Subj: Scotland: Police chief backs call for cannabis law reform



Date: 23 Apr, 1999



Source: Scotsman, The  (UK)





 

ubject: Police chief backs call for cannabis law reform  



Deputy chief constable says his comment showed support only 

for further debate  

JENNY BOOTH Home Affairs Correspondent  



ONE of Scotland's most senior police officers yesterday 

supported calls for the legalisation of cannabis, only to 

issue a retraction within hours.



Speaking at a conference on crime and substance abuse Tom 

Wood, the deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders 

Police, endorsed an unequivocal call by a police board 

convener for the drug to be made legal.



Councillor Pat Chalmers, who heads the Grampian Police 

Board, told the meeting in Edinburgh that society had only 

succeeded in alienating young people by its policy of 

condoning alcohol and tobacco while cannabis was 

criminalised.



He said that demonising cannabis also confused and devalued 

the anti-drugs message, which was vital in the battle 

against the most dangerous drugs, heroin and crack cocaine.



Mr Chalmers, a Liberal Democrat councillor on Aberdeenshire 

council, said: "We needto turn the telescope round,legalise 

such drugs (as cannabis) and, if possible, tax them. We 

could then begin to restore respect and support for a 

renewed attack on the truly evil drugs being peddled in 

society: I have in mind crack cocaine.



"But at present our policies are losing credibility with the 

young. We are fighting the war on drugs on too many fronts. 

Let us redefine the problem and go for it with reprioritised 

resources and determination."



Mr Chalmers called for the money saved by legalising the 

drug cannabis to be spent on creating detoxification and 

rehabilitation facilities for addicts, and predicted that 

many of the next generation of politicians would have used 

cannabis personally, as 50 per cent of young people today 

have done, and might ultimately be prepared to legalise it.



He said: "We have to wait for the change in Scottish 

attitudes to gather pace and I think that is happening. I 

can see a tobacco industry wishing to extend its interests, 

taking on cannabis and cleaning it up."



It was at this moment that Mr Wood said: "Speaking 

personally, I agree with what you are saying about cannabis. 

But it is an academic point, as nobody in the public domain 

has the stomach to take on the fight."



Although drug legislation is a power reserved by the 

Westminster parliament, he added: "Only the Liberal 

Democrats have ever taken this up, when the individual who 

brought it up at annual conference was lambasted by the 

party leadership. Do you honestly think that the people in 

the Scottish parliament will have the stomach and courage to 

take it up?"



Mr Wood made it plain that he was speaking in a personal 

capacity, rather than as the leader of a law enforcement 

agency, and within hours an anxious retraction was issued by 

Lothian and Borders Police.



The police officer later claimed that he had merely been 

supporting a call for further debate on the whole drugs 

issue.



He said: "I don't want people thinking that I stood up there 

as a deputy chief constable and advocated the legalisation 

of cannabis, as it is not what I said or what I meant.



"As an individual, however, with 30 years experience of the 

business of law enforcement, I do agree with Pat Chalmers 

that it is time to look anew completely afresh at this 

problem, and now is perhaps the golden opportunity."



Grampian Police also issued a statement distancing the force 

from its convener's comments, and saying that force policy 

was that cannabis should not be legalised.



Other speakers at the conference, A Cool Look at Drugs and 

Crime, organised by the community safety charity SACRO, were 

cautiously supportive of Mr Chalmers' views.



Sheriff Kieran McLernan, of Banff Sheriff Court, said: "I 

support Mr Chalmers in his plea for something to be done in 

providing facilities. But on cannabis the evidence doesn't 

stack up.



"I notice that no-one has come out with what is the medical 

evidence. The somewhat glib suggestion that we should 

immediately move on to decriminalisation without knowing 

what we are talking about doesn't appeal to me."



Kevin Williamson, the drugs spokesman of the Scottish 

Socialist Party and the author of a book calling for the 

legalisation of cannabis, welcomed Mr Wood's remarks as 

"helping break down the wall of official silence on the 

subject of the current unworkable drug laws".



He said: "It was only a matter of time before sections of 

the police voiced publicly what they were saying privately. 

Namely, that criminalising young people for cannabis use is 

a waste of police time, courts time, and public money, which 

would be better used in getting resources in place to help 

those with a real drug problem."



Dave Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, 

declined to support legalisation, but added: "One issue we 

do need to look at is the criminalising of large numbers of 

young people, and make sure that the harm caused by the law 

is not more harmful than the use of the drug itself.



"We do need to open up the debate and discussion, and have 

it in a climate that is putting more light on the issue than 

heat. So far in the election that has been the problem, and 

most politicians don't feel able to do that, in their 

rhetoric about a drug-free Scotland and zero tolerance 

rather than living in the real world."



Mr Liddell said evidence from Holland, where cannabis has 

been decriminalised, was that there had been no explosion in 

cannabis use. Last year 29,500 Scots were charged with 

possessing or supplying drugs, the majority for cannabis.