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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Lib Dems vote to legalise cannabis
Eben Black The Sunday Times
Sunday 10 Mar 2002 CANNABIS should be legalised, the Liberal Democrats agreed at a party conference yesterday, writes Eben Black. In a formal vote the party called for a relaxation of the drug laws. It included the downgrading of ecstasy from a class A to a class B restricted drug. Kennedy himself did not vote on the issue, raised at the party's spring conference in Manchester, arguing that he was busy working on his keynote speech for tomorrow. Earlier, however, he had said it did the party 'no harm' to raise the issue. The Liberal Democrat decision comes as a government body is expected to recommend this week to David Blunkett, the home secretary, that cannabis should be legally downgraded to give it the same status as prescription drugs such as Valium. Home Office sources say Blunkett has yet to decide whether to take the advice, expected from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Blunkett announced in October that he planned to change the law so that people caught with the drug for their own use would no longer be arrested. A pilot scheme in Brixton, south London, has been judged a success by police. The Liberal Democrats yesterday were also considering a call to end the threat of imprisonment for possession of any drug. Its youth wing wanted to go further, proposing the full legalisation of cannabis. But the leadership had recommended that only possession be decriminalised, leaving the way open for dealers still to be prosecuted. The Liberal Democrat stance comes after what the party describes as a 'full policy review' of the issue. Kennedy said yesterday that it was 'wrong to walk away from people, particularly young people, and give them that criminal penalty'. He went on: 'We should aim to rehabilitate and to encourage a mature, earnest and open debate in our society which actually prevents people being exposed to the issue in the first place. I think that will find an echo with almost every household in the country.'
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