Pubdate: Tue, 17 Oct 2000
Source: Colchester Evening Gazette (UK)
Copyright: 2000, Quicksilver Media
Contact:  43-44 North Hill, Colchester, Essex CO1 1TZ
Fax: 01206 508295
Feedback: http://www.thisisessex.co.uk/scripts/email.asp?section=Email%20The%20Editor
Website: http://www.thisisessex.co.uk/
Author: Don Barnard
Cited: Legalise Cannabis Alliance: http://www.lca-uk.org/
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a220.html

FANCY A DEBATE?

LABOUR Councillor Don Quinn states 'there are some vital issues to be dealt
with in the cannabis debate' (Call for rational cannabis debate, 11 October)
adding 15 years of research on cannabis leads him to believe - 'cannabis
should be legalised in line with other European countries'.

Our research shows: no EU country has legalised cannabis use. We assume he
has his 'decriminalisation' and 'legalisation' mixed up. Decriminalisation
(Dutch policy) means it is illegal, but, they do not enforce the law on
users. However, this option is fundamentally flawed and would be unworkable
in the UK. Legalisation, as in Switzerland (not in the Union) is seen as a
solution to the war on drugs damage, not a war against drugs use. The Swiss
action is a moral acknowlegement that it is wrong to have a law that hurts
the people it was meant to protect -- no condoning, no scare mongering, but
a solution that acknowledges rights and individual choices,

The Legalise Cannabis Alliance is all for the debate, Mr Quinn. Fancy asking
Colchester Council to sponsor one!

Don Barnard
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
- ---
MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst