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UK: Cafe society in Edinburgh is promised a cannabis alternative A Scotland Correspondent The Times Wednesday 28 Jan 2004 CAMPAIGNERS promised yesterday to break the law by opening a cannabis cafe in Scotland when the drug is reclassified tomorrow. The Scottish Cannabis Coffeeshop Movement (SCCM) said that people would be allowed to use the drug in the Purple Haze Cafe in Leith. The downgrading of the drug from Class B to Class C means that police in England and Wales will rarely make arrests for possession of small amounts of the drug. But Hugh Henry, Scotland's Deputy Justice Minister, said there would be no change in practice north of the border and anyone possessing cannabis could still face prosecution. Kevin Williamson, drugs spokesman for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), said that 500,000 people used cannabis in Scotland as he launched the SCCM during a press conference inside the Scottish Parliament. He said that Mr Henry's comments had left the law looking mangled. 'It's one of these laws that's dishonest and hypocritical and like every dishonest and hypocritical law it has to be challenged,' he said. 'We want to build a network of cannabis tolerant zones beginning with the Purple Haze Cafe and expanding it across the whole of Scotland . . . until our Parliament has the powers to change the law. He said the campaign also wanted to turn the tolerance zones into 'cannabis information centres' and to monitor arrests for personal possession of cannabis in Scotland. Paul Stewart, the Purple Haze owner, said that people would have to bring their own cannabis to the cafe because the drug would not be on sale. The cafe would be 'tobacco free' but anyone wishing to take cannabis could use a vaporiser machine which eliminated 99 per cent of the carcinogenic substances in the drug. The SSP MSP Frances Curran said that she had not smoked cannabis but her party was opposed to criminalising a layer of young people and wanted to see the drug legalised. She said: 'We are opposed to criminalising a layer of young people and although we might not be partaking ourselves, we are definitely in favour of it being licensed and young people being able to smoke it if they decide to. She added: 'It's going to come. Why wait another five years? Why not legalise cannabis now and stop another 100,000 young people going through the criminal justice system. It's an absolute nonsense and it would save a fortune in the courts.'
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