|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Lords demand progress on cannabis-based medicine
Reuters
Thursday 22 Mar 2001 LONDON (Reuters) - Peers in the House of Lords have called for faster progress on marijuana-based medicine and said they detected a more positive attitude from the government. Ministers have commissioned scientific research into the effectiveness of marijuana in relieving the pain of people suffering from diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cancer. But drugs, even soft ones, are a political minefield and any talk of using cannabis as a medicine has been balanced by tough government language about tackling the scourge of drug dealers. "Progress..is too slow," the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee concluded in a report. Home Secretary Jack Straw has pledged that if the results from scientific tests proved positive, he would consider decriminalisation in that specific area. But broader decriminalisation is out of the question even though authorities estimate up to six million Britons have smoked dope at some time. Sufferers from diseases such as MS, which attacks the central nervous system, have been calling for a pain-relieving cannabis medicine for years and many have broken the law by buying the drug from street dealers. The Lords said nobody in such a position should be prosecuted but hinted at a softer line from government. "The Lords think they detect a change, not in the government's official position, but in their tone around this issue," the peers from parliament's upper chamber said. "They believe the government is now willing to amend the law to allow therapeutic use of cannabis once the clinical trials have been successfully completed. "Meanwhile, however, therapeutic users of cannabis continue to face the full rigours of the anti-drugs laws."
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!