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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Blunkett denies 'burying' cannabis announcement
Ananova
Tuesday 23 Oct 2001 David Blunkett has fiercely denied burying his move to change the law on cannabis beneath the IRA's disarmament announcement. The Home Secretary insists the timing of the decision on the drug was not arranged to minimise negative publicity. Mr Blunkett says reclassifying marijuana makes sound sense. But he emphasised the Government is neither legalising nor decriminalising the drug. He told the BBC: "I was addressing the home affairs select committee, which is an all-party select committee, which is about to investigate the issues around drugs. They fixed their meeting literally weeks ago. It had to be moved from the morning until the afternoon because we had a permanent secretary Cabinet meeting that had also been fixed by the Prime Minister weeks ago. "I chose to go ahead and I told the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs what I was going to say last week. So the idea that I could have predicted that the IRA were going to start their decommissioning and there was going to be an announcement last night is frankly unbelievable." The Home Secretary continued: "I deliberately didn't spin this. I didn't put it out at the weekend, I didn't put a line on it ... I do what people want, which is to announce it to a parliamentary forum, I don't announce it in advance, it wasn't leaked, for once, I mean the first time since I have been in the Home Office something hasn't been leaked on my behalf and then I get criticised for the timing of putting it out." Mr Blunkett acknowledged that in the past there had been too much 'spinning' of news. "Well I think we have become obsessed with the method of getting information into the arena. I mean collectively, the media, politicians themselves, including me, all of us have been obsessed with the nature of the delivery of the message rather than the message." "It has avoided the absurdity of 68% of police time going on cannabis, actually to no effect, because very often the charges are dropped and people are given a caution, which they still can be in the street now, rather than having to arrest them, rather than concentrating on what the police themselves have quite reasonably acknowledged to be the right priorities, which is crack, crack cocaine and heroin." Mr Blunkett also signalled that it was likely that the use of cannabis for pain relief purposes would be authorised.
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