cannabisnews.com: Britain To Relax Laws for Millions of Dope Smokers





Britain To Relax Laws for Millions of Dope Smokers
Posted by CN Staff on July 09, 2002 at 10:10:12 PT
By Kate Kelland 
Source: Reuters
Britain will respond this week to a dramatic surge in cannabis use by easing laws and allowing millions of dope fans to smoke without fear of arrest. Pressure from police, medical experts and politicians for Britain to take a less punitive approach has swayed Home Secretary David Blunkett, who is expected Wednesday to downgrade it to a low risk category C drug. The downgrade -- making cannabis a Class C rather than Class B drug -- will put the drug in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones and make possessing small amounts of it or smoking it in private a non-arrestable offence. 
A report published late last year showed cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the European Union, with at least one in 10 adults in the 15-nation group having used it. The proportion of adults who had used cannabis ranged from 10 percent in Finland to 20-25 percent in Britain, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. But Blunkett, already in trouble over spiraling crime figures and bitter disputes over police reform, is keen to dress the move up not as an inevitable softening of attitudes but as a refocusing of resources onto harder drugs and onto dealers. Alongside his announcement to downgrade cannabis, he is also expected to stress that the drug has not and will not be legalized, and announce plans to double the maximum sentence for dealing in the drug from five to 10 years. But his "carrot and stick" approach has already run up against criticism and drawn accusations of "mixed messages." Oliver Letwin, the opposition Conservative home affairs spokesman, mocked the supposed tougher sentencing, saying that since cannabis was being downgraded from Class B, which has a maximum 14 year sentence, to Class A, which has a five-year maximum sentence, the effect would be a reduction anyway. "Will he explain ... how a move from a 14-year maximum sentence to a 10-year maximum sentence constitutes doubling sentences for cannabis dealer?" Letwin asked Blunkett in parliament Monday. For others, the cannabis downgrade is not enough. A recent parliamentary committee report urged the government to radically reshape drugs policy and move toward a Dutch-style approach by downgrading cannabis, relaxing rules on ecstasy and offering heroin addicts free fixes in injecting rooms. "Drugs policy in this country has been failing for decades," David Cameron, an opposition Conservative member of the committee said when the report was published. A home office spokeswoman said Blunkett's statement would be "a full response" to the committee's report, although Blunkett has already dismissed their suggestion that the clubbers' drug ecstasy should be downgraded from Class A to Class B drug. An estimated 5 million people in Britain regularly use cannabis and government data show its use has risen sharply over the past two decades. Long-term use of the drug among people aged between 20 to 24 in England and Wales rose from 12 percent in 1981 to 52 percent in 2000. Researchers said in March that relaxing cannabis laws could save Britain around 50 million pounds ($77.1 million) a year and free up the equivalent of 500 police officers. A study by South Bank University's Criminal Policy Research Unit found that around 69,000 people were cautioned or convicted for cannabis possession in 1999, with police spending an average of four hours on each offence. Source: ReutersAuthor: Kate Kelland Published: July 9, 2002Copyright: 2002 Reuters Ltd. Related Articles & Web Site:Drugs Uncovered: Observer Special http://freedomtoexhale.com/dc.htmTories Condemn Brixton Cannabis Scheme http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13335.shtmlSentences To Be Doubled for Dealing in Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13323.shtmlMixed Message on Cannabis Reform http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13322.shtml
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