Subj: UK: MPs move to outlaw sale of cannabis seeds



Date: 	Sunday, 11 October 1998



Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)





MPs move to outlaw sale of cannabis seeds

By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent 



THE possession of cannabis seed and the equipment necessary for the

cultivation of the drug are to be outlawed, under proposals favoured by

Home Office ministers.



The Government is looking "sympathetically" at a demand from Britain's

chief constables for an end to the legal traffic in cannabis seeds.

Ministers think banning the seeds and equipment would send out a strong

signal that they are prepared to be tough on drugs.



The move follows intense lobbying from detectives who think it is an

"absurd loophole" in the current law that anyone can legally buy cannabis

seeds which can then be cultivated.



Malcolm George, the secretary of the drugs sub-committee of the Association

of Chief Police Officers, said: "We would like some sort of offence brought

in to remove this anomaly. There's only one thing you can do with cannabis

seeds and that's grow cannabis plants."