20/07/2007 01:00:00
UK: Pot Minister Smith Branded 'Hypocritical'
---
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is "hypocritical" for plans to upgrade
cannabis after she admitted smoking it at Oxford, said pro-cannabis
campaigners.
Andy Cornwell, a spokesman for the Cannabis Education Trust said that Ms
Smith, 44, would have faced expulsion from the college and a maximum
penalty of seven years in prison if she had been caught with the drug.
But he said that she was now proposing to penalise cannabis smokers in
the same way.
He also claimed that there were MPs who still used the drug, but would
not admit to it, and said that by being tough on cannabis, the
government was actually encouraging dangerous strains to flourish
because the market was unregulated.
He said: "People will see this as hypocritical, and it is.
"I don't think she's going to win any people over through her stance.
Saying it's a terrible mistake and apologizing is implying that everyone
who has tried cannabis has made a terrible mistake.
"Cannabis possession then had a maximum penalty of seven years, and had
she been arrested it would have impacted on her education and future jobs.
"If she had been arrested at the time then I think the stigma was such
that she may have been thrown out of the educational establishment she
was in.
"But now she's prepared to ruin someone's future because they happen to
experiment.
"It's still happening now, and six pupils have recently been immediately
dismissed after there was a video of them smoking cannabis on YouTube.
"Jacqui Smith is one of the many MPs who views it as a student episode
in their lives.
"I think we'll never have a really honest debate in this country until
MPs are prepared to admit that they still use cannabis, and some do.
"It's just simply not credible. I do think people will see it as being
hypocritical.
"I hope it would give her greater insight into how prohibition works,
but I fear that it won't.
"It didn't act as a deterrent for her, but that's why we've never had an
honest debate because of this hypocrisy."
And he said that by putting higher penalties on those using the drug was
not a deterrent.
He said: "People think they are being tough on cannabis, but making it a
Class B drug is having the reverse effect, and putting the whole
cannabis market, including the skunk they are so fearful of, in the
hands of organised crime.
"It's easier to get cannabis than pizza in most parts of the country.
They think they're being tough but they are having the reverse effect
because prohibition has not proven to be a deterrent. The government has
lost all credibility when it comes to cannabis education."
And he said that dangerously strong skunk, which has been linked to
psychosis and other mental health problems, as well as gritweed - which
is cut with broken glass - had flourished because there was no regulation.
But he said that strong strains had been around since the 70s, when
Jacqui Smith was a student.
He said: "The big health issue is not the strong strains, it's that most
cannabis is not regulated. We are seeing things like gritweed, which was
made with ground up glass in the name of profit when there was a big
cannabis shortage last year. People ended up in casualty coughing up blood.
"If you regulate cannabis, you'd eliminate that. Skunk is a product of
prohibition. With a regulated market it wouldn't have emerged.
"In some ways, the stronger skunk is here to stay now, but people would
at least know what they were using if there was a regulated system, and
the only way people can achieve that now is if they grow it themselves.
"Regulation is the answer to her fears and her desire to protect
vulnerable people. Research shows that downgrading cannabis shows a
reduction in skunk and cannabis use amongst people.
"It would stop people smoking something which is stronger than they
thought it was and developing problems.
"There are forms of cannabis which actually help control mental health
conditions with the right balance of chemicals, but this could only be
achieved through regulation.
"A lot of long term users and Rastafarians don't like skunk, but it's
harder to get traditional skunk from Jamaica and South Africa.
"Research shows there were very strong types of cannabis around in the
70s. Cannabis psychosis has been recognised for 60 or 70 years, so it's
not true to say that a possible link between cannabis and mental health
has only just been proven.
"How many people stopped using ecstasy after Leah Betts died? It has
proved a deterrent for some, but possibly not for the young and
vulnerable that the law is supposed to protect."
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=RP2039897J&news_headline=pot_minister_smith_branded_hypocritical
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12712
Author:
Lifestyle Extra via UKCIA
|