cannabisnews.com: Bill To Decriminalise Cannabis Goes To Parliament





Bill To Decriminalise Cannabis Goes To Parliament
Posted by FoM on March 31, 2000 at 09:31:00 PT
From the Press Association
Source: News Unlimited
A Labour MP is to introduce a bill to Parliament which would decriminalise the use of cannabis. Paul Flynn's bill follows the release of a Police Foundation report advocating liberalisation of Britain's drug laws and the end of the use of prison sentences to punish cannabis offences. 
Mr Flynn, MP for Newport West, says he believed there had been a major change in public attitudes towards drug use, and that Britons now understood that the UK's tough drug laws were causing more problems than they were solving. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The point of this bill is to make sure that the splendid report from the Police Foundation is not kicked aside and ignored. "They made the point very strongly that those countries in Europe that have the most repressive laws on drugs - and we are by far the worst - end up with the greatest problems. "Other countries, that have taken the line of intelligent, regulated decriminalisation, have fewer problems than we have and their problems are going down. "The example of Holland comes up very clearly in the report, showing that after 20 years of soft drug decriminalisation in Holland, they have fewer users of both soft and hard drugs and they use those drugs in milder forms and in safer ways than we do here." Mr Flynn says he was heartened by a recent editorial in the Daily Telegraph calling for cannabis to be decriminalised. Published: Friday March 31, 2000 Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000Related Articles:Cannabis Coffee Shops Proposedhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5244.shtmlCentury of Struggle Fails To Curb Drugs http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5242.shtmlDecriminalisation: Let's Go Dutch?http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5212.shtmlDrugs in Britain: Special Report http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/drugs/ High Spots in History - U.K. - BBChttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_294000/294756.stm
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Comment #1 posted by howard on April 01, 2000 at 06:27:09 PT
europe must lead the way
if there is to be any change concerning america's cannabis policies it will come from europe. europeans are getting fed up with zero tolerance US style drug policies. the governments of europe, and tony blair in particular, are under pressure from the US not to remove penalties for cannabis. how long will the governments of europe be able to keep this charade up is the only guess. still, the cannabis movement is really looking good over there. this is pretty big and i haven't felt this optimistic in a long time. it is still FAR from over and we all ( US cows ) will experience a further loss of liberty before we see it get anything even remotely tolerable. THEY must hold on to cannabis prohibition for dear life, because without it.... their whole sinister world comes apart. 
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