UK:
Police
Foundation
Report
Stirs
Debate
4/7/00
Last week's release of the Police Foundation report has prompted renewed and ever more strident calls for drug reform in the United Kingdom. The report, the result of a two-year inquiry into Britain's drug laws, recommended that jail sentences for possession of all drugs be reduced drastically and that marijuana be decriminalized. In its wake, politicians and the media have announced the failure of hard-line drug policies and demanded an open debate. In an editorial this week, the conservative Daily Telegraph criticized Home Secretary Jack Straw for his insistence that the government would not consider the report's suggestions. "He received sympathy for his handling of his own teenage son's brush with the law over cannabis, but shows little understanding of other parents in a similar predicament," the editorial reads. "He says he wants a debate on drugs, but shows no interest in the arguments and no sensitivity to the public mood." Labour MP Paul Flynn, long a critic of UK marijuana laws, has plans to introduce a bill for the temporary, experimental legalization of marijuana. The measure would provide for a three-year test wherein marijuana would be sold legally in licensed venues under strict regulation, similar to the Dutch method. Even in the current climate, it is unlikely that Flynn's bill would pass. But just a few weeks ago, such a suggestion would have been laughed out of the House of Commons. That scenario, too, is unlikely today. It is clear that Britons have only just begun a real, open debate on the future of their drug policy. If it continues, many more minds may change. Some of them will be the same minds. A MORI public opinion poll taken last week found that 48 percent of Britons believe marijuana should be legalized outright -- but fully two thirds said that the drug laws are not tough enough. For more information on the Police Foundation report, see (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/131.html#ukpolicefoundation).
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