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Straw rejects cannabis as a cure
Andrew Parker The Scotsman
Monday 05 Jan 1998 drug has any useful medical role JACK STRAW declared yesterday that cannabis could be prescribed by doctors for illnesses, but only if researchers can prove it has beneficial medical uses. The Home Secretary, whose son, William, 17, is accused of selling cannabis to a newspaper reporter, insisted that scientists had failed to prove that the drug had any useful medical role. Mr Straw was revealed to England and Wales on Friday as the Cabinet minister at the centre of a drugs row. After The Scotsman disclosed his identity, a judge lifted an injunction which banned newspapers in England from naming him. Mr Straw has said that the affair served to strengthen his conviction that soft drugs should not be legalised. But he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "Heroin on any basis is a worse drug, a more dangerous drug than cannabis, but heroin in its pharmaceutical preparation, diamorphine, is available on prescription for people in pain and it's very widely prescribed. "So the law does not say that, because a drug is classed as illegal, it therefore should not be available on prescription. What it does say, however, is that before drugs are available on prescription they've got to be properly tested and researched. Now that's happened to a lot of opiates, heroin and cocaine derivatives. "So far the medical researchers have not been able to prove, indeed very few have tried, that there are real beneficial medicinal effects from cannabis." Mr Straw again rejected the case for establishing a Royal commission in order to consider whether soft drugs should be legalised. Paul Flynn, a Labour back-bencher, claimed there was substantial research to support the case for prescribing cann-abis to victims of multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, cerebral palsy, muscle spasm and the effects of chemotherapy. He said: "The evidence is there in great abundance, but the Government, and the Home Office in particular, won't accept it because they believe if they allowed it to be used it would break down the mythology they have put out about the dangers of cannabis." Mr Flynn intends to table a Commons early day motion to test the support among MPs for a Royal commission. Alan Beith, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, supported Mr Flynn. Mr Straw, who chairs a ministerial committee promoting good parenting, said last month that he approached the subject with humility. He said yesterday: "I guess I have to show even greater humility in the light of what's happened." It emerged that William Straw is unlikely to face suspension or expulsion from the school he attends in south-west London. But Oxford University's conditional offer for him to read politics, philosophy and economics could be under threat. The Crown Prosecution Service is expected to say today that he should not be charged in relation to the allegations that he sold cannabis to Dawn Alford, a Mirror reporter. The Mirror claimed on Christmas Eve that the son of a Cabinet minister had sold the drug to Alford in a pub. It did not identify Mr Straw or his son. The police are understood to have recommended to the CPS that William should be cautioned or face no action at all. Philip Barnard, head of Pimlico Comprehensive, told the Mail on Sunday: "My instinctive, gut reaction is he has suffered enough because of whose son he is. My instincts are that I will read him the riot act but he will not be excluded temporarily or permanently." A spokesman for Oxford University said that William could lose his place if convicted of a drug offence. Meanwhile, Mr Straw intends to change English law to ensure that persistent young offenders can be named and shamed at 16. English law provides anonymity to those under 18 who face legal proceedings. Mr Straw wants the age limit reduced to 16, to bring English law into line with Scots law.
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