Subj: UK: Priest calls for legalised cannabis and ecstasy



Date: 16 Oct, 1998



Source: The Scotsman





Priest calls for legalised cannabis and ecstasy

MATT WELLS



A ROMAN Catholic  priest argued yesterday that today's young 

people have been cast as a generation of "modern-day lepers" 

simply because they take ecstasy.



Father Bob Gardner called for the personal use of the drug 

to be decriminalised and said that cannabis should no longer 

be illegal.



The priest, of St Benedict's in Easterhouse,  Glasgow,  

conceded that his views, which will be seen in a television 

documentary this weekend, would provoke controversy. However 

he was confident of the support of his superiors, and 

stressed that he did not advocate taking ecstasy.



Channel 4 yesterday presented the results of its Citizens' 

Commission on Drugs, of which Fr Gardner is a member, and 

launched an accompanying series of programmes. The 

television company set up the panel in the light of the 

Government's refusal to appoint a Royal commission on drugs.



The commissioners called for more research on the medical 

effects of ecstasy, the legalisation of cannabis and the 

setting up of a national heroin prescription trial. They 

were split on the issue of ecstasy, but voted five to three 

in favour of decriminalisation.



Their report coincided. with comments at a conference in 

Stirling by Professor John Davies, an academic at 

Strathclyde University, who called for the legal controls on 

heroin to be relaxed. If the drug was available over the 

counter, he argued, its quality could be regulated and fewer 

people would die.



Fr Gardner, who runs a youth centre for children in 

Easterhouse, said at the Channel 4 launch in London 

yesterday that he had come to his conclusions only after 

carefully examining the arguments over a number of months 

and after speaking to users, care professionals and law 

enforcement officials.



Young people simply ignore the law, he said. "We need to 

stop treating this as a political issue and start treating 

it as a human issue. As a priest, I can't be party to making 

modern-day lepers of people. This is an area which has 

nothing to do with faith, but my brothers and sisters."



Fr Gardner said that society had to realise that vast 

numbers of people take ecstasy every weekend - estimates put 

the figure at between 500,000 and a million. Decriminalising 

ecstasy use would allow police and other agencies to 

concentrate their resources on tackling the causes of the 

problem. He acknowledged that the report might upset some 

people, particularly residents of the Cranhill area of 

Glasgow where a 12-year-old boy recently died from a heroin 

overdose.  "People might think this report is crap, but I 

can stand up and say that it is honest. For what it is 

worth, I can say that it is what I think."



Eight commissioners, including a lawyer, teacher, 

electricity worker and magistrate, complied the report over 

four months.  They visited eight European cities, spoke to 

30 organisations, 50 drug users and five politicians from 

Britain and elsewhere in Europe.



Ken Temple,  the  panel's chairman and the chief registrar 

with John Lewis, said that present drugs policy was 

unsatisfactory. In the documentary he points out that Jack 

Straw, the Home Secretary, promised to speak to anyone, 

anywhere, at any time" about the issue of drugs. But neither 

Mr Straw nor any other government minister would speak to 

the commissioners.



Prof Davies, professor of psychology at Strathclyde, said at 

a conference on heroin yesterday that  all drugs should be 

legalised. Speaking to reporters later, he said; "It's 

really quite rational. If heroin was available over the 

counter, the argument goes that you would reduce harm 

because the heroin would he marketed over the counter in a 

standardised form."



Such a move would allow for better control. "If you've got a 

lousy lifestyle and you're living in a deprived inner city 

area, heroin use is likely to be as good as life gets for 

you, so it is going to be harder to control.



"On the other hand, if you come from a more privileged part 

of the world and there's other goals you can achieve, you're 

less likely to get in a jam with it if you do use it."



Also at the conference, Dr Charles Lind, medical director of 

the Ayrshire and Arran Community Health Care Trust, said the 

debate between legality and illegality was not "black and 

white". But he stressed that allowing heroin to be sold 

would be fraught with difficulties.



Yesterday Janet Betts, whose daughter Leah died on her 18th 

birthday after taking an ecstasy tablet, denounced calls for 

the loosening of legal controls on drugs. She claimed that 

there has already been plenty of research done on ecstasy 

use, and said of the Channel 4 commissioners: "One would 

hope that a Royal commission would have a bit more savvy."



* Altered Minds: The Channel 4 Citizen's Commission on Drugs 

will be broadcast tomorrow at 7:45pm.