Nick Clegg ignited a huge controversy last night by claiming that all drug users should be treated as \u2018victims\u2019. The Liberal Democrat leader said they should not be given criminal records for possessing illegal substances \u2013 even if they they are caught with \u2018harder\u2019 drugs such as heroin or crack cocaine.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson made the astonishing claim that smoking powerful skunk cannabis does not cause \u2018any harm\u2019 \u2013 despite evidence that a quarter of new cases of psychosis are linked to it.\u00a0 Announcing his party\u2019s new drugs policy yesterday, Mr Clegg said: \u2018We shouldn\u2019t be treating the criminal \u201cMr Bigs\u201d the same as the users. The latter are the victims of the former.\u2019<\/p>\n
But his comments were dismissed by the head of the Chatham House think tank Robin Niblett, who said: \u2018Are all users victims or is there a large proportion of people who enjoy drugs and take them recreationally? It is a question of demand, rather than people who need to be treated for an addiction.\u2019<\/p>\n
Other experts have also questioned whether it is right to label all drug users as victims. Stuart Waiton, senior lecturer in sociology at Abertay University, said: \u2018The problem we have today is that society finds it difficult to hold people to account for their actions.<\/p>\n
\u2018The idea of moral responsibility is very weak because we assume that everyone\u2019s a victim. People don\u2019t need medical support \u2013 unless their bodies are falling to bits \u2013 they need to take responsibility for their own actions.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Lib Dems\u2019 new policy would end prosecutions for people caught with small amounts of drugs for \u2018personal use\u2019. It would cover all drugs. Mr Clegg said the policy would be included in the Lib Dem manifesto.<\/p>\n
It is widely seen as a pitch to win back young voters disillusioned by the party\u2019s betrayal over university tuition fees.<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrat leader said drug users should not be given criminal records for possessing illegal substances \u2013 even if they they are caught with \u2018harder\u2019 drugs such as heroin or crack cocaine<\/p>\n
With neither Labour nor the Tories backing decriminalisation, it is unlikely to become government policy even if the Lib Dems remain in power after the election.<\/p>\n
Mr Clegg received a public endorsement yesterday from Sir Richard, who suggested that smoking skunk is safe.<\/p>\n
The Virgin tycoon shared a platform with the Lib Dem leader to promote the party\u2019s pledge. He said: \u2018Of people taking hash [cannabis], something like 99 per cent do not have a problem … Take people taking skunk.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s slightly worse than alcohol. But there are a lot of people doing it for recreational purposes and they enjoy doing it and it\u2019s not doing them any harm.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 A study last month by Kings College London found that 24 per cent of new cases of psychosis are linked to the use of skunk.<\/p>\n
The report concluded that smoking skunk trebles the risk of someone having a psychotic episode.<\/p>\n
Last night, Mr Clegg also insisted that the so-called \u2018war on drugs\u2019 was \u2018not working\u2019, although he was later forced to concede that official figures show drug use has been falling in Britain for years.<\/p>\n
Downing Street rejected Mr Clegg\u2019s analysis and said it was not supported by David Cameron.<\/p>\n
Andy Cook, chief executive of charity Twenty Twenty, which works with disadvantaged young people, said: \u2018Cannabis is ruining the life opportunities of those we work with, so the idea that society would be better off if\u00a0 this stuff was decriminalised is crazy. \u2018Making it more easily available and more culturally acceptable will mean that more of our young people would take it. The result will be that more of our young people would fail to make the most of their potential.\u2019<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2980158\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5th March 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nick Clegg ignited a huge controversy last night by claiming that all drug users should be treated as \u2018victims\u2019. The Liberal Democrat leader said they should not be given criminal records for possessing illegal substances \u2013 even if they they are caught with \u2018harder\u2019 drugs such as heroin or crack cocaine. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-sector","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}