cannabisnews.com: Government Says No To Cannabis Cafes





Government Says No To Cannabis Cafes
Posted by FoM on October 30, 2001 at 10:03:32 PT
By David Taylor, Home Affairs Correspondent
Source: London Evening Standard
Britain will not go down the route of Amsterdam-style cannabis "coffee shops" in the wake of David Blunkett's move to relax the law on the drug, a government official signalled today. The Home Secretary revealed last week his plans to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug alongside steroids and sleeping pills rather than a Class B drug like amphetamine. The change will mean it is no longer an arrestable offence to be caught with small amounts of cannabis. 
Police will follow a scheme in Lambeth where officers are confiscating the drug and giving people a verbal warning. Giving evidence to a committee of MPs who are looking at whether the Government's drug policies are working, Sue Killen, director of drugs strategy at the Home Office, confirmed that the effect of the change would be that no one was prosecuted for possession. But she made clear that next spring's relaxation of the law did not go hand in hand with the creation of a culture where cannabis could be openly smoked in cafés. Labour MP David Winnick, of the home affairs select committee, said that 26 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds used cannabis and he put forward an argument that the Government should go a step further and legalise cannabis. He said: "Smoking and alcohol abuse are very dangerous. Wouldn't it be more sensible that the market be regulated properly and legally rather than allowing even more profits to go to those who trade in a criminal way with cannabis and hard drugs?" Ms Killen said ministers were not expecting the relaxed law to lead to greater use. "Growth in use has only come with commercialisation via coffee shops in the Netherlands." Source: London Evening Standard (UK)Author: David Taylor, Home Affairs CorrespondentPublished: October 30, 2001Copyright: 2001 Associated Newspapers Ltd.Contact: letters standard.co.ukWebsite: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/Related Articles:Cannabis Cafe Planhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11216.shtmlAmsterdam Could Come To SW9 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10777.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - U.K.http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=UK 
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Comment #6 posted by freedom fighter on October 31, 2001 at 05:46:56 PT
sana, muza
May I make a suggestion?Do a net research. There are tons of information on the net. Both pro and con..Then make up your mind.ff
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Comment #5 posted by sana on October 30, 2001 at 16:36:12 PT
for and against
i would also like to know the for and against points of using canabis.....thankyou
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Comment #4 posted by muzammil on October 30, 2001 at 15:39:42 PT:
For or Against
Im not sure whether legalising canabis is a good idear or a bad one.Can someone please state the for and against points of leagalising canabis.
Do reply.
Thankyou.
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on October 30, 2001 at 10:56:10 PT
It's the logic of power and money
It's the logic of "we have the power and you don't" that she's applying to the situation.Killen's job description probably doesn't contain the words "truth" or "logic" anywhere in the text. As the director of drugs strategy, a huge and hungry Drug War bureaucracy looks to her for its feeding schedule. Cannabis cafes would threaten the size, and therefore the power, of that bureaucracy.So she's being very logical here -- the logical thing to do that fulfills her actual job description is to lie as much as she needs to, to protect the beast she was hired to protect.
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Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 30, 2001 at 10:19:55 PT
Liar
>>"Growth in use has only come with commercialisation via coffee shops in the Netherlands."  The Netherlands has the lowest rate of marijuana usage in all of Europe. The UK has about the highest rate of marijuana usage. And, as of Thursday's anniversary, the Dutch coffeeshop system has been in operation for 25 YEARS. So, when's Holland supposed to be seeing this surge in cannabis consumption??
http://www.dutchexperience.org/
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Comment #1 posted by Patrick on October 30, 2001 at 10:10:03 PT
Proof
Proof that you can say anything you want in the press without proof...Ms Killen said ministers were not expecting the relaxed law to lead to greater use. "Growth in use has only come with commercialisation via coffee shops in the Netherlands." Yeah right. So Ms Killeen adopts the attitude that keeping it on the streets and in the hands of unscrupulous drug dealers who also traffic harder substances is the best way to protect the 26 percent that do use it? She must have attended DEA University and majored in Logic!
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