|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Drug reform is backward step
Editorial Essex Chronicle
Thursday 29 Jan 2004 'The confusion surrounding the declassification of cannabis is yet another worrying example of this Government's apparent inability to deliver a clear strategy on crime-related issues. The tough on crime manifesto pledge is, apparently, a long abandoned promise. Whatever way you look at it, the perceived impression given to youngsters is that cannabis, from today classified as a Class C drug, is relatively harmless. The Home Secretary's view that declassification will allow the police to target the use and, supply of 'harder' drugs sounds rather hollow. This is just another way of reducing crime fig=ADures by manipulating the legal system. Side-stepping the obvious harm the drug can cause to health, pro-cannabis lobbyists want legalisation. In fact, they insist cannabis has medicinal values. That may be so but, in that case, its use should only he allowed under strict medical conditions, and only alter the drug has undergone the same stringent medical trials as demanded of all other prescribed drugs. You don't need to take medicine unless you are ill - so the majority of the pro-cannabis lobbyists' argument fails flat when you consider they only want it legalised so they can use it for their own recreational purposes without getting their collars felt. They argue that alcohol and tobacco are legal. Why not cannabis? Well, what good to society has come from tobacco or alcohol? Ask the medics what they think. Ask the sufferers of smoking-related illnesses or alcoholics what the benefits are. Ask their families and the bereaved.There is nothing worthwhile to gain by adding another drug, known to be far more carcinogenic than cigarettes, to that legalised list. With so many crimes being drug , surely it would be far better to crackdown hard on one of the.major sources of crime than to take the easy option of fiddling the figures.
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!