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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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MSPs want debate on cannabis law Auslan Cramb Telegraph Monday 27 Dec 1999 NINE members of the Scottish Parliament have admitted trying cannabis and 18 are in favour of decriminalising the drug, it emerged yesterday. A survey of MSPs' attitudes to drugs also revealed that most are in favour of cannabis being used for medicinal purposes. The poll by the Scotland on Sunday newspaper found that 37 of the 54 MSPs who responded to a questionnaire favoured a relaxation of the law to help sufferers of diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Thirty-four MSPs said they wanted the parliament to debate the issue, even though drug laws are reserved to Westminster. A motion by Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party, calling for a royal commission to examine cannabis laws, has been signed by 35 MSPs. More than 30 members attended a private meeting before the Christmas recess to discuss the issue with lawyers, doctors, pathologists and drug workers. Miss McDonald said: "If the parliament is going to be relevant to the people who pay for it then it really has got to talk about the things that the people talk about." Miss McDonald said that a distinction could be drawn between those who used cannabis as well as other drugs, and those who use cannabis socially. She said: "There seems to me a very fine line, if any, between the social use of alcohol and the way in which a great number of people use cannabis." The Scottish Executive has so far followed the hard-line policy of Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, and plans to confiscate the assets of drug dealers and channel the money into anti-drug community schemes. A System Three poll earlier this year found that 51 per cent of young people in Scotland supported the legalisation of cannabis.
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