{"id":3144,"date":"2009-07-26T14:36:42","date_gmt":"2009-07-26T14:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=3144"},"modified":"2016-09-20T20:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T20:57:32","slug":"britains-addictive-drug-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2009\/07\/britains-addictive-drug-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s Addictive Drug Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

As was to be expected, the New Libertine Party (aka the Conservatives) is now no longer supporting the re-reclassification of cannabis back up to a category B drug. The Times reports that the Tories volte-face takes the heat off the Home Secretary:<\/span>

Pressure on Charles Clarke to change cannabis back to a Class B drug eased <\/span>significantly yesterday when the Conservatives abandoned their campaign for <\/span>reclassification. The Home Secretary was also urged by experts to stick with <\/span>the new Class C status to avoid further confusion. David Cameron, the new <\/span>Tory leader, made it clear yesterday that he would not put Mr Clarke under <\/span>any pressure to reclassify the drug. At the general election, the Tories <\/span>said they would reverse Labours decision on cannabis and change it back to <\/span>class B. <\/span>

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, also called for reclassification <\/span>during the Conservative leadership campaign, but he issued a statement <\/span>yesterday welcoming Mr Clarkes decision to voice concern over the impact of <\/span>the drug on mental health and looked forward to further debate. “We welcome <\/span>the Home Secretary’s recognition that there is new evidence about the <\/span>dangers of cannabis, particularly with regard to mental health”, Mr Davis <\/span>said. “We look forward to the publication of the advisory councils report <\/span>and appropriate action from the Government, in particular to protect young<\/span>
people”.<\/span>

My interpretation of this situation is different from that of the Times.<\/span>

The Tories shift on drugs was written the day David Cameron was elected <\/span>leader. As I have written before (see October 17 post) Cameron has shown <\/span>that he has uncritically swallowed all the garbage produced by the <\/span>legalisation lobby. <\/span>

In a diary for the Guardian Unlimited website in 2001, he wrote: <\/span>

“I am an instinctive libertarian who abhors state prohibitions and tends to <\/span>be sceptical of most government action, whether targeted against drug use or <\/span>anything else…Hounding hundreds of thousands – indeed millions – of young <\/span>people with harsh criminal penalties is no longer practicable or desirable.”<\/span>

It remains to be seen whether the Home Secretary actually has the bottle to <\/span>go against the received wisdom in the drug culture-addled Home Office (not <\/span>forgetting the same lunacy within the higher echelons of the police) and <\/span>restore some belated sanity to the law on cannabis. Of course this would be <\/span>embarrassing as is any U-turn. But there is also surely an opportunity here <\/span>for some canny cross-positioning. With the ‘Cameroons’ now pitching for the <\/span>\u00fcber-left vote and with millions of socially responsible voters therefore <\/span>left totally disenfranchised, the obvious ploy for Tony Blair would be to<\/span>
pitch the message to those abandoned souls that only Labour stands for <\/span>social responsibility against the anarchic irresponsibility of social <\/span>libertinism. Cannabis re-reclassification would be an excellent place to <\/span>start.<\/span>

Clarke should sack the ACMD and reclassify cannabis\u00a0\u00a0to class A, where this <\/span>most dangerous drug properly belongs.<\/span>

<\/span><\/small><\/p>\n

Source: By Melanie Phillips. January 06, 2006<\/span><\/span><\/small><\/big><\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As was to be expected, the New Libertine Party (aka the Conservatives) is now no longer supporting the re-reclassification of cannabis back up to a category B drug. The Times reports that the Tories volte-face takes the heat off the Home Secretary:Pressure on Charles Clarke to change cannabis back to a Class B drug eased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-specifics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144","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=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}