|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: NI: Cannabis cafe for the big smoke?
Joe Oliver Sunday Life, Belfast
Thursday 08 Aug 2002 BELFAST could be poised for its first CANNABIS cafe. But cops have warned that plans for the Dutch-style cafe would be illegal. They hit out following the disclosure that campaigners for the medicinal use of the drug had obtained premises on the fringe of Belfast's booming Cathedral Quarter. The Sunday Life has learned that activists intend to open the so-called 'coffee shop' near North Street in October. It will offer cut-price medi-weed for people with medical conditions like MS. But the longer term aim is that it will also cater for recreational users. Government medical experts declared earlier this year that cannabis was not as harmful as cigarettes or alcohol. In the wake of that report, Home Secretary David Blunkett downgraded cannabis from a Class 'B' to a Class 'C' drug. In effect, it reduces the penalties for cannabis offences but police will still be required to send a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions when someone is caught in possession of the drug. Moves to decriminalise the drug have been bitterly attacked by local politicians. A number of Dutch-style cafes have opened - and continue to operate - in England. In Scotland, prosecutors binned 45,000 drug cases last year and police now believe they are wasting their time arresting suspects with small amounts of the drug. But a senior PSNI officer said: "The law is still clear, anyone selling cannabis would be acting illegally. "In such circumstances we would have no option but to act." One source close to supporters of the cafe plan in Belfast said: "It will at the outset be a word of mouth operation. "But the day when possession of cannabis is not illegal is not far off and in other parts of the UK, it's simply no longer seen as a law enforcement priority. "The aim is to help people with medical conditions and in the not too distant future, those who use it for purely recreational purposes."
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!