Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2001
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Sir Ivan Lawrence, QC

TORIES SHOULD NOT LEGALISE CANNABIS

Sir, Peter Lilley's call for the legalisation of cannabis and Michael 
Portillo's reluctance to take a firm line against it (report, July 7) look 
more like political desperation than political sense. How in the name of 
freedom and social responsibility can the need to engage the young or to 
win back middle-class parents unwilling to see their children criminalised, 
or even for scarce police resources to be used more effectively, 
conceivably justify widening the use of what is undeniably a harmful drug 
(letters, June 30 and July 7)? As for severing the link between young 
people and the drug barons, would not such a move achieve precisely the 
opposite result? It is one thing for a trafficker to say to a young person: 
"This cannabis is illegal but try it"; it is quite another for him to say: 
"If you enjoyed the buzz you got from legal cannabis try this Ecstasy (or 
crack cocaine, or heroin) - it will really send you."

If our would-be political leaders do not understand that by making cannabis 
legally available more will inevitably use it and the potential market for 
harder and even more dangerous drugs will be larger and far more socially 
destructive, then I suggest that they spend a day or two in the public 
gallery of an urban criminal court, where the reality will become 
blindingly obvious to them.

If our Conservative political leaders want to attract more support to the 
party they will surely not succeed with a policy which will undermine the 
health of the young and create even more violent crime.

Yours faithfully, IVAN LAWRENCE (Chairman, Select Committee on Home 
Affairs, 1992-97),. July 8.
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