Deglamorising cannabis: The UK should follow the
Dutch lead
The Guardian (UK), editorial.
Tuesday
October 10, 2000
website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/URL for this
editorial:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4074237,00.htmlDEGLAMORISING
CANNABIS: THE UK SHOULD FOLLOW THE DUTCH LEAD
Forget the acute
embarrassment of the Conservative party over an
internal revolt against its
new hardline policy on cannabis - enjoyable
though its squirming might be.
Forget the increasingly shrill responses
of the Conservative leader, who
descended yesterday to issuing the
emptiest political response on the issue:
"We have to step up the war
against drugs." Britain already has the toughest
laws in Europe, which
is one reason why its policies are so ineffective. The
Police
Foundation's national commission on drug legislation - on which
two
chief constables served - rightly concluded in March that our
current
laws do more harm than good. Forget the disarray in the
Conservative
party, because it is Labour which is in power. When
parliament
reassembles, ministers will be summoned before the home affairs
select
committee to give their considered response to the 81 recommendations
in
the Police Foundation's report.
Never has there been a better
chance to reform our current system.
Ministers should reflect on three
fundamental shifts in attitudes - by
politicians, public and police - that
have occurred in the last week. In
a mature society, the readiness of seven
Tory shadow ministers to admit
they have taken cannabis, should not cause a
ripple. But until now,
immature debate has predominated. An earlier admission
by Mo Mowlam over
taking pot, produced shock and horror on both front
benches. Similarly,
the public backlash against Ann Widdecombe's proposed
abolition of the
police caution for cannabis, breaks a long trend. Public
backlashes are
supposed to be associated with over-permissive policies, not
the
shamelessly regressive. Finally this week has not just seen the
police
superintendents, who would have to manage Miss Widdecombe's
policy,
openly declare it was unworkable, but a former chief constable,
Francis
Wilkinson, became the first to have held his rank to call for
the
legalisation of cannabis.
If ministers are surprised by these
responses, they should not be. A
Mori poll, commissioned by the Police
Foundation, found Middle England
at odds with the government's hardline
stance on drugs. Some 80% wanted
a more relaxed approach to cannabis. Media
attitudes have also shifted.
The tabloids - not just the Mirror and Express,
but the Mail too - said
the Foundation's report deserved a serious debate.
The Telegraph even
played with a legalisation experiment. Ministers should
seize the
opportunity these shifts in attitude create.
The
foundation's report was too cautious, but its proposals - which
would
reclassify drugs according to the harm they cause - would be a
logical first
step to decriminalisation. So would its proposal to make
cannabis an
unimprisonable offence. These columns have long preferred
decriminalisation
to legalisation. Decriminalisation retains the offence
but does not pursue
prosecution. It has been supremely successful in
Holland in separating soft
drugs from hard drugs. It still has fewer
young people than the UK taking
cannabis despite its availability. And,
unlike the UK, has stabilised or even
reduced heroin use. Legalisation
would either let the tobacco barons take
part, or at least (because pot
is mixed with tobacco) revive sales. The Dutch
are no longer alone.
Portugal and Switzerland are preparing to liberalise. A
war against
drugs is a war against our children. Seven shadow cabinet
ministers
recognise this truth. Surely Labour can follow suit. They should
stop
issuing the most dangerous message of all: that all drugs are
equally
harmful. They are not and young people already know it.