Pubdate: Tue, 28 May 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: John Wadham
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

DRUG LAW SHOULD BE REPEALED

 From the Director of Liberty

Sir, I very much support Lord Bingham of Cornhill's call for the 
legalisation of cannabis use (report, May 24) and the Home Affairs 
Select Committee's proposals to liberalise the drug laws. But I would 
go further: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should be repealed. 
Criminalisation has failed; civil regulation is the way forward.

Branding all drug users criminals increases alienation, particularly 
among young people. It undermines public support for the criminal 
justice system; increases the level of crimes such as robbery, 
prostitution and burglary to fund expensive addictions; threatens 
privacy; has fed the growth of violent and organised crime; and 
labels many honest people as criminals.

Successive governments, clinging to this failed approach, have 
resorted to increasingly authoritarian measures. We have seen more 
use of intrusive policing (eg, surveillance, telephone interception, 
informers); and increasingly draconian sentencing (39 per cent of 
women prisoners are serving sentences for drug offences). Now the 
Proceeds of Crime Bill will allow the State, via the civil courts, to 
confiscate the "drug-related" assets of people not even convicted of 
drug offences.

The use of repressive laws to punish individual consumption of 
harmful substances is wholly disproportionate. Society accepts that 
individuals can choose to take part in dangerous activities, from 
drinking and smoking to extreme sports; the same should be true here.

The Government should decriminalise possession, use and supply of all 
drugs. A system of civil regulation and control would carefully, 
effectively regulate access to the lawful supply of drugs. Supply to 
minors, for example, should remain a criminal offence - but over all, 
people should be allowed to make their own choices.

Civil regulation and education must offer a better approach to the 
prevention of drug harm in a free society than prohibition.

Yours, JOHN WADHAM, Director, Liberty, 21 Tabard Street, SE1 4LA.
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