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UK: 'Cannabis safer than insurance'

Ian Fraser

The Sunday Herald, Glasgow

Sunday 15 Feb 2004

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IT IS now easier to sell cannabis than to legally sell a pension in the UK,
according to consultants to the financial services industry.

The government recently downgraded cannabis to class C status, the same
level as anabolic steroids and anti-depressants. Although cannabis
possession remains illegal it will - ordinarily not be an arrestable
offence - which fuelled the impression that cannabis had effectively been
'legalised'.

Glasgow-based High-Land Company Unlimited is already selling marijuana
seeds and a range of smoking accessories online while a marijuana-based
medication for people suffering from multiple sclerosis is expected to be
approved for sale later this year.

But the Financial Services Authority, which took control of pensions
regulation from the Pensions Investment Authority in November 2001, is
widely seen by consultants to the life industry as hindering the sale of
pensions to UK consumers.

'They are seeking to micro-manage everything life firms do,' said a
consultant to the sector who preferred to remain anonymous. 'It has become
easier to legally sell cannabis than to sell a pension.'

One Edinburgh-based insurance source said: 'The whole realistic reporting
regime has been completely prescriptive.

'The FSA wants to put all the life companies in a box, all plain vanilla,
so they all do the same things and all look the same.

'This is almost certain to reduce consumer choice but whether it leads to
greater consumer protection remains open to question. Scandals such as
Maxwell and Equitable Life are just as likely to happen under the new regime.'

In a recent YouGov poll, 51% of respondents said the sale and possession of
cannabis in Britain should be decriminalised or even legalised. Whether
they believed the sale of pensions should be criminalised was not assessed.

 

 

 

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