|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Lib-Dems vote to legalise cannabis
Camillo Fracassini Scotland on Sunday
Sunday 10 Mar 2002 THE legalisation of cannabis was adopted as official Liberal Democrat policy last night. Going against the advice of the party's own policy group - which had wanted to decriminalise the drug - members voted in favour of all-out legalisation. They also approved calls at their spring conference in Manchester for doctors to be given the power to prescribe heroin to addicts. Last night, the party's home affairs spokesman, Simon Hughes, said the decision had not been taken lightly. Delegates at the conference had been presented with a paper, supported by senior figures in the party, calling for the effective decriminalisation of the drug. Under the proposals, people in possession of the class B drug would no longer be imprisoned. But delegates opted to go one step further and back legalisation, a policy that will now have to be included in the party's manifesto at the next election. They also voted at the conference to accept a second amendment calling for doctors to be given the power to prescribe heroin to addicts. Speaking after the decision, Hughes said: "This isn't a rush of blood to the head, we have taken two years to look at the evidence. "My experience is that people who have had the tragedy of drugs come into their lives know that the current law doesn't work and they want another alternative." Hughes acknowledged that the party would have to persuade the electorate of the merits of its position. "We have to go out and sell the message," he said. Charles Kennedy, the party's leader, said that having the confidence and maturity to discuss the legal status of cannabis did the party "no harm".
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!