21/12/2007 00:00:00
UK: Blame the law, not the drug
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Legalisation would separate cannabis from crime and hard drugs, and
allow associated problems to be tackled effectively
Brian Paddick is correct in saying that the classification of cannabis
is of little importance and that problematic use ought to be a matter of
public health. However, his claim that "people who smoke skunk are
playing Russian Roulette with their mental health" is a ridiculous
analogy that defies the evidence.
Everyone who was to play Russian roulette would be risking life at odds
of just 1 in 6; any risk with cannabis is confined to people with a
pre-disposition to such problems - not every consumer - and with
cannabis we are talking about a plant that helps many millions of people
without problem, one in many hundreds of thousands.
Mr Paddick is a former police officer and while, of course, he is
entitled to express his opinions like the rest of us, he is no expert on
mental health. Mental health should be left to the medical profession
who presently struggle to understand the problem confounded by the
illegality itself.
The number of people experiencing problems is a very small percentage of
users, and while these people ought not be ignored (and should be
helped), this is clearly a matter for doctors and psychiatrists, not
policemen and judges.
Mr Paddick is correct to say that moving cannabis down and up between
class B and class C achieves nothing but confusing people; but the
punishment of users who have no victims to their so-called crimes is a
far more serious issue affecting several million people in the UK. All
cannabis consumers, including those who find medical benefit, live daily
with exposure to the world of crime, while those arrested, taken to
court and maybe even imprisoned, run the risks associated with prison.
For most the greatest risk is of arrest for a victimless activity.
The prohibition of cannabis, irrespective of its classification, does
nothing to protect the mental health or the health and safety of
cannabis consumers. It simply drives the cannabis issue underground,
compounding the problems.
Legalisation would enable transparency and quality control, credible
point-of-sale information, taxation on profits, separation from crime
and hard drugs and, by bringing the whole issue into the open and above
board, enable the effective tackling of perceived problems and issues.
Supply to adults could be controlled through Dutch-style cannabis café
retail outlets, home-cultivation and non-profit cannabis social clubs
for communal crops, would divorce the cannabis trade from criminal
activity and hard drugs.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/alun_buffry/2007/12/blame_the_law_not_the_drug.html
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Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13086
Author:
The Guardian Comment is Free via UKCIA
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