Source: York Evening Post, UK
Date: Wednesday, 3 September 2003
Subj: Let's
talk about drugs
Cited: Steve Clements Legalise Cannabis Alliance
LET’S TALK ABOUT DRUGS
ANYONE undertaking a
sober assessment of our drug and alcohol laws would conclude that they are
thoroughly inconsistent. One intoxicant is championed, another condemned. The
drinker is cheered, the drug-taker criminalised.
So we are grateful for
the intervention of Steve Clements. By standing as the Legalise Cannabis
candidate at the next York elections he will at least engender a debate about
an issue which mainstream politics strives to avoid.
As our street survey
confirmed, people are split on whether Britain should liberalise its drug laws.
But the pros and cons are rarely discussed.
One of the central
tenets of the pro-cannabis campaign is that its effects are far less harmful
than that State-sanctioned drug, alcohol. Drink and violence undoubtedly go
together, as the Evening Press tonight, and almost every night, confirms.
Cannabis, meanwhile,
has some medicinal benefits. York Hospital is to offer the drug to surgical
patients to test its pain-relieving properties.
Moreover, it is clear
that the use of cannabis is widespread and accepted by a significant sector of
the population. Earlier this year a research firm suggested that the
"cannabis economy" was worth £11 billion a year.
Our present laws have
criminalised countless numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens, Mr Clements
argues. The police seem to agree, and now appear to turn a blind eye to an
individual's personal use of the drug.
Pitted against these
arguments is research linking long-term cannabis use to mental health problems
including psychosis and schizophrenia. And there are fears that cannabis acts
as a first step to deadly heroin.
This Government,
frightened of being seen as soft on the drugs trade, does not know what to do.
The Home Office plans to downgrade the classification of cannabis on the one
hand, and introduce tough penalties against people who allow cannabis to be
smoked at parties on the other. Confusion reigns.
What we need is a
clear-headed, adult debate on our drugs laws. Mr Clements has made a start.
More contributions are required.