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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Campaigners applaud cannabis reform
Tania Branigan The Guardian
Wednesday 24 Oct 2001 Cannabis consumption is unlikely to be boosted by a relaxation of the drug laws, campaigners said yesterday. The reclassification of the drug from class B to class C, ending police powers to arrest people for possession, is a remarkable and unexpected victory for activists and users who have long argued that it is no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol. But they believe the change is unlikely to encourage non-users to take it up and will simply allow consumers to indulge unhindered. "In Holland, where it's decriminalised, the number of 15-year-olds who have tried cannabis is around 20%," said Chris Sanders of the Cannabis Coalition, who has been smoking for 34 years, since he was 13. "Here it's 49%. Which method do you think works?" Campaigners have welcomed the announcement by the home secretary, David Blunkett, as "de facto decriminalisation", a claim that the government denies, although cannabis remains illegal and it will still be possible to prosecute people via court summons. The maximum penalties for possession and possession with intent to supply have been lowered from five to two years and from 14 to five years respectively. "I think the key point will be what happens outside the big cities," said Marcus, 29, a London dealer who supplies his friends with cannabis on a non-profit basis. "For the last two years I've felt quite safe carrying it anyway. But in Scotland one of my friends was jailed for six months for possessing an ounce which was purely for personal use." "The change will be much more dramatic in rural areas and small towns; I think you'll see a huge difference in the number of people taken to court or even going to prison." Colin Davies, the founder of a cannabis cafe called the Dutch Experience in Stockport, near Manchester, and the Medical Marijuana Cooperative, which supplies cannabis to sufferers of multiple sclerosis and other diseases, has been acquitted on drugs charges three times and believes public opinion is far ahead of the government. "They can charge me 100 times, but they have to find me guilty once," he said. "I don't think any jury in this country will find someone guilty of a medical cannabis offence - and maybe not even social cannabis use, now. "But if this frees patients from being messed with by police it's a brilliant thing. Now I can carry my medicine without it being stolen by the police." The real question may be how reclassification affects the supply rather than the use of the drug. Mr Davies, who began smoking cannabis to relieve pain from spine fractures has always been open about supplying the drug to others on a non-profit basis and as a result is currently charged with importing cannabis. He accepted that it mmight be some time before he would be able to reopen the "dealer's booth" at the Dutch Experience, closed moments after it opened last month. "Now we have to deal on street corners and be less open about it," he said. "We've been forced to operate in the shadows." Steve Rolles of Transform, the campaign to reform drug laws, described the change as "moving in the direction of de facto decriminalisation," and believed it would root out many professional dealers. "Once possession is no longer an arrestable offence, people will feel more comfortable about growing. The large scale growing will wither away." Roger Bingham, a spokesman for the civil rights campaign Liberty, disagreed. "Although users have been told they won't be arrested, they will still have to have illegal sources and we don't see how that can be a good thing. "We would far rather see the government take this to the logical conclusion by legalising personal use and licensing dealers. That would take away the element of a system that puts normal people in touch with criminals who deal illegal drugs across the board."
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