|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Lib Dem calls for debate on decriminalisation of all drugs
ePolitix
Tuesday 12 Mar 2002 A Lib Dem MP has called on politicians to consider decriminalising all drugs as part of the narcotics debate. Lembit Opik, the Lib Dem youth spokesman, said his party's support for the legalisation of cannabis should be the starting point of a debate about how to tackle the wider issue of drugs misuse. "The current anti-drugs regime harms society more than it helps it. We are currently punishing users as if that would stop them," he told ePolitix.com. "The statistics speak for themselves. In 1980 there were 200 heroin users. It had gone up to 36,164 just 15 years later. Two years ago the estimate was 200,000 in the UK." The Liberal Democrats sparked anger amongst anti-drugs campaigners over the weekend when they voted for the decriminalisation of cannabis and the reclassification of ecstacy. Calling for politicians to look at the issue realistically, the Montgomeryshire MP said successive governments had failed to grapple with the issues over decades. "Being truly radical is the best way as every other approach has failed. We need to consider all options including decriminalising all drugs," he said. "Politicians need to ask pertinent questions to all of the people involved with the issues. We need to ask users: 'why do you take drugs?' Do they understand what the consequences for society are?" He questioned whether the approach of arresting drug dealers was the best way of ending the increasing problem. "We have to ask whether the 'war on drugs' is the right approach. If you increase the price and the profit by cutting the supply that can only lead to rising crime," he said. "The question needs to be answered; when you have something that is demand-led how do you control it by taking a small number of suppliers out of the market." Opik said MPs had to end the posturing that had so far led the debate and be prepared to listen to the world outside Westminster. "If politicians truly listen to the answers, the solutions are there," he said.
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!