Pubdate: Sun, 01 Feb 2004
Source: News of the World (UK)
Copyright: News Group Newspapers Ltd, 2004
Contact:  http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1682
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Author: William Hague (sacked leader of Conservative Party 2003)

CANNABIS LAWS A JOKE, BUT I'M NOT LAUGHING

The Law is an ass - this is the only conclusion now we know how police are 
going to enforce the new, lenient laws on cannabis.

Are you going to be arrested for using cannabis in public places or not?

Well, yes if you are in Aberystwyth but no, if you are in Lincoln. You can 
happily smoke pot in park in Durham but in Nottingham you could be arrested 
for doing it in your living room.

In Manchester, almost anything could happen - the police will decide what 
to do at the time so you might be able to indulge on one street but not 
another.   You could even be arrested one night for something you were 
allowed to do the night before.

This is because the police have been left to work out for themselves how to 
respond to cannabis becoming a class C drug instead of class B.

I don't see how we can be neutral.  Yesterday it was reported that Harriet 
Harman's son had been evicted from his student lodging for smoking 
cannabis.  I make no political point, it can happen to any family and to 
children of MPs of any party.  The point is we cannot help teenagers decide 
what to do when the law is in chaos.

And even where we are used to new laws becoming a time-wasting, 
counter-productive mess, this one threatens to become the most spectacular 
mix-ups for years.

Retreat

What makes it more laughable is that David Blunkett's main justification 
for downgrading cannabis was to save police time.   The basic idea was so 
long as you used the drug quitely, the police would not bother you.

But today the newspaper carries a Home Office advert warning CANNABIS IS 
STILL ILLEGAL: THE POLICE CAN STILL ARREST YOU.  Confused?

Now police, instead of being relieved of the problem, will find themselves 
under legal challenge for interpreting the law in different ways.  And the 
law as a whole loses credibility when it is unclear, inconsistent, and 
applied , or not, at the whim of individual officers.

All this might be funny were it not so deadly serious.  Drug misuse is the 
most desperate social problem in western society.

Rather than fight it, the Government has pathetically decided to beat a 
retreat, giving in to the people who seem to want to liberalise cannabis 
use and ban cigarette smoking at the same time.    Now the retreat is 
becoming a disorganised shambles.

I think this is a tragic mistake.  The evidence is growing that cannabis 
can lead to devastating illnesses such as schizophrenia.

I will never forget meeting people in drug rehabilitation centres who told 
me never to legalise cannabis because it had led them on to hard drugs, and 
the edge of death or despair.

I respect David Blunkett, but he has got this one wrong.  His attempt at 
compromise leaves the law in utter confusion.

The tragedy is more lives will be ruined before it's put right.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman