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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Legalise Cannabis Hint From Mowlam
ccguide Saturday 12 Feb 2000 Pubdate: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Media Group 2000 Contact: Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Author: Nicholas Watt, Political Correspondent LEGALISE CANNABIS HINT FROM MOWLAM Mo Mowlam yesterday set herself at odds with Downing Street's hardline anti-drugs policy when she held out the prospect that cannabis could eventually be decriminalised. Weeks after admitting that she smoked marijuana as a student in the early 1970s, the minister in charge of the government's drugs strategy said on GMTV: "I never cancel anything in or anything out." Her remarks came after Keith Hellawell, the anti-drugs tsar, called on police to concentrate on the threat posed by hard drugs rather than be distracted by softer drugs. In an interview with the Observer Mr Hellawell said: "What I have done is lift the stone on the hidden truth about drugs in Britain, which is that we need to discriminate between different drugs and the relative harm caused and then talk openly about the difference we can make." Ms Mowlam, the cabinet office minister, agreed that the government and the criminal justice system were concentrating their resources on the "killer drugs". She said: "Obviously the killer drugs - heroin, cocaine, ecstasy - we are focusing on harder. We have got a 10-year strategy ... It is not going to happen overnight but we are making progress." Ms Mowlam insisted that she was not calling for cannabis to be decriminalised or for new laws to be introduced to allow offenders to escape prison as proposed in a forthcoming report by the Police Foundation. Ms Mowlam hinted that changes could be introduced at a later stage. "At the moment there is no current intention so to do." Her remarks came close to breaching the hardline stance of Tony Blair and Jack Straw. Clare Short was famously rebuked when she raised the possibility of decriminalising marijuana and it is no secret that other ministers are sympathetic to a more flexible approach. But the Tory leader, William Hague, provided a timely reminder yesterday of why Downing Street has adopted such a tough stance. In an in terview with BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Hague said he was concerned by Mr Hellawell's remarks. "We shouldn't take our eyes away from cannabis and the other soft drugs because it is very clear, from talking to police around the country, that that often leads to the hard drugs." Mr Hague said that policies to be announced this week will call for children to be taught of the dangers of illegal drugs through the national curriculum and for anyone caught with drugs within 400 yards of a school to be subject to heavier penalties. "There is a serious crisis in this country [including] many parts where you wouldn't expect it or suspect it". - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea
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