|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Top UK Tory Calls For Cannabis To Be Legalized
New York Times
Friday 06 Jul 2001 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Author: Reuters Filed at 4:31 a.m. ET LONDON (Reuters) - The former deputy leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party called on Friday for cannabis to be legalized in Britain and sold in special outlets. Peter Lilley, a right-winger who served in the cabinets of former Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said a rethink on cannabis would show "bold new thinking" by the Conservatives and help the party recover from the election mauling it suffered in June. In an article in Friday's Daily Telegraph, Lilley said the radical move on cannabis would make the party more appealing to young people and show Britons the party was open to new ideas. "The present laws have palpably failed. Nearly half of young people try cannabis and more than a million people flout the law every month," he said. His stance is at odds with that of most Tories, particularly the hardline view of shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, who told BBC radio on Friday: "The current position of the Conservative party is that we are opposed to legalization." She questioned Lilley's argument that legalizing the drug would enable governments to crack down on barons who peddle both soft and hard drugs. "It would be far more likely that theywould put a huge amount of their effort into marketing hard drugs and probably target ever younger age groups," she said. Widdecombe last year called for the party to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy on cannabis and fine anyone caught in possession of the drug. The idea was dropped after seven leading Conservatives admitted they had smoked cannabis themselves. Speaking on BBC radio, Lilley said he had never taken cannabis himself: "No I never have. I'm rather boring in that respect, and I have no desire to do so," he said. "I don't want to encourage people to take it, but I don't want to put them in jail for taking it," he added. With a battle for the leadership of the Conservative party under way following the resignation of William Hague the day after June's election, Lilley said he hoped all five contenders for the job would consider his argument on cannabis. He said arguments to ban the drug on health grounds were "bogus or exaggerated" and also dismissed the notion that cannabis users later turned to hard drugs. "Short of legalizing trade in cannabis entirely, the only way to stop driving soft drug users into the arms of the criminals who push hard drugs is to license some legal outlets to retail cannabis," he said. He suggested a system similar to the "coffee shops" in the Netherlands, where there are liberal laws on soft drugs. An ICM poll last year found that 80 percent of Britons thought cannabis should be decriminalized. Two-thirds of those aged 18 to 34 said smoking a joint was no worse than smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol.
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!