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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK Cannabis Row
Reuters
Monday 09 Oct 2000 Author: Simon Gardner UK CANNABIS ROW EX-COPS SAY ``LEGALISE IT'' LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Marijuana should be legalised in Britain to help stamp out harder drugs, former police chiefs argued on Monday, rejecting draconian proposals by opposition Conservatives for ``zero tolerance'' on soft drugs. Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe's vow to fine anyone caught with any quantity of cannabis if the Conservatives win the next election has triggered a raging debate in Britain -- drawing widespread derision and dividing her own party. Dismissed as a ``backward step'' by police and as ``unrealistic and impracticable'' by the government's anti-drugs coordinator Keith Hellawell, Widdecombe's proposals have now spawned a defiant chorus of ``legalise it.'' ``I spent years fighting the drugs trade at Heathrow and on the streets of London and my direct experience has convinced me that legalisation, not prohibition, is the only viable option,'' former Scotland Yard drug squad chief Edward Ellison said. ``Zero tolerance would simply make an appalling situation far worse,'' he added. Hellawell told BBC radio that research showed at least six million Britons had tried cannabis but a much smaller proportion used it regularly. Police currently turn a blind eye to recreational cannabis use in Britain, cracking down instead on dealers of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. WIDDECOMBE VOW BACKFIRES Widdecombe last week announced her plan for 100 pound ($145) fines for first time offenders and charges comparable to drug dealing for anyone caught with all but the smallest quantities of soft drugs. It backfired badly. Seven of her shadow cabinet colleagues have since admitted smoking cannabis in the past and party leader William Hague now has to heal a rift which threatens to halt the Tories' comeback. Former Gwent police head Francis Wilkinson argued alcohol was far more socially damaging than smoking ``very safe'' cannabis, saying distinguishing it from harder drugs would freeze out dealers. ``Cannabis needs to be moved across to the legal drugs side and leave things like crack cocaine and heroin on the other side... so that cannabis is not a gateway through the same suppliers into harder and more dangerous drugs,'' he told BBC radio. ``Alcohol is much more serious, much more socially damaging, much more powerful than cannabis, he added. While Hellawell's 10-year anti-drugs strategy in Britain is focused on cutting the availability of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine by 50 percent by 2008, he said legalising cannabis was not the answer. ``I think it is unrealistic and impracticable to talk about zero tolerance. It just would not work,'' Hellawell said. ``The problem in this country is largely related to heroin and cocaine.''
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