UK: Opinion: Why our drug laws must be reformed

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John Bowis, MEP & Dr Charles Tannock, MEP

Wigan Evening Post

Wednesday 16 Jan 2002

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Last month, Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies made a political protest
which led to his being formally arrested for possession of cannabis.

Although we do not support his deliberate breaking of criminal law, we
do support his campaign to raise the public awareness of the absurdity
of the current sanctions regarding the possession and consumption of
cannabis.

When the Chief Constable of North Wales has called for a Royal
Commission to look at the legalisation of all drugs and described the
Home Secretary's proposed reform of the sanctions against cannabis as
"timid", it is becoming obvious to all that the criminalisation of
cannabis is not sustainable, and that sanctions are not being applied
fairly or evenly throughout the country by the police.

Not only do our laws increasingly not reflect the attitude of the
public, particularly of youth, towards the recreational use of cannabis,
but they also ignore the promising medical benifits demonstrated in the
preliminary data for controlled trials by GW Pharmaceuticals.

As, respectively, a former Minister of Health and a consultant
psychiatrist with experience in this area, we join the rising number of
voices arguing for a radical overhaul of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act,
based on scientific evidence and not prejudice or political dogma, and
for this matter to be settled by Parliament, not by local police forces.

John Bowis, MEP, Conservative health spokesman,
Dr Charles Tannock, MEP, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman.

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