harm of opiates to the half a million people who used ecstasy every weekend. Mr Hellawell's dismissal of the proposed system of warnings and fixed penalties for cannabis possession was backed by Paul Betts, the father of Leah Betts who died after taking an ecstasy tablet at her 18th birthday party. He said the proposals would take Britain down the road followed in Amsterdam where cannabis can be smoked legally in coffee houses. The Liberal Democrats criticised the government's "kneejerk" rejection of the proposals, but the Conservative drugs spokeswoman, Ann Winterton, supported the government's stance and urged ministers not to bow to pressure to liberalise legislation. Despite the conventional wisdom that the police are already using a "softer touch" when dealing with cannabis, arrests for possession have risen in recent years, with the latest figures showing 113,154 drug offenders dealt with each year. Key Recommendations: • Cannabis to become class C drug, lifting threat of imprisonment for possession • Ecstasy and LSD to become class B drugs, lifting threat of imprisonment for possession. £1,000 maximum fine • Heroin and cocaine to remain class A drugs with penalties for trafficking increased to 20 years •Cultivation of small number of cannabis plants to be treated as possession •New offence of dealing which involves persistent pattern of trade • Possession of cannabis not to be arrestable offence but police to retain stop and search powers • Educational materials about main drugs and risks of drug-driving to be made available at entertainment venues • National confiscation agency to improve ineffective system of seizing drug traffickers' assets Drugs in Britain: Special Report http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/drugs/ Pubished: March 29, 2000 Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited Related Articles:Decriminalisation: Let's Go Dutch?http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5212.shtmlPolice Think-Tank Says Relax Some Drug Laws http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5202.shtmlEcstasy and Cannabis: No Downgradehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5189.shtmlSoften Law on Ecstasy, Says Police Inquiry http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4746.shtmlPolice Force Urges Legalisation http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4743.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by andrew long on March 30, 2000 at 15:16:41 PT:
well, well
ok, so they aint gonna legalise it. full stop. the main reason for this is that in the UN prohibits the legalisation of cannabis, an old law(?) that is supposed to regulate the the drug laws through out the world.although i do hope that they will de-criminalise cannabis. the main problem that i have with the cannabis law is that it makes young people who want to smoke dope go to drug dealers to buy there gear. this is very dangerouse for younger people who migh not normal hang around with these type of people. this will then normal lead to the dealer trying to get the kids to buy harder and harder drugs! i know, as i have to get my gear off some very dodgy people!if they decriminalise cannabis and open up a way of obtaining cannbis in a regulated manner, then this would help to seperate cannabis from harder drugs and keeps people away from dealers... which can only be a good thing. the amsterdam way is the best! although i dont see it happening for a long time :(and i sure every dealer was well chuffed with thew way the government acted to the report. their jobs are safe!love andy
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on March 29, 2000 at 18:51:23 PT
Mike Gray on The O'Reilly Factor 11PM EDT
Hi Everyone!I just read on the Political Board on Cannabis.com that Mike Gray was on The O'Reilly Factor earlier and the show will be repeated at 11 PM EDT! Thought I'd pass it on!http://www.cannabis.com/ Plus another poll!FoxNewsRepeated:Weekdays at 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. ETLegalize It?Mike Gray, author of Drug Crazy, discusses why he believes America should legalize all drugs to stop violence. http://www.drugsense.org/crazy.htmThe O'Reilly Factorhttp://www.foxnews.com/channel/oreilly/main.smlElectronic Telegraph Poll:Should possession of Ecstasy, LSD and Cannabis carry jail terms?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002610911806926&rtmo=wQltMtob&atmo=KKKKKKYM&pg=/ixfeedb.html
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Comment #2 posted by Freedom on March 29, 2000 at 17:59:58 PT
Lemmings?
> unrealistic legalisationGive it time, Lady Runciman. Generational shifts are coming, even as we speak. The lies and propaganda do not work with people who have experimented with cannabis, unlike the elder generation. And, at no time in history have the cultural elites tolerated their own kids getting in trouble, which is just what is happening over cannabis.The people always get what they demand, in the end.
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2000 at 17:51:12 PT:
Just like a lemming
Most of the Brits I've had the pleasure of knowing and occasionaly working with impressed me as having a bit more on the ball than most (and certainly knew how to have good time, too!):'Lady Runciman, who chaired the Police Foundation inquiry, said that the most dangerous message about drugs was that they are equally dangerous: "When young people know that the advice they are given is either exaggerated or untrue in relation to less harmful drugs, there is a real risk they will discount everything else they are told about the most hazardous drugs, including heroin and cocaine." She said the harm drugs caused was not reduced by imposing harsh penalties for possession and criminal records on young people whose occasional drug use could be tackled more effectively by more credible drugs education. Public opinion surveys showed that the health-related dangers of drugs were far more of a deterrent than the fear of being caught and punished.' Which is why I have such a hard time understanding this:'The Police Foundation report said that the penalties for possession of cannabis - among the harshest in Europe - do more damage than the drug itself and called for a reclassification of drug offences. The government, however, rejected the proposals to reclassify cannabis, LSD and ecstasy. A Home Office statement declared: "The government has a clear and consistent view about the damage which drugs can cause to individuals, their families and the wider community, the link between drugs and crime - and the corresponding need to maintain firm controls." The drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell, warned that reclassifying the drugs would do nothing to help the fight against illegal substances and said the proposed penalties for cannabis use were nothing more than a "slap on the wrist". In short, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts."? Obviously Mr. Blair and Mr. Klinton have been stuck in the same low oxygen environment for too long; their reasoning faculties seem to have taken a nose dive courtesy of anoxia (I'm trying very hard to be charitable here; otherwise we'd be left with the conclusion that this condition is natural and not a product of accident). The US has over a million non-violent drug users locked up, and more on the way. The US spends billions of dollars in interdiction efforts and can only catch 2% of the illegal drugs coming in. It has reduced its' Constitution to a laughing stock by it's 'drug exclusions' to it Bill of Rights. It has *murdered* innocent people in its zeal to eliminate illicit drug trafficking, both directly (Ismael Mena, Esequiel Hernandez, Donald Scott, and who knows how many more) and indirectly (drive by shootings, gang assasinations, etc.)To so blindly, trustingly follow a nation that has such an incredibly bad track record in its' efforts to stop illegal drug use is insane. It calls to mind the behavior of a certain Norwegian mammal that has a predilection for cliff jumping sans bungee cords. 
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