] Subj: Calls for debate ] Date: Thursday 24th April Source: The Scotsman, Edinburgh, Scotland Contact: >Steel says drug ban is a failure > >Sir David Steel, the elder statesman of the Liberal Democrats, said >yesterday that prohibition of soft drugs had been a failure and that >politicians were not qualified to deal with the subject. > >On ITN's lunchtime news, Sir David, whose son Graeme was jailed for >nine months in 1995 for growing cannabis plants worth 30,000 UKP at his >Borders cottage, said: > >"Politicians are not in the best position to pontificate on this >subject. It is largely a generation problem and that's why we are >realistic in the Liberal Democrats by saying let's have a Royal >Commission as we had on the issue of embryo research." > >