Source: icNorthernIreland.co.uk

Pub Date: 29 January 2004

Subj: Mixed Response To Cannabis Law

Author: Sandra Murphy Health Correspondent

FROM today, cannabis will be reclassified as a Class C drug, alongside tranquillisers and steroids.

A new million pound radio advertisement campaign is warning people that it is still illegal despite the downgrading.

"Marijuana, ashes, African, bazooka, blonde, blue sage, bud, broccoli, brown, Buddha, bullyon, Colombian, Don Juan, hash, J, jive stick, jolly green, spliff, Panama gold, parsley, roach, straw, wheat, locoweed. Call it what you like, just don't call it legal,'' it says.

In reality, the effect of the change, and the police guidelines issued along with it, will make it extremely unlikely that anyone consuming cannabis in private will be arrested.

Smoking pot in your own home will, in practical terms at least, be legal.

However, if drug users offend repeatedly or smoke in a public place or outside a school, then the consequences could be severe.

Possession can still result in a two-year prison sentence and there are also increased penalties for dealing.

Some critics oppose any move to liberalise drug laws. Others criticise the confusion surrounding the new policy and many say the changes don't go far enough.

Ruling Doesn't Go Far Enough

CANNABIS should be legalised, not reclassified, according to a Portadown political campaigner who has admitted using the drug daily himself.

Michael McKeown, from The Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said the downgrading of cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug did not go far enough.

"I think they should legalise it outright to put a stop to the paramilitary racket currently sweeping the country,'' he said.

"Sometimes you can pay through the nose for a lump of blow that is full of beeswax and boot polish but if this was available legally people would know what they were getting.

"The quality would increase, the cost would go down and, most importantly, it would put the gangsters out of business,'' Mr McKeown said.

The new laws will have no effect on his cannabis habit, which he claims is far less dangerous than alcohol abuse.

"I smoke a pipe every day when I come in from work and find it very relaxing and it has medicinal values for MS and cancer sufferers, too.

"My mother was an alcoholic and, believe me, smoking a joint is a lot less aggressive than the violence associated with drinking,'' he said.

Mr McKeown denounced the media attention given to studies on the mental side-effects of smoking cannabis as 'scaremongering''.

He strongly believes that recreational users should not be penalised under a harsh criminal system and has pledged to continue to flout the law.

"The way I see it is, if the law is wrong, it must be broken.''