In Britain, Seismic Shift Toward Cannabis Decrim Shakes
Blair's Anti-Reform Policies
drcnet.org
The political rumblings began after a Conservative conference on
October 5th, when the party's hard-line crime spokesperson, Anne
Widdicome, announced proposals for on-the-spot fines, a permanent
criminal record, and even blood tests for cannabis smokers.
Now, however, Conservatives wish they had turned a blind eye to
Widdicome. Within days, London tabloids found eight of her
fellow Conservative "shadow cabinet" members who confessed to
past marijuana use; one even "enjoyed" it. After three weeks of
uproar, her proposal has been shelved by party leaders, her party
has been thrown into disarray, and the whole affair has become a
boost for Britain's growing legalization movement.
Social service and police organizations, including the
prestigious Police Superintendents' Association, immediately
attacked Widdicome's plan as draconian, unworkable, and "a
backward step."
"I have spent years fighting the drugs trade at Heathrow and on
the streets of London and my direct experience has convinced me
that legalization, not prohibition, is the only viable option,"
former Scotland Yard drug squad chief Edward Ellison told
Reuters.
Another former police superintendent, Francis Wilkinson of Gwent,
seconded that opinion. "Cannabis needs to be moved across to the
legal drugs side and leave things like crack cocaine and heroin
on the other side... so cannabis is not a gateway through the
same suppliers into harder and more dangerous drugs," he told BBC
Radio.
The Tories also left an opening for the Liberal Party, the
country's third strongest political force. Within days, party
leader Charles Kennedy took the occasion of a nationally
broadcast interview on ITV to announce that he favored
decriminalizing cannabis. Kennedy becomes the first head of a
major British party to take such a position.
The Conservative misfire appears to have blown out of the water
any attempt at imposing a hard-line approach to cannabis on the
estimated six million Britons who have tried it. It has also
provoked strong, but hitherto silent voices from within the ranks
of the police, the press, and the political class to stand for
decriminalization or even outright legalization:
* Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper became the third minister
of the Blair cabinet to confess to having used cannabis, joining
Mo Mowlam and Charles Clarke.
* Professor Toby Moffat, chief scientist of the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), predicted that medical marijuana
would be approved within two years and that total legalization
would soon follow. His remarks came as he reviewed the results
of the first British clinical trials of cannabis, which found
that "there were no safety concerns" about the drug's use. The
clinical trials, conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals and monitored by
the RPS, are testing cannabis' efficacy as a pain reliever and in
treating multiple sclerosis. A preliminary report said that
cannabis was "well-tolerated" by volunteers.
* Dr. Leslie Iversen of the Oxford University Department of
Pharmacology, published the results of his cannabis research in
"The Science of Marijuana." Iversen, a fellow of the prestigious
Royal Society, found cannabis to be an inherently "safe drug,"
with an impressive record compared to heroin, cocaine, alcohol,
and tobacco. Iversen wrote that "alarming claims about long-term
exposure to marijuana" should be "put to rest." The story
appeared under newspaper headlines such as, "Taking Cannabis
'Safer Than Aspirin.'"
* A revitalized Legalise Cannabis Alliance announced it would
run candidates for at least two parliament seats.
* Professor Donald Macleod, principal of the Free Church College
in Edinburgh and one of Britain's most well-known and
controversial churchmen, joined the chorus of decriminalizers.
"A lot of police time is being wasted on enforcing the current
law on the drug. I would decriminalize cannabis now and I would
not rule anything out -- including legalization -- in the future,
once the experience of decriminalization has been monitored," he
wrote in the West Highland Free Press.
* The European Union drug survey showed 10% of adult Britons had
smoked in the last year, and that the country had the highest
rates of teen use in all Europe.
* The most recent public opinion poll, conducted for the
Guardian (London) last week, found that 73% thought smoking
cannabis should not be a criminal act, with a record high 43%
calling for outright legalization. Fewer than one in five voters
thought possession should remain a crime. Citing "a far higher
proportion than previously recorded on Guardian/ICM opinion
polls" in favor of legalization, the Guardian wrote that "the
findings confirm the view that a change has taken place in
British public opinion about the future legal status of
cannabis."
* Accountancy Age magazine published a survey of chief financial
officers of British corporations in which one third admitted to
having used cannabis and a majority said the Tory "zero
tolerance" policy was unenforceable. Eager tabloids ran
headlines such as "Yes, We've Smoked Cannabis, Say Third of
Financial Bosses."
Ruth Lea, head of policy for the executives' organization, told
the magazine, "It is clear from this and other surveys that
current policy on cannabis is unworkable."
In what in hindsight was a political miscalculation of epic
proportions, the Tories let the genie of cannabis
decriminalization out of the bottle. But now it is the governing
Labor Party of Tony Blair that is feeling the pressure.
Last weekend Blair reiterated his opposition to any change in the
cannabis laws, and Home Secretary Jack Straw, the cabinet officer
in charge of criminal justice, also remains adamantly opposed.
On October 17th, his spokesman told reporters, "The Government
has a 10-year anti-drugs plan. We have a report out soon and our
policy on cannabis remains the same. It is illegal and a
criminal offense."
Straw has, however, only inflamed opponents with arguments
seemingly derived from "Reefer Madness."
"The long term effects include a very severe exacerbation of
mental illness and also include cancer," he told the Guardian
Weekly. "It is reckoned that cannabis is between two and four
times more carcinogenic as tobacco."
Those remarks sparked a heated denunciation from Dame Ruth
Runciman, who chaired the Police Foundation's investigation into
drug law reform last year, and whose March recommendations for
decriminalization of cannabis were promptly ignored by the Blair
government.
Runciman insisted that cannabis was less dangerous than alcohol
or tobacco, and used her commission's report as ammunition. "The
acute toxicity level of cannabinoids is extremely low; they are
very safe drugs and no deaths have been directly attributed to
their recreational or therapeutic use," she quoted.
Even as Straw was defending his science, opposition emerged
within the cabinet, and Prime Minister Blair seemed to wobble
with some offhand remarks on being out of touch.
The Mirror (London) quoted Labor parliamentarian and lawyer
Helena Kennedy as supporting cannabis decriminalization. "There
are a lot of people in the cabinet who take the same view as
myself," she said.
Blair's confused comments came on October 15th, when a BBC Radio
4 interviewer asked whether he would prefer his children to "get
drunk" or have "the odd spliff."
Blair replied: "I really would prefer my children to have
nothing to do with drugs at all and I think most -- maybe, I
don't know, I am wrong in this and other parents feel differently
-- but that is how I feel."
In the same interview, Blair downplayed past cannabis use by
cabinet members or opposition shadow cabinet members. "I think
what is important is not what happened on some university campus
years ago in respect of particular ministers or opposition
spokesmen."
Blair seems to be feeling the heat, and there is more to come.
The House of Commons home affairs select committee has ordered
Home Office ministers to testify about their rejection of the
Police Foundation report recommending decriminalization.
In responding to Blair's comments, a spokesman for the
Association of Chief Police Officers rejected softening the
cannabis laws. "We do not believe there is any need to change
the current legal framework," he told the Sunday Times. "We are
not persuaded of any need to change matters."
In Great Britain these days, that is an increasingly isolated
position. |
