A report from the cross-party home affairs select committee, due on Wednesday, is widely expected to say cannabis should be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug. This would mean it remained illegal but possession of it would attract a caution or a fine rather than arrest. The committee is also likely to suggest that ministers consider setting up "shooting galleries" where addicts can inject drugs under medical supervision in a safe, clean room. Most controversial will be the report's verdict on ecstasy, the drug taken by an estimated 500,000 young people in nightclubs each weekend. An early draft suggested that it, too, should be downgraded from class A to class B, but some members of the committee are thought to have objected. Last week a coroner described taking the drug as "like playing Russian roulette" after hearing the case of Kirsty Mendy, 17, a student who died after taking two ecstasy tablets. [continues 113 words]
The best unions fight their toughest battles alone, behind closed doors. Waged one-on-one, member-to-member, they are confrontations aimed at bringing their brothers and sisters back from the edge, helping them conquer alcohol and drug addiction. Such struggles are not usually associated with traditional bread-and-butter labor issues. But they're just as much a part of unionism's original core mission of mutual support, and combatants say there's as much at stake as on any picket line. [continues 1195 words]
LIVESTOCK farming has gone to pot. A European Union scheme which pays $500 a hectare to British farmers to grow cannabis is proving more attractive than rearing sheep or cattle. Dozens of farmers in East Anglia, Wales and the West Country have already turned over some of their fields to the 10ft plants, which are used for making cigarette papers, animal bedding and industrial fibre. Cannabis is a controlled drug in Britain and the farms are visited by a Home Office drugs inspector, who checks that the site is secure before granting a licence. Under government rules the crop must be grown away from roads so as to deter would-be marijuana-smokers from raiding the fields. [continues 405 words]
