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UK: Cannabis March At Inverness

Andrew Black

Press & Journal, Aberdeen

Monday 29 Jul 2002

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An INVERNESS "cannabis march" in favour of legalisation of the drug
attracted around 100 people at the weekend. Organised by the Scottish
Socialist Youth - a division of the Scottish Socialist Party - the group
set off along the city's High Street, flanked by uniformed police
officers.

The march led along the banks of the River Ness and to the Bught Park.

The event, which was used as a platform to call for the legalisation of
cannabis and the availability of heroin to addicts through the NHS, was
one of five weekend marches which took place in cities across Scotland.

SSY Highland spokesman Simon Cann, said: "Although the kind of reform
offered by New Labour, in the form of re-classification of cannabis from
a class B to a class C drug, is a step in the right direction, it is a
piecemeal offering.

"It goes only half way to answering the question of criminalisation of
cannabis users and does nothing to break the link with the criminal
underworld.

"Young people across the country could still be criminalised and
stigmatised for experimentation with a drug which the British Medical
Association says is considerably less harmful than alcohol."

He added that the SSP was the first political party in the country to
call for free heroin on prescription for registered addicts.

"In countries such as Switzerland and Holland, similar policies have
dramatically reduced crime, overdose deaths, and numbers of new addicts.

"The policy of prescribing clean, pharmaceutical heroin to addicts under
controlled conditions has been proven to work and would pay for itself
many times over in terms of crime reduction alone."

SSY member Leah Ganley added: "The Scottish Socialist Party does not
promote the use of any drug, but supports the right of people to chose.
It should be noted that it is another policy of our party to completely
ban the advertising of any drug, be it alcohol, tobacco or cannabis".

The event, police said, passed without incident.

 

 

 

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