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UK: Cannabis 'cash crop' could save UK farmers, argues MP

ePolitix

Wednesday 17 Oct 2001

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A Labour MP has launched a Commons bill to legalise the personal use of
cannabis.

Cardiff central MP Jon Owen Jones believes that legalisation could be a
welcome shot in the arm as a "hardy cash crop" for foot and mouth hit UK
farmers.

"Legalisation is the most rational way forward," he said.

Owen Jones' Legalisation of Cannabis Bill is set for a House of Commons
debate on October 26 and in the very unlikely event of becoming law, the
bill could turn the UK into an Amsterdam-style Mecca for dope smokers
setting up a government licensing regime for the commercial cultivation and
import of cannabis.

The bill is backed by human rights campaigners Liberty and would legalise
the personal cultivation of cannabis and its use for "therapeutic and
recreational purposes".

"The public don't want our police force frittering their energies over a
victimless 'crime' like cannabis use. Our drug laws are arcane and
outdated," said Liberty's campaign director, Mark Littlewood.

The MP argues that attempts to halt cannabis were failing and fuelled
criminality.

"We've had a drugs tsar for three years. He's down and he's gone already
but the position is worse than when we started. The harm caused by
prohibition is far greater than the harm the drug causes," he said.

Owen Jones said licensing would remove the violent criminality associated
with drug gangs, up to two-thirds of Britain's drug market was in cannabis,
and his legislation, he argued, would undermine traffickers and cut the
number of cannabis users being wooed onto harder drugs by dealers.

The bill coincides with the start of a Commons Home Affairs select
committee investigation in to the country's drug laws.

MPs on the committee are to question whether current laws are workable,
looking beyond the cannabis issue to much more controversial class A drugs
such as heroin and crack cocaine.

Committee member and Conservative MP David Cameron, attended the launch and
told PA News that he had asked Owen Jones to submit his evidence to the
select committee's inquiry.

"I welcome the debate because it is one we need to have. I'm going to be
looking carefully at the arguments before I make up my mind," he said.

But leader of the Welsh Tories in the national assembly, Nick Bourne,
attacked the Cardiff MP's "ludricrous passion" for cannabis legislation.

"Jon Owen Jones is demonstrating an absurd lack of priorities in his work
as a local MP," he said. "His Cardiff central constituents must be livid at
the thought of Jon Owen Jones investing so much of his time on this
ludicrous passion rather than concentrating on the needs for the area he is
supposed to represent."

Owen Jones held his seat in the June 2001 election with a slim 659 majority
from Lib Dem challengers.

The Owen Jones bill has been sponsored by Labour MPs including Paul Flynn ,
Ian Gibson, Brian Idden, Diane Abbot, John Austin, Tony Banks, Jeremy
Corbyn, Lynn Jones and Austin Mitchell and the Lib Dem MPs Mike Hancock and
Dr Jenny Tonge.

 

 

 

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