21/07/2007 00:00:00
Letter: Prohibition is good for no-one,
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Diana Johnson MP often claims that, “as a lawyer”, she understands the
importance of freedom and justice, so I wrote and asked her to justify
her governments continued persecution of cannabis users.
At the time, she claimed the policy was a public health measure but now
seems to have changed her mind and says it is a crime reduction policy.
Diana’s confusion is understandable.
A recent report from the Science and Technology committee found
"significant anomalies in the classification of individual drugs and a
regrettable lack of consistency in the rationale used to make
classification decisions."
It said the concept of a deterrent effect had "little or no support from
the available research", and it agreed with the head of the Governments
own advisory council (ACMD) who said that UK drug policy “is not fit for
purpose”.
This is the same conclusion reached by the respected medical journal the
Lancet which recently published a scientific study that objectively
examined the current drug classification system.
According to objective measures, like potential harm, alcohol came out
as the fifth most dangerous drug right after heroin and cocaine. Both
alcohol and tobacco were rated as being far more dangerous than either
LSD or cannabis, whilst ecstasy was near the very bottom of the list,
highlighting its relative safety compared with alcohol and tobacco.
If you can be sent to jail for using the least harmful drugs but won’t
be punished at all for using hard addictive drugs like alcohol and
tobacco, then the policy obviously has nothing to do with health.
Drugs don’t cause crime, prohibition causes crime. Not only does it
increase the sheer volume of offences by making crimes of things that
are not criminal, it increases the frequency and violence of crime.
The vast majority of illegal drug users do not commit crime. In fact,
statistically they commit less crime than the non drug using population.
Those that do commit crime are invariably addicted to heroin and crack
cocaine. Heroin and crack users commit £16bn worth of crime a year to
feed their habits.
Prohibition is good for no-one, whether they be cannabis users,
vulnerable individuals or society at large. It has criminalised millions
of otherwise law biding citizens, given rise to organised crime,
increased underage usage, diminished freedom, promoted disrespect for
the law, but it has not curtailed usage.
If Diana Johnson thinks this situation can be improved by carrying on
regardless, then she is about as close to reality as the most hardened
addict.
Carl Wagner
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12727
Author:
Hull Daily Mail via UKCIA
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