Subj: UK: Sco: Call to rethink policy on cannabis



Date: 13 Feb, 2000



Source: Scotland on Sunday







Call to rethink policy on cannabis

By William Paul



LORD McCluskey today calls for the Lord Advocate to

reconsider prosecution policy against cannabis users as part

of a radical rethink of government anti-drug strategies that

have "conspicuously failed" for decades.



The High Court judge, who retired last month, also suggests

that the Scottish parliament could take a lead by setting up

its own task force to examine the problem and then make

recommendations to Westminster, where drugs policy is a

reserved matter.



In the second part of his controversial series challenging

the way contemporary law operates, McCluskey says all

attempts to control the drugs menace have failed over the

years, yet anybody who dares to disagree with the government

line is dismissed as a crank or a heretic in techniques

reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition.



His comments will fuel the debate over the priorities which

should be given to the competing strategies of 'harm

reduction' and 'zero tolerance'.



McCluskey is not, he says, arguing that the war on drugs

should be abandoned, but that the "war aims" be changed to

be more realistic.



He wants a Royal Commission to re-examine the health

implications of illegal drugs and the effectiveness of

current enforcement measures.



The Lord Advocate, he says, has previously used his

discretion to divert hopeless drunks away from the courts so

that they can be sobered up rather than locked up. There is

nothing to stop the same discretion being applied for some

cannabis offences.