TOP UK TORY CALLS FOR CANNABIS TO BE LEGALIZED

Filed at 4:31 a.m. ET LONDON (Reuters) - The former deputy leader of
Britain's opposition Conservative Party called on Friday for cannabis to be
legalized in Britain and sold in special outlets.

Peter Lilley, a right-winger who served in the cabinets of former Prime
Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said a rethink on cannabis
would show "bold new thinking" by the Conservatives and help the party
recover from the election mauling it suffered in June.

In an article in Friday's Daily Telegraph, Lilley said the radical move on
cannabis would make the party more appealing to young people and show
Britons the party was open to new ideas.

"The present laws have palpably failed. Nearly half of young people try
cannabis and more than a million people flout the law every month," he
said. His stance is at odds with that of most Tories, particularly the
hardline view of shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, who told BBC radio
on Friday: "The current position of the Conservative party is that we are
opposed to legalization." She questioned Lilley's argument that legalizing
the drug would enable governments to crack down on barons who peddle both
soft and hard drugs. "It would be far more likely that theywould put a huge
amount of their effort into marketing hard drugs and probably target ever
younger age groups," she said.

Widdecombe last year called for the party to adopt a "zero tolerance"
policy on cannabis and fine anyone caught in possession of the drug. The
idea was dropped after seven leading Conservatives admitted they had smoked
cannabis themselves.

Speaking on BBC radio, Lilley said he had never taken cannabis himself: "No
I never have. I'm rather boring in that respect, and I have no desire to do
so," he said.

"I don't want to encourage people to take it, but I don't want to put them
in jail for taking it," he added.

With a battle for the leadership of the Conservative party under way
following the resignation of William Hague the day after June's election,
Lilley said he hoped all five contenders for the job would consider his
argument on cannabis.

He said arguments to ban the drug on health grounds were "bogus or
exaggerated" and also dismissed the notion that cannabis users later turned
to hard drugs.

"Short of legalizing trade in cannabis entirely, the only way to stop
driving soft drug users into the arms of the criminals who push hard drugs
is to license some legal outlets to retail cannabis," he said. He suggested
a system similar to the "coffee shops" in the Netherlands, where there are
liberal laws on soft drugs.

An ICM poll last year found that 80 percent of Britons thought cannabis
should be decriminalized. Two-thirds of those aged 18 to 34 said smoking a
joint was no worse than smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol.