|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Widdicombe Forced To Backtrack On Cannabis
Guardian, The
Monday 09 Oct 2000 Author: Patrick Wintour, Chief political correspondent WIDDICOMBE FORCED TO BACKTRACK ON CANNABIS Ann Widdicombe, the shadow home secretary, was yesterday forced to backtrack on her pledge for zero tolerance against cannabis users after seven of her shadow cabinet members mocked the policy by admitting they had used the drug in their youth. In an extraordinary day of criticism from some of her most senior Tory colleagues, Miss Widdicombe admitted that she had erred in presenting her much maligned pledge to have no truck with drug users. As what appears to be a battle between social liberals and authoritarians at the top of the Conservative parry was being waged, the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy added his fuel to the fire by becoming the first party leader to call for the decriminalisation of cannabis possession. Miss Widdicombe's hand appeared forced as Sunday newspaper headlines revealed top Tories - including the shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude - had admitted smoking dope. She then experienced a very public revolt within her party to her ideas. Peter Ainsworth, the shadow culture secretary, said her policy was "unrealistic" and suggested it was unhelpful that she had launched it without discussing it with the shadow cabinet. The former prime minister John Major also called for a rethink, while Conservative vice- chairman Steve Norris said it was a tall order to expect the police to impose zero tolerance against a backdrop of falling police numbers. He also accepted that most young voters would disagree with Miss Widdicombe. Yesterday Miss Widdicombe said she intended to give the police the option of imposing ?100 fixed penalty fines for drugs possession. Such fines would not constitute a full criminal record accessible to the police. She stressed she would pilot her ideas of cracking down on small or medium drug sellers in one city before attempting anything nationwide. Under her proposed regime to deter cannabis users, she said: "The police could take you to court, as they can now, or they could fine you, as they cannot now, or they could let you off with a warning that is not an actual formal caution." She admitted: "The use of the phrase zero tolerance in this area was unfortunate because everybody has their own interpretation of what zero tolerance is. "I should have made it clear zero tolerance does not mean you come down on every single instance of possession. It means you challenge every instance, but the police have got to have the right to decide whether they do go forward. I was trying to ensure that where they did want to go forward, they have more teeth than now." She wanted to replace the caution for drugs possession with the fine because the caution represents no real deferent and few police wanted to pursue possession though cumbersome court procedure. She said: "It is a coherent policy that has come under such enormous pressure because the media interpreted it as the police invading private living quarters, raiding student premises and taking every joint." She said one of her most severe critics - the Police Superintendent's Association - had "got completely the wrong end of the stick. They thought they would have to do it on present resources, and secondly they thought it would remove all discretion." She also stressed theta fixed penalty fine would not represent a more serious criminal record than a police caution. It would not be a record for use by employers. She admitted the Conservative central office briefing paper accompanying her speech stating the fixed penalty fine would not constitute a criminal record was technically correct, but "it would have been more accurate if it added that the record would not show in most checks in exactly the same way as a police caution. I am not introducing something that does not happen at the moment." Charles Kennedy, speaking on ITVs Jonathan Dimbleby programme, accused her of political hysterics, adding "she has performed a public service in the past few days by showing how far public attitudes have changed." He did not regards the shadow cabinet members of other recreational users as criminals. Asked if this meant he believed the drug should be decriminalised, he answered: "Yes." But the Liberal Democrat manifesto would not pledge to end the outlaw status of cannabis. Instead, it will propose a royal commission to look into drug law reforms.
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!