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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Blunkett demands 'adult' drug debate
Sky News
Monday 09 Jul 2001 Home Secretary David Blunkett has called for an "adult, intelligent debate" of the current cannabis laws.He told Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme the Government would not jump into a decision or be pushed by public or press hysteria, criticising the current polarisation of the debate. "There is room for an adult intelligent debate but it isn't: `Are you for or against?' It's let's think, let's consider, let's not be pushed by articles in newspapers or hysteria," he said. "I am interested in the debate that is taking place because, I hope, I am an intelligent human being. "I have no intention of making a change in Government policy out of the blue and if I have anything further to say on the issue I will do so in a considered fashion in my own time." The comments appear to be a change in tack from the line Downing Street was taking last week when a spokesman said the Government's position was clear and unchanged. But Mr Blunkett said the Government had to be watchful of the message it was sending out. "It doesn't matter whether one drug is less dangerous than another," he said. "The clear message that we have to send out to young people is that drugs are bad for you and you shouldn't take them," he said. "That applies obviously to Class A drugs like heroin and crack cocaine but it is equally true of others. Unless we put that message up front we will mislead our young people into believing that there is some easy way forward on the drugs issue. There isn't." The Home Secretary's comments were welcomed by Tory former deputy leader Peter Lilley, whose call last week for cannabis to be legalised sparked the latest debate. "It does seem to be moving in the right direction," he said. An opinion poll for the Independent on Sunday showed that while the majority of people still opposed legalisation of cannabis there was a gradually softening of attitudes. The survey by NOP found 51 per cent opposed legalisation compared with 37 per cent who were in favour. The last time NOP conducted such a survey in 1996, 66 per cent were against legalisation and 26 per cent in favour.
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