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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Lib Dem leader backs off cannabis pledge
Anne Perkins The Guardian
Saturday 21 Sep 2002 The Liberal Democrats' drugs policy was in confusion yesterday after Charles Kennedy appeared to renege on party policy to legalise cannabis. As delegates arrived for the party conference, starting in Brighton tomorrow, their leader, Mr Kennedy, insisted his party's policy was not legalisation but decriminalisation. "The Liberal Democrats support the decriminalisation of cannabis. Full stop," he said after several minutes' questioning on the BBC Question Time programme on Thursday night. In March, after a long debate on a working party report, the Liberal Democrats' spring conference voted "to end prison sentences for possession for personal use of all illegal drugs ... and legalise cannabis by seeking in the longer term to put its supply on a legal, regulated basis subject to renegotiating UN conventions". The Question Time exchanges began after one of the young audience asked Mr Kennedy: "How much are you going to charge for an eighth?" Mr Kennedy said he knew what was "being got at". But when the programme's presenter, David Dimbleby, reminded him that his party had voted for legalisation Mr Kennedy denied it. "We're not saying legalisation. There is a difference between legalisation and decriminalisation. What we are saying is that if you really want to tackle in a sensible and hopefully solvable way the drugs issue in this country you put resources into rehabilitation. The people you come down on with the full force of the law are the pushers," Mr Kennedy said. When the party debated legalisation, it was pointed out that international conventions, specifically the 1988 UN convention on illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, demand that supply or purchase with intent to supply must be a criminal offence. The party leadership declared that as an internationalist party, it could only be committed to legalisation "in the long term". Although the party is anxious not to be seen to be tailoring policies to Tory votes, the Liberal Democrats' top 40 target seats are all Conservative held. Insisting that there had been no change in policy, one aide insisted: "It's a nuanced position." However, many in the party want legalisation. One MP, Jenny Tonge, said last night that anything else was hypocritical. "We have to think the unthinkable. It is the dealers and the crime associated with dealing which threaten to destabilise our society. We must move the debate on and we have. Liberal Democrat policy is legalisation subject to international agreement." Rank and file Liberal Democrats have always been radical on drugs policy.
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