Cannabis should be legalised

[David Morris]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,517681,00.html

Anne Perkins and Rebecca Allison
Friday July 6, 2001
The Guardian

Cannabis should be legalised and available from government approved 
off-licences, Peter Lilley, the former deputy Tory leader says today.
His call for the decriminalisation of soft drugs comes in a pamphlet 
published by the centre-right Social Market Foundation, where he argues that 
outlawing cannabis is "unenforceable and indefensible" in a country where 
alcohol and nicotine are legal.

Mr Lilley, whose attempts to "move on from Thatcherism" got him the sack 
three years ago, urges the party to reform drug laws in order to effectively 
change its image.

In his pamphlet, followed up with an interview in today's Daily Telegraph, 
he says that one of the biggest handicaps his party faced during the 
election was the perception that its policies were negative and punitive on 
crime and asylum seekers, as well as on drugs.

"Nothing could more vividly dramatise reaffirmation of our belief in freedom 
and personal responsibilty than to move clearly in favour of liberalising 
the law on cannabis," he writes.


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