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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: New ideas on drugs reform
The Scotsman
Thursday 22 Nov 2001 THE debate over reforming Britain's drug laws has moved on apace in recent weeks after years in which politicians felt the only comment was one of no surrender. The reason: the men and women in the police force who have had to administer our drugs policy can see present policies are not working. And they are beginning to say so more and more. Yesterday, Commander Brian Paddick, the Metropolitan police officer in charge of a pilot scheme in Lambeth to relax the laws on cannabis, told a parliamentary inquiry into drugs reform he was not interested in taking action against "recreational" weekend users. Then the Metropolitan Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Andy Hayman, dropped two other bombshells. He told MPs that the Association of Chief Police Officers in England would support ecstasy being downgraded from a class A to class B drug if medical evidence supported the move. And that they are also in favour of introducing "legal zones" where heroin users can take the class A drug without fear of arrest. He recommended a series of pilot schemes allowing addicts to use heroin in sanitised "injection rooms", where they could inject the drug under medical supervision - an approach pioneered in Europe and Australia. Such a "pilot" project would most likely be held in a city with a particularly high heroin problem, such as Glasgow. These suggestions have provoked instant criticism. That an overwhelmed police are just giving up. That we have to "hold the line" while trying harder to convince people not to use drugs. Council representatives in Glasgow have reacted negatively to the reform proposals, fearing the city would become a haven for hard drugs. But that is perhaps too negative a response to the very people who have had themselves to hold a teetering line that has so far failed to slow, never mind eradicate, the drugs problem. The police are recommending pilot projects to explore alternative ways of eroding the hard-drugs culture and uncoupling the users from the criminal elements who supply them. If society fears listening to the professionals, then there is little chance that we will ever make progress in defeating the scourge of drugs.
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