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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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No relaxation on cannabis laws
Monday 09 Oct 2000 relaxation of the law on cannabis as the debate prompted by the Tories' problems with drugs policy rages on. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has made it clear that the Government will continue to resist calls for decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis use. Speaking during a visit to Peckham, south London, where he was announcing new money for neighbourhood renewal projects, Mr Prescott insisted: "I think the Government is absolutely right. I am a hardliner on drugs. I think cannabis leads to use of other drugs and I am against that. " He added: "I have seen what it does, both in my 10 years at sea and on the estates in my constituency, so I am not very tolerant of that." Earlier, Home Secretary Jack Straw agreed that the anti-drugs effort should focus on substances which were addictive and killed. But the dangers associated with cannabis should not be underestimated, he insisted. "Pharmacologists and psychiatrists tell us that cannabis can have very severe short-term and long-term effects," said Mr Straw. "The long-term effects include a very severe exacerbation of mental illness and also include cancer. It is reckoned that cannabis is between two and four times as carcinogenic as tobacco. "If cannabis were legalised, then consumption of a drug for which the evidence is very strong that it is very harmful will unquestionably increase and in five or 10 years' time, people will say 'Why have you done this? It has made us more unhealthy'." Mr Straw said that the row in the Conservative Party over cannabis had shown that the Tories were "unfit to govern". He said that shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe's zero tolerance proposals were "mad" because they did not recognise the proportionate damage caused by different illegal drugs. Mr Straw said that the admissions by eight shadow cabinet members that they had used cannabis should not affect drugs policy. He said: "I don't think any policy should be led by whether or not as a youth one got into one indiscretion or another." Tory agriculture spokesman Tim Yeo earlier became the latest shadow minister to admit having used cannabis. The bulk of the Cabinet have either denied taking cannabis, or declined to respond to questions on the issue.
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