Source: Western Gazette, UK

Pub Date: Thursday, 18 July 2002

Subj: Pot proposals are 'worst of both worlds'

Author: Bede McGowen

POT PROPOSALS ARE 'WORST OF BOTH WORLDS'

A LEADING Tory MP, who unknowingly smoked cannabis as a teenager, has blasted Government moves to soften laws on the drug.

But the news has given a boost to a Dorchester resident who is preparing to open the town's first cannabis cafe.

Oliver Letwin, shadow home secretary and MP for West Dorset, admitted smoking the drug when he was about 18 years old but blamed it on friends who spiked his pipe.

Now he has attacked Home Secretary David Blunkett's decision to reclassify cannabis as a class-C drug within the year.

Mr Letwin said: "I think Mr Blunkett's ideas are a dreadful mess and muddle.

"The problem is that it is giving people the signal that they shouldn't worry about taking cannabis but it's still illegal to sell the stuff, so it's still in the hands of drug dealers It's the worst of both worlds and a social disaster in the making."

He sees two possible ways of dealing with cannabis, which is becoming increasingly widespread in use, especially among young people.

'Although I don't personally agree with it, there's a rational case to be made for total legalisation and moving cannabis completely outside the hands of drug dealers, so that it could be taxed and regulated in the ordinary way," he said.

"The other possibility is to work much harder to try and achieve a much lower drug dependency, as they have done in Sweden with great success. Myself and lain Duncan Smith are going there shortly to see how they have done it."

Regarding his own experience of the drug, Mr Letwin added: "My friends put some cannabis into my pipe when I was 18 or 19.1 wasn't actually able to tell they had done so, because I didn't inhale it anyway. I learned about it afterwards and was extremely cross."

However, author and cannabis cook Sam Day, who is waiting for the time to come when she can open Dorchester's first cannabis cafe, is firmly behind the move.

She said: 'We would like to open a with a licence and that time seems to be getting closer, but they'll have to stay behind closed doors for now.

"We're definitely going in the right direction. This is the first step towards separating cannabis from hard drugs and will give police more time to pick on those who deal in hard drugs.

"The Government's move will hopefully bring' round the few remaining people who refuse to see cannabis as different from hard drugs. Everyone will begin to see it as acceptable."

Mrs Day, who works at the Oak Tea Rooms in Antelope Walk, has written a book entitled Cannabis Cafe. It will be published in October