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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Q & A: Cannabis reclassification Nyta Mann The BBC Monday 22 Oct 2001 As Home Secretary David Blunkett announces he is to ease the law on cannabis, BBC News Online political correspondent Nyta Mann answers questions on just what the change means in practice. Q: Is the home secretary effectively legalising cannabis? A: Not at all. Possession of cannabis will remain a criminal offence, with a maximum sentence of two years. And supply of - dealing - cannabis still carries a maximum penalty of five years. But in reclassifying it from being a Class B drug to Class C, putting it on the same level as steroids and anti-depressants, cannabis possession becomes a non-arrestable offence. If the police catch a person with it, that individual could be given a warning, a caution or sent a court summons later. But they will not be hauled off to the police station. Q: Are we going to see cannabis cafes, as in some other countries? A: No. Selling cannabis will remain a criminal offence and there will not be any "licensed" sellers. Campaigners for the decriminalisation of cannabis protest that what ministers should be doing is removing cannabis, a "soft" drug, from the criminal environment in which the much more damaging hard drugs (like heroin and cocaine) are available. Q: Is David Blunkett going out on a limb by doing this? A: Far from it. Liberalisation of drug laws is one of those issues on which politicians lag some way behind the public - as well as behind much expert, academic and police opinion. In reclassifying cannabis as a Class C drug, Mr Blunkett is only agreeing with a recent recommendation from the thoroughly respected Police Foundation report which proposed the measure. In recent years though the number of politicians calling for a relaxation of the drugs laws has grown. Meanwhile, the ranks have swelled of those MPs and even ministers who admit that they themselves have dabbled with cannabis. They invariably accompany their confessions with an insistence that it was all a very long time ago and they never enjoyed it anyway. Q: When does the relaxation take effect? A: Not for a few months yet. Mr Blunkett makes the formal recommendation to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The change is then made by way of a procedure called an "order in council". It does not require legislation, though MPs will debate and vote on the measure. The timetable means the reclassification will actually probably take effect next spring. Q: Isn't this an odd way to announce a move like this, during evidence to a select committee? A: Absolutely. No one can remember when this method was last chosen to release significant news of this order. It is certainly the kind of thing you would more likely expect to hear in the form of a Commons written answer, or announcement in the chamber. When asked just why Mr Blunkett chose to share his news in this unusual manner, a Home Office official said: "Because we value the work of the select committee and wanted to do it here rather than just at a press conference." Few at Westminster believed that. The consensus soon hardened that Mr Blunkett's announcement neatly served to distract attention from the government's embarrassment over special adviser Jo Moore - whose notorious "Twin Towers" memo was being debated in the Commons that very afternoon.
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