From: Shug <[s--g] at [sol.co.uk]>
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs.pot,rec.drugs.cannabis
Subject: Scottish Judge calls for debate on decriminalisation.
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 09:42:18 -0700

>From "The Scotsman" Tusday 30 July 1996

Judge calls for debate on drugs
Cannabis: Lord McLuskey says decriminalisation should be considered

        One of Scotland's most senior judges, Lord McLuskey, has called 
for an opendebate on the criminalisation of cannabis.
        In a wide-ranging written attack on the Scottish Office's draft 
legislation on crime and punishment, which proposes a tough stance 
against all drugs. Lord McLuskey had appeared to come close top calling 
for the decriminalising of the soft drug.
        The former solicitor-general, who has sat in the House of Lords 
for 20 years, also dismissed the white paper, which is intended as the 
Scottish Secretary's blueprint for his fight against crime, as 
"inadequate".
        Asked last night about his submission, which became public late 
yesterday afternoon, he said it was not a call for decriminalisation, but 
he hoped decriminalisation would be considered.
        He added: "The people who advocate the decriminalisation of 
cannabis need to be listened to and not condemned out of hand. Open 
debate is not only healthy, it is essential."
        In his nine-page response to last month's white paper, the judge 
pointed out that cannabis could benifit health in some circumstances. He 
wrote: "A particular problem for the criminal justice system is that, if 
the law continues to treat all use of scheduled drugs (other than on 
presription) as criminal abuse, it will further alienate and criminalise 
large numbers of younger people who regard the use of certain drugs in
sensible quantities and settings as providing enjoyment without 
significantly threatening their health.
        "Alienating large numbers of people, by making them into 
undetected offenders against the criminal law, greatly weakens the 
criminal justice system."
        He also wrote: "Drug abuse is a major factor in crime in the UK. 
It needs to be considered carefully, dispassionately and thoroughly. 
There is an absence of convincing evidence that present policies are 
effective. More of the same is not likely to be effective. More severe 
criminal and restrictive policies have not succeeded in the USA."
        Asked last night for his view on cannabis being legalised, he 
said: "You can ask, but I don,t have an opinion. There's not a simple yes 
or no answer on the subject of any of these drugs. But I think the whole 
issue ought to be examined in a non-political context."
        Lord McLuskey had also written that the Crime and Punishment 
white paper was produced with the unspoken assumption that while alcohol 
could be used or abused, any use of any illegal substance "must be an 
abuse".
        The paper referred to drug misuse and abuse, but not use. It said 
vivtims of drug abuse had to be helped and drug dealershad to be firmly 
dealt with to stamp out the drug culture.
        Proposals to lenghten the time served in prison before parole 
were "bad" and would lead to a "penal disaster", said Lord McLuskey, 67, 
who was solicitor-general during the 1974-79 Labour government.


Shug