Britain's Drug War Continues to
Crumble
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/211.html#ukdrugwarWhen
last DRCNet reported on Great Britain, the Lambeth area of
London was months
into its experiment with cannabis decrim, Labor
Home Secretary David Blunkett
had just announced that marijuana
would be rescheduled from Class B to Class
C, along with steroids
and anti-depressants, and cannabis possession would no
longer be
an arrestable offense come springtime, and government
officials
were discussing rescheduling ecstasy as well. Activists
in
Brixton were agitating for the opening of cannabis cafes there,
and
were gaining broad support for doing so. But Colin Davies'
September
attempt to open the country's first cannabis cafe, far
from Brixton in
nondescript suburban Manchester, had been raided
and shut down by police
almost immediately after opening.
It's two months since the raid, and in
yet another sign that
things have changed in Britain, Davies' "Dutch
Experience"
Amsterdam-style coffee house is doing a thriving business
while
local elected and police officials look the other way.
According
to last Sunday's British newspaper the Observer, Dutch
Experience
"is packed with people rolling joints, inhaling deeply
and
grinning peacefully. By lunchtime last Wednesday there were
at
least 50 people in its two rooms, by evening over a hundred.
No
one bothered to hide this illegal activity. It's all
totally
open," the paper reported.
And why not? No one is coming
after it. The local town council
told the Observer it had received no
complaints and its leader,
Fred Ridley, said, "This is not a matter for the
council, but for
the police. If someone wants to test the law -- and
that's the
way the law has been changed before -- they must accept
the
consequences if the law of the land is enforced."
The Manchester
police, for their part, also graciously bowed out,
saying in a statement: "We
recognize there is ongoing debate and
research into the medical benefits or
otherwise of cannabis. The
police, in appropriate cases, exercise
discretion and judgment."
And the local Member of Parliament, Chris
Davies, who has visited
twice, openly supports the Dutch Experience. "I
applaud it," he
told the Observer. "It seems an excellent way of
meeting people's
desire to try things other than alcohol without leading them
on to
harder things."
"I've created a monster," Colin Davies
laughingly told the
Observer. "They're coming here from all over the
country -- the
closest coffee shop is in Holland." But they're not just
coming
to get high; some customers are medical marijuana patients, a
cause
with which Davies has been associated for the past five
years, and one that
recreational sales at the Experience support.
Profits from sales to healthy
tokers subsidize an at-cost price
for medical marijuana users. "People
in wheelchairs shouldn't
have to pay for their medicine -- they should get it
free, and
that's what we're doing," said Davies.
They could be doing
it across Britain soon if the Labor government
of Tony Blair listens to the
criminal justice professionals.
According to a survey of 300 British police
forces, courts,
probation offices, and drug care workers found that 81% of
the
organizations said cannabis should be sold at licensed outlets,
such
as pubs, cafes, and coffee houses and that a system of
regulated distribution
of cannabis should be put into place as
soon as possible. The survey,
conducted by the respected British
drug policy group DrugScope (
http://www.drugscope.org.uk),
was
presented this week to the parliamentary Home Affairs Select
Committee
studying drug policy, where the Blair government has
already come under fire
for its timidity on cannabis law reform.
Former Conservative Cabinet
Minister Peter Lilley told the
committee on Monday that the government's
moves to reclassify
cannabis do not go far enough and restated his call for
marijuana
to be sold through licensed outlets, which did not sell alcohol
or
tobacco, which carried health warnings and which must be closed
if
there were any suspicion of selling hard drugs.
But Blair also came
under attack from within his own party.
Former Sports Minister Tony Banks
blamed Blair for the
government's slow pace on drug reform. "I don't
feel the
government is going anywhere near far enough. I think they
are
still trying to hold the line. I believe it is probably
the
reluctance of the Prime Minister," he told the committee.
"I
don't know what Mr. Blair did at university. But he
clearly
didn't get up to any naughty things whatsoever and we're all
glad
for that." Banks added that he welcomed Home Secretary
Blunkett's
softer line on cannabis possession, but described it as "a
small
and timid step" and urged ministers to go further.
But if
Blunkett is taking some hits for halfway measures on
marijuana policy, he is
also on the verge on making dramatic
positive moves on heroin.
According to British press reports,
Blunkett is weighing a proposal to
increase five-fold the number
of British heroin users being provided free
prescription heroin.
At present, some 300 Britons receive free prescription
heroin.
But Blunkett's proposed position on expanded heroin maintenance
is
rapidly being overtaken by calls for even deeper change. In
a
report authored by former Gwent chief constable Frances Wilkinson
and
endorsed by Sir David Ramsbotham, former Chief Inspector of
Prisons, the
government was urged to provide free heroin
nationwide as a crime reduction
measure.
Published by the Liberal Democrat think tank the Centre for
Reform
and entitled "Heroin: The Failure of Prohibition and What To
Do
Now," the report calls for heroin on demand for those in
need.
According to Wilkinson, Britain has the most rampant heroin
problem
in the western world -- 270,000 users compared with only
1,000 registered
addicts in 1971 -- and more heroin-related crime
than the US.
"The
only way to reduce the problem... is to supply heroin
officially to users in
a way that will minimise the leakage of
those supplies," wrote
Wilkinson. The British heroin trade is
worth $5 billion a year to drug
gangs, wrote Wilkinson, and moving
to a regulated supply would both dry up
those illicit profits and
drive down the crime rate by 20%. Wilkinson
proposed a two-year
pilot project funded and monitored by the Home Office, in
which
the heroin supply would be part of a comprehensive approach
that
included medical assistance, counseling and supervision.
And if
Wilkinson made Blunkett look timid, committee members also
heard even more
radical advocacy. Roger Warren Evans, co-author
of the pro-legalization
Angel Declaration
(
http://www.ccguide.org.uk/angel01.html)
argued that it is not
heroin itself that is harmful, but its illegal
production and
distribution, which causes poor quality, high prices, and
high
crime, and endangers lives. "The issue is the harm, not
the
supply," he said.
It seems as if the Labor government's solemn vow
to block drug
reforms is crumbling faster than the
Taliban.
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