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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis campaign costs government 1m UKP
Dominic Timms The Guardian
Monday 01 Mar 2004 The government spent close to UKP1m on advertising its "absurd" new cannabis law last month, according to the Home Office. The government campaign, which included national and regional newspaper ads, four weeks of radio campaigns and around 2.5 million leaflets, cost a total of 992,000 UKP, according to written parliamentary answers given by junior Home Office minister Caroline Flint. News of the spend comes just days after it emerged that the government's publicity unit, the COI, increased spending on advertising by 15% last year to become the second biggest spender on advertising in the UK for the second year running. The reclassification, which saw cannabis moved from a Class B to Class C drug, was widely criticised by both pro and anti-cannabis legalisation bodies as a muddle. Tory leader Michael Howard described the move as "absurd". The British Medical Association said it was worried the change would encourage users to think that the drug was no longer harmful. "The BMA is extremely concerned that the public might think that reclassification equals 'safe'. It does not," said Dr Peter Maguire, the deputy chairman of the BMA's Board of Science. In a written answer to two MPs, the secretary of state's office said it spent 387,000 UKP on four weeks of radio advertising beginning January 22. Press adverts, which included repeat adverts in the Sun, the Mirror, the News of the World, the Guardian and the Telegraph, cost a further 305,000 UKP. The government spent an additional 300,000 UKP on 2.5 million leaflets, and an unquantified number of postcards which were distributed in clubs and bars, and on briefing police and teachers. Ms Flint said the government had yet to decide how much more would be spent advertising the new cannabis laws over the next year. According to figures released last week, the government spent 138m UKP on advertising last year up from 120.4m UKP the year before. It had been widely criticised following a record 143.8m UKP advertising spend in 2001. Under the new law the maximum sentence for cannabis possession was reduced from five years to two years, though many users are left with the impression that it is now more or less legal. "Cannabis is to remain illegal whilst at the same time becoming less illegal if that makes sense to anyone," said pro-legalisation group UK Cannabis Internet Activists at the time. --=======525F71E=======--
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