Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
From: [Stewar t p] at [tuareg.demon.co.uk] (Stewart Parkinson)
Subject: Re: Legalisation in the UK 
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 14:33:17 +0000

The following article appeared in 'The Guardian';

(Reproduced without permission)
23rd May 1994

POLICE CHIEF QUERIES DRUGS LAW

by Duncan Campbell, Crime Correspondent

A Chief Constable says cannabis could be legalised in the long term and 
urges a wider debate on the issue.  His call, the most outspoken by a 
policeman of his rank, comes as a think-tank publishes a report calling
for the decriminalisation of cannabis.

Keith Hellawell, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, says he does not
believe people are being honest about the fact that drugs give young
people a "good feeling" and adds that policies are not working.  He is 
the most senior officer to call for a review of the drugs laws.

" What is the real argument on cannabis?" he asks on tonight's BBC
Panorama programme.  "Even the most fervent people who say that we should
legalise it or decriminalise it don't look for total access, do say it's
difficult to drive, do say it's likely to affect your work, do say it
introduces a lazy, happy-go-lucky effect.

"You can get people on both sides of the argument with convincing arguments
and young people will choose the argument that supports what they want to do.
I think we need further evidence and a much wider debate."

On whether he sees the possibility of legalisation in the long run, he says:
"I think we all must.  The legalisation I do see coming after an 
understanding of the effects on our society."

Mr Hellawell adds: "[People] are not being honest about the positive side
of drugs, that drugs do give people a good feeling.  A 'buzz' they call it.
Some of the feelings that you get from some of the hard drugs are good.  I've
never taken them, so I'm not speaking from personal experience...Of course, 
there are hugely negative effects as well.  And unless we are realistic and
honest and open, the children will only jump onto the positive effects."

Calling for drug education for under-12s in schools, Mr Hellawell continues:  
"The current policies are not working.  We seize more drugs, we arrest more 
people, but when you look at the availability of drugs, the use of drugs,
the crime committed because of and through people who use drugs, the 
violence associated with drugs, it's on the increase.  It can't be working
and we must look at it in different ways."

There was no point in pushing the problem under the table.  The experience
of other countries was a bleak warning.

A report published today by the left-of-centre Institute for Public Policy
Research recommends a controlled experiment in cannabis decriminalisation.

Drugs and Young People, by Frank Coffield, professor of education at
Durham University, and Les Gofton, lecturer in behavioural sciences at
Newcastle University, argues: "Soft drug use is not a problem to young
people who feel completely in control of it, but alcohol and tobacco most
certainly are and that is where professional attention and parental concern
should be directed."

Young people's drug-taking is "rational, logical and responsible", the 
report says, and media coverage of drugs causes unnecessary anxiety to
parents.

The main dangers from cannabis were seen as "being 'busted' by the police,
or from tobacco in the joint."

Official drug education "based on the barely disguised text of 'Thou shalt
not', was literally incredible to young people whose own experience 
contradicted the official line."

Oooops, sorry, I only initially posted this to alt.hemp.
-- 
Stewart Parkinson