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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: The Lib Dems should vote to legalise drugs. That would give us something to smile about, and believe in Janet Street-Porter The Independent Saturday 12 Mar 2016 If legalising dope would make everyone in Britain just one per cent more smiley and less hostile, can you think of a better reason to bite the bullet and change the law? We are definitely going through fearful times, guaranteed to increase our levels of anxiety. Turn on the telly or radio and politicians on all sides compete to ramp up the doom-laden consequences of leaving (or staying in) Europe. Depending on who you listen to, we’ll either be paying more for food (or less), be out of work (or have more opportunities), and be over-run with immigrants – no wonder most people I meet can’t make up their minds which way they want to vote. Today, the Liberal Democrats have a chance to become the first British mainstream party with a distinctive policy that doesn’t play on the politics of fear, immigration or leaving the EU. At their spring conference in York, the party is debating whether to make the legalisation of cannabis a manifesto policy. The impetus comes after the publication of a report they commissioned into the pros and cons of introducing state control of marijuana. Drug experts, scientists, police chiefs and scientists all concluded that to legalise cannabis would be safer than leaving it in the hands of criminals. The report suggests cannabis should be strictly regulated, produced under licence and sold in state-controlled shops to adults over the age of 18, with controls on pricing and potency, in plain packaging. If taxed like cigarettes or alcohol, the market for cannabis could yield as much as £1bn a year in revenue to the Treasury. Every year, thousands of citizens get a criminal record for possessing dope. I was fined £5 back in 1968 for being caught with a piece of hash the size of my little fingernail. Ridiculous. Most senior police officers recognise that the “war on drugs” is never going to be won. It is a complete waste of their time and hard-pressed resources to fingerprint and charge every person caught using cannabis. In other countries, the tide is turning. In 23 US states, cannabis has been decriminalised for medicinal use. Four states, and many major cities, allow it to be sold for recreational purposes. It has not led to an increase in users, according to a study earlier this year. Sadly, the Lib Dems have only allowed an hour to debate a proposal that merits far longer consideration. It’s about time we managed to talk about drugs in a non-emotional, calm way. It costs millions of pounds to drag people into court for a pastime that is never going to change and can never be policed properly. I fail to see why state-produced cannabis of a guaranteed quality should be any more dangerous than a bottle of wine. The same politicians who are so over-exercised about immigrants entering our country illegally in search of work seem perfectly relaxed about a major industry in the UK being in the hands of organised gangs, with its products sold by petty criminals who deal in cash, thus avoiding tax or getting a real job. A report commissioned by Nick Clegg when he was Deputy Prime Minister argued that legalising drugs would bring in £1bn in taxes a year. The Home Office swiftly said there were no plans to change the law and the report has probably been shredded. Drug use is the single subject guaranteed to get most people in the public eye talking utter nonsense. The Lib Dems must grasp their chance today, because then they’ll stand for something I believe in. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-lib-dems-should-vote-to-legalise-drugs-that-would-give-us-something-to-smile-about-and-believe-a6926276.html
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